Every American Needs To Watch This Movie

Rating: Null/10 (23 January 2002)

I question the integrity of any self-proclaimed critic who dares call South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut a `mindless' production. The truth is that it is far from mindless, and actually succeeds in securing its place as one of (if not THE) greatest American culture satires ever created. Brimming with meaning, especially in today's tumultuous political climate, South Park is worthy of everything from its high volume unit sales to its Oscar nomination. I dare say that in a time where it is easy to forget the evils that plague society in light of the looming hand of foreign terror, South Park's importance grows by the second.
True, South Park: B,L,U is a crude romp through a spitting babble of tangled curses and crass language. Yes, it deals with excessive violence, gore, and even ethnic epithets of the tasteless variety. Oh, and you WILL see a penis. Numerous times.
But above all, South Park delivers something Hollywood dares not touch in the lands of modern cinema: the TRUTH.
Yup, to ignore violence, aggression, and downright wicked decadence is to pander to the glossy coat of Hollywood escapism  that general American trend in which we all bend the truth, alter history, and accept the manipulation of life in the light that we will be entertained, or at best, find ourselves in the stunning poignancy of art.
Rubbish, I say. What South Park accomplishes with its overdriven wit and alarming explosion of foul dialogue and clever scenarios is exactly what today's cinema audience needs...and that, my friends, is a slap in the face. It's an extreme overdose of everything safe media' tries to shroud by sweeping real evils underneath the rug of self-respect; it's an exploitation of all Hollywood holds sacred in its glorification of the kitschy buzz of the week. This film takes that newsreel desensitization you though you had by viewing Time Magazine's sidebar caption on Sierra Leone and cranks it up to ten, proving just how little you know about yourself, the media, and the power of issues society has somehow grown scared to even talk about.
Death? Hell? Swearing? Murder? Exploitation? Sex? Taboo?

Bah...more like questioning societal mores, advancing a cultural revolution, identifying the idiocy in censorship, and parading the notorious tendency to scapegoat.
This isn't mindless entertainment. This is life. This is South Park. So watch it and learn something. Worse comes to worse, you'll get a good laugh from the experience. Well, that is if you still have a sense of humor left. Hollywood's been feeding on yours for years.