A good effort

Rating: 6/10 (20 August 2007)

Ultimately I feel that Simpsons fans WILL be satisfied with this movie. The bottom line is, this movie is funny. The gags and one liners are pretty much what one would expect from the writers and the animation is quite good. If you like the show you will probably like the movie.
That being said, I don't think there is anything really remarkable or special about this piece. I have heard the criticism, "It's just like one long episode," repeated over and over again. I don't think that's really the case here. In a lot of ways, I don't think there's really much of the same "feeling" that the episodes have. For a show that is driven by so many diverse characters, I would have expected more interaction and complexity. The plot is a standard morality tale focusing most of its energy and screen time on the Simpsons themselves. Although the movie is funny, it lacks the contribution of many of the characters that have made the show so enjoyable. The plot is far more outlandish than what most of the episodes offer, and I felt that this was somewhat off-putting. The post modern, self referential tone has begun to run thin. I gave this movie a 6, as I feel that it WAS indeed funny, but far to disorganized to warrant a higher score. See it, if only to lament how good the show used to be.