Not quite wrapping my mind around South Park, FLASHBACKS 7/6/1999
My first attempt to review South Park. I wrote another review later.
This is NOT a review of the new movie South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (very much R).
First of all, first confessions: Yes, I’ve seen it. Yes, I enjoyed it. In fact, I laughed forcefully. One woman in the audience I was in Wednesday night got even more caught up in it, shooting her arms up in a triumphant Rocky-like manner during one gag.
So I’ve seen it. But I don’t feel ready to actually review it.
I know I’ll see South Park again. I know more than a few fellow fans of this immensely raunchy TV show, and I want to see the movie version with them, too.
The thing is, I don’t want to toss off a flippant, shallow piece about this movie just to meet a deadline, because I know what a controversy magnet South Park has been from its start. There are people who are going to hate this flick, and see nothing but the often extraordinary level of vulgarity in it, and I don’t want to dismiss those concerns.
(Guess what? The movie doesn’t, either.
(I mean, how’s this for timing: the South Park movie is an R-rated film that begins with kids who are trying to get into an R-rated film, and it’s released at the exact moment in time that concerns about movie content have led to movie theaters heavily enforcing rules to keep kids from getting into R-rated films.
(The result is a movie about free speech and censorship, and what can result from both free speech and censorship.
(But there’s more to it than that. It gets complicated - and incredibly fast-paced, with a plot as sped-up as the movie’s dialogue.)...
This is NOT a review of the new movie South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (very much R).
First of all, first confessions: Yes, I’ve seen it. Yes, I enjoyed it. In fact, I laughed forcefully. One woman in the audience I was in Wednesday night got even more caught up in it, shooting her arms up in a triumphant Rocky-like manner during one gag.
So I’ve seen it. But I don’t feel ready to actually review it.
I know I’ll see South Park again. I know more than a few fellow fans of this immensely raunchy TV show, and I want to see the movie version with them, too.
The thing is, I don’t want to toss off a flippant, shallow piece about this movie just to meet a deadline, because I know what a controversy magnet South Park has been from its start. There are people who are going to hate this flick, and see nothing but the often extraordinary level of vulgarity in it, and I don’t want to dismiss those concerns.
(Guess what? The movie doesn’t, either.
(I mean, how’s this for timing: the South Park movie is an R-rated film that begins with kids who are trying to get into an R-rated film, and it’s released at the exact moment in time that concerns about movie content have led to movie theaters heavily enforcing rules to keep kids from getting into R-rated films.
(The result is a movie about free speech and censorship, and what can result from both free speech and censorship.
(But there’s more to it than that. It gets complicated - and incredibly fast-paced, with a plot as sped-up as the movie’s dialogue.)...