Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2009)

Oh dear, the Simpsons has gone downhill these last few years, and the movie's no exception: layered with weak, predictable, basic comedy, a dull, one-dimensional storyline and that relentless Hollywood-style soundtrack, one can't help but feel that Groening & Co. just haven't really tried with this movie, nor with any Simpsons productions of late, come to that; it's just about the money, now. Now, I'll admit, there are some high-lights to the movie: an entertaining parody on state-sponsored adverts starring Tom Hanks, for example, & a parody of 'President Arnold Schwarzenegger' by (predictably, but none-the-less funny) regular character Rainier Wolfcastle, for instance. But these moments are few and far between, I'm sad to say; the rest is just pumped out with weak humour, weak, over-stretched parodies, and silly music that serves only to undermine what intelligence exists within the movie. And to think what the Simpsons was just 5-10 years ago: intelligent, lovable, unique, etc. Groening & Co. need to stop counting the pennies, and instead realise that what made the Simpsons so funny and lovable was, simultaneously, its mockery, not embracement, of modern culture, & its embracal of old, American values. The sooner they realise this, the better.