BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(Paramount)
Directed by Mike Judge
Written by Mike Judge and Joe Stillman
Cast Featuring the voices of Mike Judge, Robert Stack, Cloris
Leachman, Eric Bogosian, and David Spade
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 80 minutes
Reviewed at The Wynnsong 10, Durham, N.C. (19DEC96)
==
Doesn't suck, but isn't entirely cool, either. The MTV morons go in search of their stolen television set and end up at a flea-bag motel, where some sleaze thinks they're a pair of hitmen (!) and offers them ten grand to "do" his wife. Believing that they'll finally score-- the only action that these two see is of the, uh, self-inflicted variety-- Beavis and Butt-head accept the offer, which lands them on cross-country chase involving international terrorists, biological weapons, and full-body cavity searches by rubber-gloved ATF agents. (After one of which Butt-head admits "I think I just scored.") As expected, there's enough concentrated juvenile humor here to keep any audience giggling, and not just those fans of the show. (The bits are, at times, priceless. While touring the Hoover Dam, Butt-head asks "Is this a God dam?" And don't miss what they say after spotting a defecating donkey at the Grand Canyon.)
Unlike the television series, no music videos are played, except for a psychedelic sequence set to White Zombie (one of many rockin' bands on the soundtrack) and inspired by the designs of those old Rat Fink cars. (More amusing is a Vegas montage set to a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of "Love Rollercoaster.") BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA is only eighty minutes long, but the last twenty are tiresome. By then, the hilarity has largely petered out. Uh huh huh huh huh, I said peter. Great voice work, though. In addition to director/co-writer/series creator Mike Judge, who voices several characters including the Two Cool Guys, listen for Robert Stack, Cloris Leachman, someone who sounds like Bruce Willis, and another person who sounds an awful lot like Demi Moore. And, yes, I believe that's the voice of Mr. Letterman in one of the more, uh, explosive scenes.
Grade: B-
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth legeros@pagesz.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w) I'm also on the Web! http://www.pagesz.net/~legeros/
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