Takes incredible risks of comedy and even music, and they all pay off

Rating: 10/10 (25 September 2001)

The SOUTH PARK was the best entry from the "summer of comedy" in 1999, when films like AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME, BIG DADDY, AMERICAN PIE, NOTTING HILL, RUNAWAY BRIDE, even WILD WILD WEST all earned huge earnings. Some of those films are good, some are really bad (I'm not going to say which, guess if you want to) but none are in the class of SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER & UNCUT. For a lot of reasons, this is a remarkable movie.
One thing that impressed the hell out of me upon repeated viewing of this movie was the mammoth percentage of jokes that were hilarious. I'd guess-timate there were something like 400 jokes in this film over its short running time--dialogue, visual gags, the song numbers--and there were very few jokes were I wasn't laughing and (sometimes) smiling. Considering how much humor Trey Parker & Matt Stone jammed into this film, it's really amazing how much of it is side-splittingly funny and intelligent, as well.

That's another thing that I was quietly amazed at: this is a very smart, very perceptive film disguised as an all-time shock and obscenities comedy. It shows better than almost any drama I've ever seen how people can go from understandably reacting to a situation to completely overreacting and end up doing more harm than good. Take Kyle's mom, for example. Is what she does here wrong? By the end, yes, she's gone berserk. But is she wrong to be concerned about the way her child is behaving, about the influences on them? No, because those influences aren't going to be good for Kyle, Stan, or Cartman either. Kyle put it best when he asked his mom not to punish anyone but himself when he does something bad. The sense of self-responsibility for one's actions is a powerful message and it's awesome to see it embedded in an all-out comedy.
Add to that the musical numbers, which are raunchy, off-the-wall, and the funniest things in the movie. My favorites were "Uncle F---a", "What Would Brian Boitano Do?", and the "La Resistance" marathon number. The only song that isn't great is Satan's rendition of "Up There". It was funny but made points about his desires to be a regular, happy gay man that the film had already expressed. All the other songs were incredible, and if Trey Parker wants a career on Broadway, on the basis of the work here he'll have one.
It's said there are greater rewards for greater risks. This movie could have been a watered-down disappointment for loyal fans of the show (like myself) or it could have been an experiment in shock value that didn't keep the elements that make the show great and then didn't translate into a feature-length film, either. What ultimately came about was one of the funniest films ever made, and one of the smartest. It worked on every level it aimed at. 10/10.