Subversive and hilarious

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 1999)

This movie bristles with thorns. Anywhere you touch it, there's something sharp enough to draw blood. But just as inside such superficially "warm" movies as It's a Wonderful Life there sometimes lurks a cold manipulative contempt for the audience, South Park's prickly exterior masks a fun-loving creative impulse that deeply respects the audience and invites us to join its subversive cause. This move assumes that you are intelligent, that you aren't fooled by the pious crap that issues from the mouths of politicians and power-tripping "morality" crusaders, and that you might enjoy participating in the noble effort to lace their food with laxatives and lock all the bathroom doors. 10 out of 10.