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| South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut |
| Rated: | R, very very R |
| Stars: | Voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Isaac Hayes |
| Score: |  |
Some TV shows, when attempting to make the transition to the big screen,
fail miserably. The movie theater adaptations often feel more like an
elongated TV show. The creators of South Park, the severely disturbed
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, got around this quagmire by making their
movie even more over-the-top than the TV show that spawned it. Not a
terribly easy task, if you ask me. It amazes me sometimes the type of
stuff they put in the South Park TV show. So what did they do to make
the movie over-the-top? Among other things, swearing. Lots of swearing.
Far more than any other movie I can think of. But it's not just
superfluous; not at all. In fact, the swearing is actually an integral
part of the movie. Allow me to explain.
Parker and Stone are satirists, who just so happen to take the most
low-brow path to prove their point. Their point here revolves around
negative media influences on children, and how parents and government
officials tend to bark up the wrong tree when it comes to protecting the
little tykes from the apparent corruption. Now, they had done a TV episode
based on this premise in South Park's first season, but I guess they
didn't make their point the first time around.
Though South Park is a cartoon, a cartoon about four little boys, it is
clearly intended for adults only. In a certain light, it's a means for us
adults to re-explore what life was like as a kid, where childhood
innocence makes everything new and different. Of course, the childhood
discovery Parker and Stone chose to re-explore was foul language.
I've always found South Park's animation style rather interesting: more
or less a bunch of construction paper cutouts. In this feature film, they
did more than just the TV-style 2-dimensional graphics. They added a lot
of 3-D effects like explosions and the minions of Hell. I found it an
interesting dichotomy with a 2-D character in the midst of a rich, 3-D
environment. But perhaps that's just me.
An interesting note about the movie is it's a musical. The songs are simple
but effective (you find yourself in a state of disbelief during the "Uncle" song)
and serve to make this movie even more strange. I wonder how many "Parental Advisory"
stickers will be on the album soundtrack?
If you can put aside the shock of seeing four little boys swearing up a
storm (well, three little boys, because we can only guess what Kenny is
saying), you'll find the South Park movie tremendously funny. Vulgar,
offensive, and occasionally disgusting, true, but also tremendously funny. However,
if you're offended by crude dialogue (and imagery) that borders on the
NC-17 side of the R rating, you probably don't like South Park anyway,
so you're not even considering taking in this movie and you're just
reading this review out of curiosity.
There are a couple things I could have really done without seeing in
this movie. I won't spoil it for you, but you'll know when you see it
(or rather, them). Other than that, though, Bigger, Longer, & Uncut is
probably the funniest movie of the summer. Just be sure the kids go see
something else.
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