Funny but lacking

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 2007)

It's funny enough. I sat in the theater smiling or laughing like everyone at the situations and inside jokes.
But the problem is exactly what could be anticipated: It provides no reason for the jump in medium; failing to answer what in the movie couldn't be done on TV? You keep waiting for the movie to exploit some cinematic angle but it never ever gets around to it, not in any major way. How can it be that the marketing gag of turning 7-11s into Quikee-Marts is a more clever and memorable concept than the idea for the movie?
The end credits are a microcosm of the problem: They start one way, then... they're interrupted by a Monty Burns gag. You wait for the next cameo and it doesn't arrive. Instead... a row of theater chairs appear and the Simpsons start mocking the credits from them. Sounds promising, right? But then that idea is abandoned in barely a minute, before it even gets started. Then the credits just run normally. This is a movie designed by committee.
In a very poor move, Monty Burns plays no part in the plot. And look at that title! "The Simpsons Movie" (!) The movies hum-drum goals are exactly embodied by that disappointing, run-of-the-mill title.