BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA
A film review by Adam Joyce
Copyright 1997 Adam Joyce
Very few people would be unaware of Beavis & Butt-head (both created and narrated by Mike Judge). They are the two animated MTV characters who have the most annoying laughter know to human kind. You may have seen them on their television program, as they snigger and make lude remarks about women, anything related to sex, and the music film clips that they watch. In Beavis & Butt-head Do America the pair finally make their big screen debut, to the delight of some, and the deplore of others. Beavis & Butt-head (yes, those are their real names), are two very ugly teenagers with extremely warped minds driven by raging hormones. They live their lives in front of the television. The worst possible event occurs to the pair when their television is stolen. This happens as they sleep, and when they awake it takes them a few minutes just to decipher that the television has gone. Beavis even tries to use the remote, though there is no television there. The two spot a van outside and two sinister looking men carrying a television. Even at this point they have no idea what has happened. They look around, seeing all the evidence, but are completely oblivious to the fact that these men have just stolen their television. Before the movie I knew that they were stupid, but I didn't realise just how stupid. This is typical of their behaviour throughout the film. Eventually they realise that their television has been stolen, so they leave their sofa to go search for a television. Luck would have it that they stumble into a hotel room (looking for a television) where a man is awaiting two guys whose task it is to kill his wife. This man, thinking that Beavis & Butt-head are the assigned killers, tells them that they can have $10,000 if they "do his wife". Beavis & Butt-head, being the ignorant fools that they are, think that he is offering them $10,000 dollars to have sex with his good looking wife. They are taken to the airport where they fly to Las Vegas to "do her". To them, this is the best day of their lives. Not only are they going to lose their virginity (one of their lifelong aims), but most importantly, they will have enough money to buy a big screen TV. Inevitably they become caught up in a huge crime, and unbeknown to them, are tracked across the country by the FBI. Oddly enough, it is their complete stupidity that spares them from being caught, as a result the FBI is convinced they are criminal masterminds. They end up travelling right across America, visiting places such as the Hoover Dam and Washington DC. The irony is that although they visit so many grand and spectacular locations, their one time out in the big world away from their television, they are completely oblivious to it. At Old Faithful they are far more fascinated with the infra-red operated urinals than with the geyser itself. Beavis & Butt-head essentially have the journey of their lives. They even get to meet the President. But all they care about is getting their television back, and losing their virginity. This is one of the many reasons that the film is so funny - it's unbelievable just how stupid they are, and how they can be so oblivious to everything around them. The humour is certainly crude, but then Beavis & Butt-head are just that; crude, lude and rude. In the end you can't help but feel sorry for them, a pair of anti-social couch potatoes whose life is television. In this respect, and also with regard to authority (such as the FBI) Mike Judge is quite critical of Amercian society. If you are easily offended, or find this pair particularly annoying, steer clear. Otherwise, it should keep you laughing the whole way through. One note of warning: don't take friends who like to imitate Beavis & Butt-head.....you'll never hear the end of it!
3.5 out of 5
PLEASE VISIT MOVIE MANIA AT http://www.home.aone.net.au/joyce/adamframe.htm
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews