The Simpsons Movie

It's got an 89 on Rotten Tomato.

Can't check it out until the 10th, personally, but it's gonna be awesome... I can just feel it.

Washington Post Review

In "The Simpsons Movie," no good deed goes uncrushed.

This merry celebration of mayhem, hostility, carnage, wanton destruction, power lust, dysfunction, nihilism and the proper application of gigantic plastic domes to American cities will certainly satisfy those who've seen all 400-odd episodes of the TV show twice, as well as those who've only glimpsed "The Simpsons" during a transmigration to more sports programming.

Homer, the dad from hell with Nixon's blue jowls, Fred Mertz's cue-ball skull and a monkey's eyes, has acquired a pig, and like all dads from hell, he loves the pig more than his family.

The problem with the pig is that what goes in must come out, alchemized by pig amino acids into a foul putrescence that's about the density of depleted uranium. What to do with this stuff? Homer packs it up and takes it to Springfield's lake. Avoiding a slalom course of "NO DUMPING" signs, Homer gets his GTO close enough to the lake to dump the vile load. Instant eco-catastrophe. The government, led by EPA eco-Genghis Russ Cargill (the voice of Albert Brooks), immediately fools President Schwarzenegger into authorizing the doming of Springfield. The town's citizens are imprisoned in three-foot-thick translucence. They quickly track the source of the sacrilege to Homer and, being normal, empathetic, forgiving Americans, decide to lynch him. He and his family somehow manage to escape to Alaska.

Meanwhile, the EPA decides to tactical-nuke Springfield and build a new and better Grand Canyon in the crater -- Tom Hanks is spokesman for the new Grand Canyon -- and the Simpsons, minus Homer, head back to help. Finally, Homer sees the light and heads back, too.

The Simpsons comic aesthetic might be described as nightmare surrealism punctuated by violence and slapstick projected on characters of cartoon simplicity, held together by an internal logic whose flimsiness is part of the joke. The upshot is like a cross between the early mayhem of the Bugs Bunny cartoons and dialogue by Edward Albee. The genius is in the writing and in keeping all gambits created by the individual writers in sync, so the piece has a tonal consistency and a narrative flow. A lost art in Hollywood? It's really one of the best movies of the year.

-- Stephen Hunter (July 27, 2007)

I guess I should post a negative review:

Hollywood.com Says
Maybe we take the half-hour The Simpsons show for granted. The visually sophisticated 90-minute The Simpsons Movie clocks an extra hour of consistent laughs and comparable political jabs, but it’s precisely what creators say it isn’t: A long Simpsons episode.

Story
Trouble begins to brew for the Springfield clan when Homer rescues a pig from the butcher’s guillotine. But Homer doesn’t want to eat his new pot-bellied pet—he takes it home and showers it with affection. Seeing Homer be a doting dad to a pig pisses off Bart--and leaves him vulnerable to the niceties of neighborino Ned Flanders. Meanwhile, Lisa’s grassroots efforts to save the polluted Lake Springfield have paid off: the Environmental Protection Agency erects a cement barrier around it to protect it from its residents. The EPA's cockamamie plan actually works--until Homer decides to dump a homemade silo filled with pig poop into it, creating a toxic cesspool. In a jab at FEMA and the New Orleans Superdome calamity, the EPA retaliates by isolating Springfield under a giant Plexiglas-like dome, leaving its citizens without food, electricity or a way out. When Springfield residents try to lynch Homer and exact revenge, the Simpsons escape the dome via a sinkhole in Maggie’s sandbox. But while the Simpsons escape Springfield, they can’t flee their conscience—and Homer must return to save his hometown from the mess he created. It's a classic Simpsons tale that ends with the show's trademark theme of redemption. It won't disappoint fans, but the story hardly warrants a feature presentation.

Acting
Surprisingly, producer James L. Brooks and creator Matt Groening didn’t go to town with guest star appearances on The Simpsons Movie, something that often plagues the TV series. With the exception of an opening number by Green Day and a closing remark by a famed film star (OK, it’s Tom Hanks), the actors who voice the Fox animated TV sitcom are the big-screen stars here, including Dan Castellaneta (Homer/Krusty the Clown/Itchy/Barney/Grampa/Mayor Quimby), Hank Azaria (Moe/Apu/The Sea Captain/Professor Frink/Comic Book Guy/Chief Wiggum/Lou), Harry Shearer (Principal Skinner/Lenny/Dr. Hibbert/Ned Flanders/Mr. Burns/Rev Lovejoy), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart/Maggie/Ralph/Nelson/Todd Flanders), and Yeardley Smith (Lisa). And just like the episodic Simpsons characters, the feature characters do some uncontainable thing and eventually learn the error of their ways. But while Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie take center stage, other Springfield locals—such as Mr. Burns and Smithers--hardly make an appearance, let alone Patty and Selma Bouvier.

Direction
What separates The Simpsons Movie from the TV series is, according to director David Silverman, the production’s scale. This translates to more characters in each frame, richer colors and textures, and greater latitude for camera movement. "Normally, you have a crowd shot, the cut to a close-up," Silverman says of a scene in which a mob congregates outside the Simpsons’ home. "But I wanted to give the scene a lot of energy, so I kept moving the camera into the crowd." But while the feature is visually more dynamic than the series, it’s hardly something Simspons fans will take notice of. The series has a following because of its political and social lampooning and its 22-filled-minutes of well-timed jokes; there are no Pixar-type expectations here. Yet the film’s storyline, as well as the character’s story arcs, is no more relevant than a TV episode. The emphasis, so to speak, is on the wrong syllable. Panoramic views of Springfield and an in-depth look a Milhouse’s street and its one-level homes, are intriguing tidbits fans are more likely craving, and more of these should have been offered up in the movie adaptation. Show creators said they waited 18 years to bring The Simpsons to the big screen because they wanted to create a story that demanded the scope offered by a film, but after a year-and-a-half in the making, it doesn’t live up to the hype.

I saw it today. Honestly, i thought the movie was only 'ok'

I figure so. I mean, if it's simply like watching the TV show, but at the cinema, then I'm cool with it.

I liked the beginning when they're at the theatre and homer gets up and complains... what he says just cracked me up. I thought the movie was funny, FABULOUS I wouldn't call it, but good - sure.

I loved the movie. Really did. I don't remember laughing that hard in the cinema for years. The Spider-Pig thing still gets me into hysterics when I think about it.

I watched it online, it was pretty good. Very funny in parts, but I know it's not a kids show but I usually let alyssa watch them on tv cause it's nothing too bad or anything shes gonna get, but I don't think I'm gonna let her watch the movie. It was good though.

This isn't out on DVD in Taiwan until after I get back from the States. Can't wait though, I'm dying to watch the special features.

Special features were pretty minimal on the Simpsons Movie DVD, I must say. There were a fair few delete scenes (which are funny) but not enough. A few featurettes, and it has those American Idol bits on it, but nothing spectacular. The commentary is great, but it really could have included a lot more.