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| Directed by Trey Parker; Voices include Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mary Kay Bergman, and Isaac Hayes |
Never before has one film toyed with my rating system more than South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The film has been situated at every rating between B+ and D+, always changing before I could make a final decision. So after mulling it over for days, I decided that the best way to finally decide would be to see the film again. Well, I enjoyed the second viewing much more as I more or less looked beyond how stupid the film was and just paid attention to how mad-cap and sacrilegious it was. The film’s joy at being evil and mean to everybody and everything is rather funny. Sure I felt kind of bad at laughing at things like Brian Dennehy, but it was funny (I laugh at the one joke on him more than any other in the entire film). I was not offended once by this film, quite an achievement since it tries to step on the toes of everybody.
One thing that is fun about the film is how far it allows itself to go within an R rating. I would have probably given it a NC-17 if I was an MPAA reviewer, most of the stuff is beyond things like Henry & June, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, and the recent cut of Two Girls & a Guy. The plot itself attempts to subdue the MPAA. It is more or less the aftermath of four boys getting into a R rated film and using the language they learned from the film. What sparks the problem is that the film, Asses of Fire, is from Canadian kings of toilet humor Terrence and Philip. One of boys’ mothers starts a campaign to blame Canada for all the ills of the US. Next thing you know, Canada bombs America’s greatest assets to get back at the US intention on executing Terrence and Philip (the way they are apprehended is hilarious and arguably the best work from Minnie Driver I’ve seen).
Full of song and dance numbers, South Park is not dull for a moment, filling its 90 minute length with some the crudest and funniest humor of the year. The songs are ingenious bringing back memories of Astaire (“Uncle Fucker”), Newsies (“What Would Brian Boitano Do?”), Mary Poppins (“It’s Easy, Mmmkay”), and even the rumble medley from West Side Story (“La Resistance (Medley)”). The writing from the South Park series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone is a big step up from their two previous attempts at filmmaking, BASEketball and Oragazmo. Not the prettiest film, but surely one of the funniest.
