SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT Featuring the voices of: Trey Parker and Matt Stone Director: Trey Parker Screenplay: Trey Parker & Matt Stone and Pam Brady Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 3 stars
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is exactly what concerned parents have feared that television and film would produce. It is insulting, dirty, sexist, racist and obnoxious; it's unapologetic and in your face. Yet millions will flock to see the film, and most of them - myself included - laugh at the sight of Saddam Huessein holding a fake penis, trying to entertain the devil who is, at the time, lying in bed next to him. Perhaps it's reassuring to know that whilst there are plenty of warped minds in the world, there are also the minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who have taken their cult TV show to the next step of popularity and censorship tolerance.
'Longer and 'uncut' are appropriate words considering the trouble that Parker, the director, has gone to, to ensure that his film performs on a level that perhaps the television show - which looks tame in comparison - always aspired to. The good news for all you South Park fanatics is that the movie, which is by no means a cult classic or a must see, delivers the jokes and delivers them well. Which is convenient, because this film has more profanities than Eddy Murphy on ecstasy, and for unsuspecting viewers will be more off-putting than Mal Colston on a bad hair day.
Our four unlikely heroes are Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny, four young kinds growing up in a small American town. Trouble begins when the boys attend a screening of "The 'Terrence and Philip Movie," which I will simply explain as a continuous collection of swearing and fart jokes. Sure enough, these impressionable kids soon scream all kinds of profanities around town, and all the other children join in. Before you know it, teachers at school are teaching how not to swear, and many of the town's parents - including Cartman's mum (Mary Kay Bergman), who is described "a dirty slut" - search for whom to blame. After a catchy music track titled "Blame Canada," the US does exactly that and war is declared. Meanwhile, Saddam Huessein and his boyfriend, Lucifer, plot to take over the world.
South Park is laced with cynicism and sarcasm at every corner, and in that regard, it's not the piece of trash that some may have believed it to be. Yes, there is a little depth in South Park, even though you might have to dig down deep to find it. It's this film's humor that makes it an appealing piece of modern television culture, produced in an era where animated programs can carry just as much weight as any others. Many of these shows rely on flowing dialogue rather than impressive animation, and comical impersonations rather than profound political insights. South Park certainly doesn't rely on its animation - most of which could easily have been made twenty years ago - so it's the film's darkly humorous dialogue that gives it its edge. If Parker and Stone have proved anything, it's that there is nowhere they will not go, and no gag they not will implement - regardless of how cheap the joke might be.
Strangely enough, South Park is appealing as an eighty-minute collection of gags and silly songs. I found the film to be ten times more satisfying and entertaining than one of its television episodes, and a thoroughly amusing comedy if accepted on its own merits. Thank heavens that South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut amused me. It could have been accused of openly contaminating the minds of children, if Cartman didn't say it first: "this movie has warped my fragile little mind."
---------------------------------------------- Review © copyright Luke Buckmaster
Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia http://infilmau.iah.net
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