SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
Do you remember back in grade school when one of the kids on the
playground would say some mildly off-color phrase, and you and your
buddies would erupt into nervous giggles?
Well, writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone do, and, in the animated film
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT, they move their foul-mouthed grade
school kids from their television series to the big screen, where they
get to lose their few remaining inhibitions.
Imagine visiting a grade school in which the kids compete for the
maximum number of obscenities per minute. One in which the insults know
no bounds. Mothers are universally referred to with the B-word, and
teachers are cussed out to the delight of the entire class. There are
undoubtedly people who find this brand of humor extremely funny rather
than merely crude. My audience was a mixture of laughers and starers.
The story concerns four boys who see an R-rated animated movie, ASSES OF
FIRE. After watching the movie, one kid joins the Klan, but most just
switch to a new profanity-laced dialect of the English language. "The
animation is all crappy," one of the boys complains in a bit of
self-deprecating humor. Any first year art student could draw the
characters in SOUTH PARK. The pictures have such little life that they
are effectively a series of slightly moving tableaux.
Some bits of humor start off well enough before they go off the deep
end. One kid is killed when the doctors implant a baked potato instead
of a heart in his chest. When he goes to heaven, it turns out to be
populated by naked Playboy models. But the kid doesn't obtain
admission. Punching the entry button to the Pearly Gates produces an
"Access Denied" error message.
This scene goes down hill once the youngster gets to hell, which is
populated by likely and unlikely figures (Hitler as well as Gandhi).
Saddam Hussein is there having gay sex with the devil.
Some of the political humor is quite funny, the best being a V-chip that
is implanted into one kid's skull. Every bad word produces a painful
jolt. And what do you say when you experience sudden pain? You cuss,
of course, which only prolongs the agony.
Speaking of prolonging things, the movie would have worked much better
as a short film. A quarter of an hour would have been plenty of time
with these tart-tongued tiny tots.
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT runs 1:20. It is rated R for
pervasive vulgar language and crude sexual humor and for some violent
images. It would be fine for teenagers. Do not make the mistake of
taking kids under 13. A woman in my audience did, and you could see her
grimacing.
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Have I seen this movie: Yes
And what did I think: Unless you're a big fan of South Park, I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone, and especially to someone who doesn't like crude toilet humor. The Producers of South Park do with this movie, what they can't do on tv... curse up a storm. This potty mouthed film also tries to offend every race, nationality and group that is out there. For instance, the army uses the african-american soldiers as Operation Human shield, to protect the other white soldiers. Also there's one kid that curses out God, that outraged the religious group. I don't get offended easily, but even I found a few things went just a bit past the mark. The plot here is simple. The kids of South Park see a movie filled with cursing, and they start doing it themselves. The parents are so outraged, that they start a war with Canada since it's a Canadien film. Okay... if that doesn't seem silly enough, throw in Satan and Sadaam Hussein who are about to create havoc on Earth after Terence and Philip, the film's stars, are to be executed by the South Park residents. It's a rather strange and silly plot, but hey.... it's South Park, and its all in good fun. It surprised me this film didn't receive an NC-17 rating, although it almost did. I'm wondering what they cut out of it to tone it down to an R rating. This movie is worth checking out if you like South Park a lot, because it provides some cheap laughs, but other then that, there's nothing that great here. Also, its definately not for kids, which South Park's audience has a lot of. It's worth renting, but if you decide to buy it, the DVD doesn't offer very much on it, other then the trailers. I would have liked to see the deleted scenes cut from it at least.
I give South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut 3 out of 5 stars
Review written December 3, 1999
