You ever try going mad without power?
Time was when I would go to the movies about once a week. Two things happened that quelled my movie going. One, I got jaded. Two, people got rude. I'll speak to number two first.
I got tired of people giving birth and taking the neonate to a movie that night. I'm also tired of ugly teenagers making out in front of me. Like the young couple tonight in the ticket line that was going at it so hard that they didn't notice the line had moved on and it took the cashier yelling at them three times to get them to decouple. In fact, I was so turned off at the number of smooching teens and baby seats in line that I decided to wait around and see the next show, forty-five minutes later. I didn't like the looks of anyone in that line.
As for the me being jaded thing, it's not just me. Movies are getting worse. There were about 27 previews before the movie started and they all sucked. Vince Vaughn as Santa Claus' brother Fred? Paul Giamatti must be getting to make a film without any box office appeal at all in exchange for starring in this piece of shit. Speaking of shit, as if I needed another reason to hate Jason Lee, he is partially responsible for making me see an animated chipmunk eat shit. Yes, an animated chipmunk eating shit. Yes, there is going to be a big screen adaptation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Who the fuck is looking forward to that? Also, how does Cuba Gooding Jr. sleep at night knowing that all the work he can get is taking Eddie Murphy's place in a pointless sequel that, in the preview alone, has a fat man getting hit in the balls three times?
My point is that I do not go to the movies anymore unless it is a movie there is a 99% chance I already know I'm going to like. The Simpsons Movie fits that description and that's what I saw tonight.
I thought it was great. I think it was the perfect cap to the nearly 20 year run of the series. I don't think it would have been as good had it been made years ago when talk was first going around about it. What the movie did was take everything about the series, distill it down to its purest essence, and make it 1,000 times bigger.
There's no new ground covered. A lot of the plot had already been done. But after 20 years and 23 million episodes, that was unavoidable. Still, it felt fresh and it worked. It was a good story with a lot of laugh out loud moments. Really, does anyone watch the Simpsons anymore because of the innovative plots? No. We watch because we love the characters and we know them so well. And that's what we got in this movie. Bart has problems with Homer. Lisa has social awkwardness. Marge and Homer have a marital crisis. The townsfolk get all up in arms over something. It's been done a million times but we don't care. It's the Simpsons and that's pretty much all that needs to be said. Either you love them and will love this movie or you don't love them and you will not love this movie.
Something that struck me was the complete lack of exposition. The characters and the setting are so iconic, who doesn't already know the background? Who doesn't know the cast, from the Simpsons themselves down to Bumblebee Guy and the Sea Captain? And they are all there, every last character ever shown in the series has at least a cameo. I wasn't able to do a full census but if they included the curator of the Jebediah Springfield museum, I'm pretty sure they included everyone.
My favorite parts: seeing Bart's penis and hearing Marge say "goddamn."
And don't worry, cabell. Spider-Pig was not the funniest part of the movie.
I got tired of people giving birth and taking the neonate to a movie that night. I'm also tired of ugly teenagers making out in front of me. Like the young couple tonight in the ticket line that was going at it so hard that they didn't notice the line had moved on and it took the cashier yelling at them three times to get them to decouple. In fact, I was so turned off at the number of smooching teens and baby seats in line that I decided to wait around and see the next show, forty-five minutes later. I didn't like the looks of anyone in that line.
As for the me being jaded thing, it's not just me. Movies are getting worse. There were about 27 previews before the movie started and they all sucked. Vince Vaughn as Santa Claus' brother Fred? Paul Giamatti must be getting to make a film without any box office appeal at all in exchange for starring in this piece of shit. Speaking of shit, as if I needed another reason to hate Jason Lee, he is partially responsible for making me see an animated chipmunk eat shit. Yes, an animated chipmunk eating shit. Yes, there is going to be a big screen adaptation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Who the fuck is looking forward to that? Also, how does Cuba Gooding Jr. sleep at night knowing that all the work he can get is taking Eddie Murphy's place in a pointless sequel that, in the preview alone, has a fat man getting hit in the balls three times?
My point is that I do not go to the movies anymore unless it is a movie there is a 99% chance I already know I'm going to like. The Simpsons Movie fits that description and that's what I saw tonight.
I thought it was great. I think it was the perfect cap to the nearly 20 year run of the series. I don't think it would have been as good had it been made years ago when talk was first going around about it. What the movie did was take everything about the series, distill it down to its purest essence, and make it 1,000 times bigger.
There's no new ground covered. A lot of the plot had already been done. But after 20 years and 23 million episodes, that was unavoidable. Still, it felt fresh and it worked. It was a good story with a lot of laugh out loud moments. Really, does anyone watch the Simpsons anymore because of the innovative plots? No. We watch because we love the characters and we know them so well. And that's what we got in this movie. Bart has problems with Homer. Lisa has social awkwardness. Marge and Homer have a marital crisis. The townsfolk get all up in arms over something. It's been done a million times but we don't care. It's the Simpsons and that's pretty much all that needs to be said. Either you love them and will love this movie or you don't love them and you will not love this movie.
Something that struck me was the complete lack of exposition. The characters and the setting are so iconic, who doesn't already know the background? Who doesn't know the cast, from the Simpsons themselves down to Bumblebee Guy and the Sea Captain? And they are all there, every last character ever shown in the series has at least a cameo. I wasn't able to do a full census but if they included the curator of the Jebediah Springfield museum, I'm pretty sure they included everyone.
My favorite parts: seeing Bart's penis and hearing Marge say "goddamn."
And don't worry, cabell. Spider-Pig was not the funniest part of the movie.