Futurama: Bender's Big Score

Plot synopsis:
Two years after Box Network executives canceled Planet Express' contract, the executives are fired and Planet Express is back "on the air." As the crew celebrates, Hermes is decapitated, causing his wife LaBarbara to leave him. His head is placed in a jar while his body is repaired. Lars, the man who performs the procedure, flirts with Leela, much to Fry's chagrin.
During a delivery to a nude beach planet, Leela discovers a tattoo of Bender on Fry's buttocks. A trio of scammer aliens (Nudar, Fleb and Schlump) dupe the crew into providing their personal information and infect Bender with an obedience virus, allowing them to seize control of Planet Express. The scammers then discover that Fry's tattoo has a code that allows time travel, but only into the past. Nibbler tries to warn the scammers against using the code, but is ignored.
The scammers have Bender use the code to steal valuable objects from Earth's past, storing them in a cave beneath the ship. Hermes also has Bender retrieve an earlier version of his body so he can win back his wife. Meanwhile, Leela and Lars date, further depressing Fry.
Once the scammers have history's treasures, they decide to get rid of the time code by killing Fry. Fry uses the code to escape to January 1, 2000, just after he was frozen. The scammers send Bender after him. Bender arrives before Fry, creating a duplicate of himself when he has to use the bathroom. Another Bender from "way at the end" then appears, opens Fry's cryogenic tube and puts the tattoo on his butt. When Fry arrives, the first duplicate of Bender inadvertently initiates a self-destruct sequence as a result of not going to the bathroom. Fry shoves that Bender into another tube, then escapes. The original Bender spends the next twelve years hunting Fry, finally catching up to him and seemingly killing him by blowing up his apartment.
Bender reports his success to the scammers, who then erase the time code and the virus. The crew holds a memorial for Fry, but he suddenly shows up. Fry says he created a duplicate of himself, which remained in the past while he accidentally fell into his own cryo-tube. When Fry (plus the Fry that was originally frozen) awoke 1,000 years later, the present Fry froze himself until the current year. Meanwhile, the Fry in 2000 spent the years before Bender's attack working at Panucci's Pizzeria, then at an aquarium caring for Leelu, an orphaned narwhal. He also hung out with his family and tended to his beloved dog Seymour Asses.
Nibbler removes the tattoo from Fry to keep the scammers from further abusing it. Leela and Lars decide to marry, but during the wedding Hermes is again decapitated. Professor Farnsworth says that Hermes' body would have died anyway since time paradox duplicates are doomed to die prematurely. Hearing this, Lars panics and cancels the wedding.
The scammers then trick Earth President Richard Nixon into giving Earth to them. Exiled to Neptune, the population assembles a fleet with the aid of Robot Santa, Kwanzaabot and the Hanukah Zombie. Hermes has his bureaucratic brain wired into the ship's battle computer, allowing him to destroy the scammers' fleet and win back his wife. Meanwhile, Leela uses a doomsday device that Bender had originally stolen for the scammers (then stolen back for himself) to destroy the scammers' ship.
Unable to console a heartbroken Leela, Fry arranges for her to meet with Lars at the cryogenic lab. Having survived the doomsday blast, Nudar ambushes them. Lars tricks Nudar into approaching the Bender duplicate on auto-destruct and holds him against the duplicate, who explodes, killing the three of them. The explosion singes off some of Lars' clothing, revealing the Bender tattoo.
During Lars' funeral, the Planet Express crew learn from Lars' video will that he was actually the time-paradox duplicate of Fry, who had survived Bender's attack in 2012; the fire and smoke changed his appearance and voice. The duplicate Fry froze himself to return to the future and be with Leela. However, when he learned that time travel paradoxes were doomed, he canceled the wedding to spare Leela the pain of his inevitable death. Leela forgives “Lars” and reconciles with Fry.
Bender removes Lars' tattoo and travels to 2000 to place it on Fry in the cryogenic tube so that the events that transpired "make any sense at all". Upon returning, Bender emerges with all the duplicates from his stealing sprees. Terrified of the paradoxical consequences, Nibbler urges everyone to evacuate the universe before swallowing himself. The Bender duplicates explode and cause a tear in the fabric of space, leading to the events of the next film.

Tags: cult, psychedelic

Review:
But thankfully, like Family Guy before it, Futurama has now been given a new lease of life in the form of 4 direct to DVD movies (to be split into 16 episodes to make up a new season).
When Family Guy released Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, I feel it suffered the problem of seeming too much like an over-long episode, a problem I think that the Simpson's movie also suffered (though both were not without their fair share of laughs).
However,Benders Big Score, the first of these new Futurama features FEELS like a movie.
Simpsons, the movie.One thing both of these lacked were going back and not only recalling, but intertwining our favorite side-characters into the plot.Futurama does this beautifully and we see not only commonly featured side-characters, but characters that hard-core fans will rejoice to see, and I _wont_ give any examples here, because every element of surprise in this movie is what makes it worth watching.I want to stress that I was very critical to the idea of a movie after such a long pause, and I was a die-hard fan.
I have just watched this, and was a fan of the original show and am being completely honest here when I say this is not just one of the best animated movies I have ever seen but in fact one of the best movies of any genre I have ever seen.Unlike the previous Family Guy and Simpsons films (both shows I am a fan of by the way) Benders Big Score seemed to have something extra in it separating it from these two films.The jokes are great, the music and songs are great, the animation is absolutely superb (the 3d animation looking much better than when the show originally aired) and the story is very smart and also quite touching.The writing was absolutely superb, cramming in a lot of past characters but not in a way that it felt they had been thrown in for the sake of them being there (as can be noticed Mom does not make an appearance at all) and also adding new call-backs to well known parts from the series.All in, just superb and make sure you see it one way or another..
No neat hyper modern animation tricks, no bullet time camera spins, just the familiar Futurama, which is all i wanted.Bender's big score is a surprisingly plot-driven movie, reminiscent of the few more serious episodes.
Even with the horrid singing numbers (i was looking for anti-depressants) and the obsessive re-introduction of nearly every character that ever appeared on the original series, this is a rewarding event for sure, especially for us die hard fans who waited so long.
Anyways, Bender's Big Score is a great movie, and thanks to the developers for their effort to bring us Futurama back!
These are the things that lose the film a perfect rating, and are the sorts of niggles I would have expected after such a long hiatus - after all, much of Family Guy's comeback season (number four) is terrible when stacked up to the classic old episodes and a fair few new ones.But I marvel at what they did right.
It retains much of the trademark dynamic writing, taking in some of the same unbelievable and jaw-dropping spins on science and human/alien relationships and making us laugh when explaining away the continuity errors the writers were aware were needed to create an engrossing story.It makes good use of screen time and never drags it heels which I felt both the Family Guy and Simpsons features did.
With this Futurama feature although the plot is bombastic in the greatest sense of the word (like a Queen record for example) it ties up everything I wanted to know in a timely fashion using classic storytelling techniques - and where necessary awesome, seamless and not gratuitous 3DFX - throughout.Now I've covered the good and the bad, it is time to address the ugly - the backlash.
Yes it has several moments of great humour - a nice fifty-fifty of building set pieces and incisive one-liners - but it balances them well with a poignant story which I think they pull off as well as 'The Devils Hands Are Idle Playthings' if you consider that they had to pace it out over nearly ninety minutes which is over four times the length of a standard episode.
They must have been watching a different movie because I stuck with almost every twist and turn with awe, and the few I haven't resolved yet will - like all great works of art - reveal themselves with further observation.In closing - to you hardcore fans who say this isn't a patch on the original episodes, get off your soap box and think yourself lucky there's anything new at all and secondly, I bet you only grew to love those episodes through repeated viewings so stop being so hard on what is a logical continuation of a great premise!
Hi everyone out there!...I have had the pleasure of watching the all new Futurama full length movie, Bender's big score!...
I have been a big fan of the series and have watched all the episodes more than once, and I can say already now that I am not disappointed by this full length movie!...
Alright, this is going to be ugly, sorry...FYI: I am a hardcore fan, profession interface design, age 28, watched most episodes like 20 times (~15 with original audio track, ~5 with commentaries) and I feel deceived by the creators of this movie.
It however wasn't cancelled for long and returned with a vengeance with his movie and it's rather underwhelming stuff.It tells the story of our heroes running into global scale scammers who cost them their jobs, plus time travel plus a love story etc etc etc.The standard Futurama humor is on display so there are laughs to be had and plenty of adult jokes that would go straight over kids heads.
Coincidentally someone was peeling onions nearby me when it happened, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!A must for fans, a pass for everyone else.The Good:The finaleSome laughs to be hadThe Bad:Most of it will only appeal to true Futurama diehardsThings I Learnt From This Movie:There is a joke here to be made about Nude Beach Planet and Uranus but I'm too mature to make itBarstool softener is the greatest joke I never knew I needed in my lifeOne day there will be a wealthy Nigerian Prince!Family Guy > Futurama.
Bender's Big Score may have been a pleasant feature film in its own right, however when faced with the nearly flawless original series and the three years of anticipation by eager fans, it sorely disappoints.
While its understandable that such emotions may prevail after the frustrations over the premature cancellation of the show, expression of these feelings in the first few minutes of the comeback seems to be in poor taste.The movie is filled with little details that remind you of just how great the original series was, by falling short of the standards set by it.
In addition, a number of otherwise genuinely emotional and poignant scenes were drained of their emotional component due to poor acting.After all this, though, I still think Bender's Big Score is a movie worth owning, especially for long time Futurama fans.
Well, it wasn't REALLY bad, but Lord, was it disappointing.Let's start off with the plot: the basic core of the film revolves around a trio of naked lobster-like aliens who, using the power of e-mail scams and a tattoo on Fry's rear end which has an embedded code that makes time travel possible, enlist Bender's help to go back through time, steal a variety of expensive objects, and take over the world.
However, as is the norm with feature-length adaptations of television shows, there's a number of subplots: Hermes' body is destroyed and, living as a head in a jar, must try to win back the love of his family (this story doesn't really go anywhere and is mainly used to pad out the 89-minute run time), a series of flashbacks follow the life of Fry if he were to return to the 21st century (which, of course, creates TONS of continuity and canon problems), and Leela starts falling in love with "Lars", a lab technician, much to Fry's dismay (this story takes over the entire third act, wrapping up in a completely ludicrous conclusion).And, of course, there's a fair amount of time spent on cameos from beloved 'Futurama' characters.
To deem this film a "misstep" is to undersell the astronomical blunder at hand here.Accepting its shortcomings, what Bender's Big Score does well is to retain every bit of the artistic genius of the series  a plentiful array of oddball characters are thrown at us, and the writers do well to parody Internet scammers, the Bush/Gore election, and even their little brother  Family Guy.The very basic premise for the film is that a rabble of Internet scammer aliens con the Planet Express crew out of their company and place Bender under their control to steal ancient treasures, kick-starting a time-spanning adventure, whilst truths about Fry's past and future are revealed.Bender's Big Score is an entertaining film, in that nobody will argue its artistic merits, yet it seems to be sorely lacking in any deal of uproarious humour.
Yes, FOX have cancelled a multitude of critical darlings, such as Joss Whedon's wonderfully spirited sci-fi western Firefly, the wildly funny Freaks and Geeks, and even McFarlane's own Family Guy (before reviving it years later), but by the end of this film, I felt like declaring  "Be grateful you're back, and make the best of it!", neither of which the film's helmers seemed to do.The film seeks to slightly redeem itself in the final scenes, treating us to a wonderfully-envisioned space battle with a fantastic orchestral score, yet it only serves to reinforce my chief complaint of this venture  the laughs are very much gone.
That said, even to a dedicated fan like myself, it starts off a little lukewarm.For the first third to half of the film, though I enjoyed it, I got the impression that a lot of what made Futurama a classic, such as Fry's goofiness and the subtle, black, satirical humour had been dumbed-down or even totally neutered to appease the exec-u-bots.
However, it's as you approach the end and the story starts to disentangle itself from the time paradox business that you start to see that the reason it's not so intense in its delivery of gags is because they've actually written a story, and a great one at that.It was brilliant to see some of the better characters reappear - Kwanza-bot's a personal favourite, as is the God Entity - and anyone that's watched all the episodes will love the soppy story.
list could go on and on, movie featured almost all(?) characters from Futurama series in their nice little came-o roles, and couple new ones, which was nice..
How I was wrong, it was delivered over a week early and in my excitement watched as soon as I could.After the moderate success of The Simpsons Movie which actually turned out to be half decent, I had bigger hopes for Bender's Big Score as Futurama has always been the better series IMO.Frustratingly though, I feel a little let down.
I love perfect, characterful and very funny humor of Futurama TV serial, but I can't feel love to the movie Bender's big Game.
There are several sequences that feel way too rushed, and the writers try desperately to shove every single Futurama character into the mix, like they were never going to be able to make another episode again (which they might have actually thought when they started writing this, but it's not true now).
A lot of intentionally confusing time travelling going on, lots of in jokes about about the series being cancelled etc, all this seems to make this more of an attack on the people that cancelled the series rather than a genuine attempt to make a good movie length feature.Glad to say i've seen it, but to be honest it isn't in the same league as some of the episodes of the series, still if Pirates of the Caribbean can make money out of the last load of confusing nonsense my guess is this will do just fine..
Furthermore, unlike the aforementioned Family Guy motion picture, Bender's Big Score is essentially a very extended Futurama episode, not simply three episodes mashed together.What makes this movie a winner is the combination of both slapstick and intelligent humor, particularly the satire of everything from the Fox Network to spam.
Maybe they swing a little too hard for their first DVD outing.The story (as if it really matters to fans and non-fans): A race of flabby alien nudists try to take over Earth using spam and internet scams (a more-than-worthy yet untapped villain in our pop culture - thank you "Futurama"!), and using their ability to sniff out your personal information discover the secret to time travel as a tattoo on Fry's (Billy West) butt (there is more animated butt in this movie than in all 72 episodes of the show).
In fact, I wish the story had explored a Fry and Bender facing-off more then the character drama it winds up on.With a captive audience of eagerly awaiting hardcore fans, Cohen & Keeler have jam-packed "Score" with a smörgåsbord of all things "Futurama".
I personally am a die-hard Futurama fan, and when it got taken off the air I thought I would never hear from or see my favorite characters in new adventures ever again, I was joyfully mistaken.This movie is great, it brings back a lot of the old lovable characters and of course the usual charming characters.
It's very funny and the ending is great, Futurama: Benders Big Score is better than the Family Guy Movie and I would even go as far as saying its better than the Simpsons Movie which I thought was well made as well.
Well Like everybody else, The episode are much better one and half hours.Don't get me wrong I love futurama I saw all the episodes over 40 times.But to make a good movie...
The last line is also funny because it is an understatement "Well, we're boned." after the universe had a tear in it but overall I love the joke "What's the secret of Time Travel doing on Fry's ass?" "It was bound to be somewhere." That part got me cracking up.Overall this is a good sequel to the series and if any Futurama fans don't have a copy already, Get it.
I used to think Futurama was in the shadow of The Simpsons, but now that i've seen so many of the Simpson's episodes about 20 times, Futurama is more fresh and just as much fun.It's good to see Futurama back with four movies coming out over the next year, it's hard to bring a show from the small screen to the big screen without it becoming a disaster!
"Futurama: Benders Big Score" is a pretty decent movie, it's short so the jokes stay fresh and arn't overused, but just like "The Simpsons Movie" the plot is insane and wacky, but that's what you have to expect from shows like these!So overall it's a pretty decent flick, it's not a laugh out loud film but it's still pretty funny and worth a watch!7/10.
i found this movie to be funny and risqué.it's also very fast paced.it's based on the animated TV show,which i am not that familiar with,having only seen it once or twice.the movie is a bit convoluted at times.if you watch it,you will no why.also not being very familiar with the show,there were a few minor characters i knew nothing about.i am familiar with the main characters.anyway,you might want to watch some episodes of the TV show before viewing the movie.i don't think it's completely necessary,but it might help a bit.regardless,this is a very funny,enjoyable movie.it's not for young kids though.for me,Futurama:Bender's Big Score is an 8/10.
From buying the volumes on DVD, to watching the repeats shown on Adult Swim, we've finally got some more Fry, some more Zoidberg, some more Professor Farnsworth, and oh yeah, even some more Zap. Futurama fans rejoice and be happy that Futurama is going to be back on the air, but the celebration begins with their first direct-to-DVD movie Bender's Big Score.
I can't think of one funny thing that happens in the whole movie, or any memorable moments.I can only hope that this disappointing effort was the result of trying to write a feature-length film for the first time, and that it indulged whatever need the creators have to reference themselves..
Yes the film looks pretty and it's wonderful to see all the characters back together again but this is just like The Simpsons Movie, cobble together a load of old ideas, claim their new and hope the fans won't notice.I'd have rather they took another 5 years and came up with a completely original storyline.
I just finished watching the first Futurama movie, Futurama: Bender's Big Score, And it was a breath of fresh air, Although I have to admit that from a die-hard Futurama fan's point of view, I was expecting more, Now, don't get me wrong, it was very good in all aspects, and very much enjoyable, and i LOVED it.
Futurama: Benders Big Score is a classically funny movie that proves even further the people at Fox were not thinking straight when they axed this awesome show.
It's not really a movie, doesn't feel like one.The story is that a group of scammer aliens take over the Planet Express, and use Bender to try to take over the world.
Overall, Bender's Big Score was a great return for Futurama, not the best way to reincarnate the series, but far from the worst..