Super Size This!

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2007)

It's hard to believe it's been almost twenty years since "The Simpsons" first entered our homes. Over the years we've seen the emergence of cartoons more scathingly satirical ("South Park") and more randomly ridiculous ("Family Guy"), but "The Simpsons" has always kept chugging along. While it's been well past its prime for almost a decade now (oh, how we miss the Conan O'Brien years), Matt Groening and his team have decided to fire on all cylinders for the first foray onto the big screen. Staying true to its form and not trying anything too daring, "The Simpsons Movie" is essentially a super-sized 90 minute episode.
The plot of this film is a rehash of the standard "Homer does something completely idiotic and selfish and gets all of Springfield in trouble and makes Marge hopping mad." There's plenty of homages to some of the past great episodes (Jumping Springfield Gorge, Bart Becomes a Flanders), and all the characters are doing their classic shtick. Chief Wiggum almost shooting himself while eating free donuts that have been stacked on the barrel of his gun is especially funny. Most of the hearty laughs are found in the peripherals. "The Simpsons" has never been accused of being subtle--witness here a literal visual depiction of Homer being stuck between "a rock and hard place." Always gently poking fun at religion (the stuff with Grandpa in church is priceless), politics (here we see Arnold as President), lampooning pop culture (Homer playing "Grand Theft Walrus" in Alaska is a joke about five years too late but still laugh-out-loud funny), and most successfully taking sharp jabs at itself and its corporate sponsors, the film delivers plenty of sight gags and one-liners to please even the most casual of fans.
As the "Comic Book Guy" might point out, this isn't exactly "The Greatest Episode Ever," but it packs in more chuckles per minute than anything I've seen on the big or small screen this year.