A disappointing romp

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 1999)

This may come as a shock, but the film was just okay. I have read many reviews on this movie hailing it as one of the funniest comedies of the decade, but the truth is that, as I said, it was just okay. The film starts off with a Sound of Music-esq musical number and the South Park gang sneaking into a showing of the R-rated Asses of Fire starring every kid in South Park's idols, Terrence & Phillip. Asses of Fire of course has a ridiculus amount of vulgarities and repulses everyone and forces them to leave the theater except the South Park gang, leaving the four kids to sit and marvel at the speech of their heroes. The kids then go to a local hang out and impress every kid in South Park with their new vocabulary. The mothers of the kids eventually find out about this and launch a campaign against Canada(the film's origin). From there the movie enters many, many subplots, most of which are only mildly amusing and some of which are just boring. There is one subplot I felt was disappointingly wasted...the Satan/Hussian relationship. It struck me during the trailers of the film as hilarious, but turned out to be unfunny due to the fact that there were no jokes-just Saddam acting horny. The musical numbers were less entertaining as the movie drug (and I mean drug) along. The plot was lost near the middle and replaced with subplots until it was picked up again at the end. The film also opened up with a point about censorship, but seemed to lose that also. The swearing in the film was pervasive and not for young fans of the show. Also, the laughs from the constant barrage of swearwords died out quickly (not only from me, but from everyone else in the audience) and the script just couldn't seem to pull anymore laughs out of the audience after the initial shock of it all. What was amazing ,however, was that the largest laugh lines in the film had no swearwords in them at all! The scene involving the death of Conan O'Brian was hilarious and did not involve a single vulgarity. The one thing the film missed overall was something the show is full of...sharp and cleaver humor. I keep thinking of one of the first episodes of the show when Officer Barbrady suggested that Mr Garrison (who was intent with assassinating Kathy Lee Gifford) could get a good view of her from the town's Book Depository. That kind of sharp satirical humor was lost amid all of the rediculus subplots. THE SCRIPT NEEDED ONE MORE REWRITE. The film did offer SOME major laughs and kept me mostly entertained. I recommend it to anyone who is a die hard fan of the series, but those of you that are not, may find yourself bored. ***