Truth be told I'm not too acquainted with Astro Boy, other than reading up here and there, and seeing how popular he is in Kyoto that his stature appears almost everywhere near the main JR Station. Which of course the film has suited me fine, approaching it without baggage to watch an origin story right down to how Astro Boy loses his shirt for that naked upper body iconic look.

Star scientist Tenma (Nicholas Cage) of Metro City spends an enormous time on his job, neglecting his extremely bright son Toby (Freddie Highmore). A lab accident spells the death of the boy, and in grief, Taman creates a cloned robot of his son, and hey presto, Astro Boy is conceived, as Tenma puts into this robot a whole slew of self-defense weapons from his butt machine guns (no kidding!) to the iconic boots rocket boosters, because of a guilt- reflex that he had let down his son, and have left him exposed without being there to protect him properly.

There are enough of the usual themes here in this 94 minute movie which makes it pretty accessible, such as life, death, destiny and the yearning for friendship and acceptance, of who you are, and for others to see beyond oneself with prejudiced notions, which for Astro Boy's case, the misconception of a robot without heart nor emotion. Powered by some blue- energized meteor, it's like a tale of renewable energy sources that spells the future of mankind's effort in maintaining a paradise that is Metro City, though the by-product waste in red-energy is fairly unstable, and makes for a good source of power for the evil President Stone (Donald Sutherland) and his warmongering robot ironically called The Peacekeeper, in a kooky plan for re-election. and war.

Narratively, this film was safely stuck in "safe" mode throughout, and there were some shades of other super-powered films that can be seen here, such as an ending mimicking Pixar's The Incredibles, or inspired by Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in that Atlas lift of a troubled, enormous piece of land, and what every self-respecting origin super-hero movie will have, a montage or set action sequence of the initial discovery of powers, which allowed for Astro Boy to show off in some ways, his uncanny abilities, some of which though you'll have to wait until the final battle for it to be discovered, and exploited.

Needless to say, in between the set action sequences, the film sagged a little in the middle act as it tried its very best to humanize this robotic boy, and the introduction of a myriad of human children and robotic characters, in it to interact with our titular hero, with the latter inserted nothing more than for some cheap laughter, like requisite jesters. But when the action scenes are very well made, engaging and entertaining, that all is forgiven when you see Astro Boy in full flight and fight, with the finale battle something of an adrenaline rush.

The animators at Imagi Studios did a great job in delivering this film to expectations, graphic wise, and amongst all the robots, I preferred The Peacemaker best amongst all the mechanical creations, given his ability for fusion which allows for one really awesome looking make of a robot to grace on screen looking good as well as possessing enough opposing power to Astro Boy. An A-list voice cast also helped, with actors such as Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Bill Nighy, Samuel L. Jackson, Charlize Theron and Kristen Bell all chipping in.

I would have preferred to see this in 3D, but tough luck as we won't have that version playing here in the cinemas. What a sight that would be, just to watch Astro Boy in full 3D glory, but even when without that gimmick, this film turned out to beat my expectations, and this boy really soars.


The animated Astro Boy is a shiny hodgepodge of Pinocchio, Star Wars (see the Stormtrooper-like characters protecting the President), WALL-E, Oliver Twist, Gladiator and Superman, with some obvious visual touches taken from The Iron Giant. As its own entity, though, it's pretty forgettable. It almost feels like there are too many movies competing simultaneously in what is essentially a pretty standard tale of good versus evil.

The jokes aren't all that funny and the father-son relationship between Astro Boy (Highmore) and brilliant scientist Dr. Tenma isn't all that moving. There's a lot going on, maybe too much going on, but none of it ever really grabs you. On a positive note along those same innocuous lines, the movie is sufficiently bright and colorful for kids of all ages without ever being too scary.

Once Dr. Tenma realizes that this robot version of his child is nonetheless inferior and sends him away, Toby flees the floating, gleaming Metro City and lands back on the Earth below which is now a trash dump where he becomes known as Astro Boy. There, he meets other orphaned children who grubbily root around for spare robot parts to bring back to their Fagin-like father figure, Hamegg (Lane). The trash can that follows them around and looks like a pug is surprisingly enough named Trashcan, how original.

Astro wants to fit in with the others, namely the street-smart Cora (Bell), and forge some sort of normal life. But high among the clouds in Metro City, President Stone (Donald Sutherland) is after him for his Blue Core, a powerful crystalline nugget that Dr. Tenma implanted in his chest. You see, there's a Blue Core and a Red Core. The blue one provides a peaceful, benevolent strength, while the red one turns you into a ferocious killing machine. The Donald Rumsfeld-like president wants to control them both for his ironically named "Peacekeeper," a burly device intended to dominate Earth: "I've got an election to win and I need my robot to be a fighter, not a lover," he says early on. Ultimately, it was never explained why the Peacekeeping evil robot was needed in the first place.

And so the obvious inevitably arrives: Astro Boy must return to his home to fight the ultimate fight and face his ultimate destiny. Snooze. He also might run into his dad again. You never know.


"Flushed Away" co-director David Bowers makes his stand-alone directing debut on the $65-million, Summit Entertainment, big-screen remake of "Astro Boy," the first example of anime that Japanese television broadcast in 1963. Initially, "Astro Boy" went by the name Tetsuwan Atomu, or Mighty Atom. Later, when the character made his debut on American television, the fictional robotic protagonist acquired the name of Astro Boy. Naturally, "Kindergarten Cop" scenarist Timothy Harris and Bowers have diverged slightly from the original, but they have kept the essential storyline largely intact. Historically, "Astro Boy" made his literary debut in Japanese comic books back in 1952. Osamu Tezuka, who created "Astro Boy" and has since been hailed as "the God of Manga," turned his back on a career in medicine to write stories about an android "Pinocchio" whose feats of strength and speed more than match the DC Comics' hero Superman. The success of the original Japanese television show spurred a remake both in 1983 and in 2003. Essentially, this pint-sized automaton spends its time waging a perpetual war on crime, evil, and injustice. Humans that hate robots, robots-run-amok, and alien invaders constitute Astro Boy's primary adversaries. Excellent computer-generated animation, charismatic voice performances by Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Kristin Bell, and Nathan Lane, and Bowers' energetic helming make this 94-minute opus refreshing as well as worth watching.

This fantastic but formulaic Japanese-animated science fiction adventure epic takes place in a futuristic society where robots perform all the menial tasks and are discriminated against because they lack humanity. A father loses his son during a laboratory mishap involving a military robot implanted with a core substance that enables it to defy the three rules of robots as established by sci-fi guru Isaac Asimov. The brilliant but selfish scientist Dr. Tenma (Nicholas Cage) has created 'the Peacekeeper,' a hulking cyborg that General Stone (Donald Sutherland of "M.A.S.H.") has commissioned to solidify his presidency from all contenders. Tenma's inquisitive whiz-kid son Tobias (Freddie Highmore of "The Spiderwick Chronicles") wants to witness the robot trials. Tenma has Toby locked up for safety, but this smarty pants schoolboy figures a way to escape. Later, he finds himself trapped in the same area with the heavily armed Peacekeeper robot. When the machine tries to penetrate a force shield with awesome array of armaments, the blasts render it useless and atomize Tobias. The grieving Dr. Tenma retrieves the only remnant of his son: a baseball cap. He takes a strand of hair from the cap, extracts the DNA, pulls out all of the memories and inserts them into a cyborg version of his son. The allusion to Pinocchio is clearly obvious. Unfortunately, Tenma tires of his son the robot and pines for the real McCoy. The catch here is the robotic version of the boy does not know that he is a robot.

Eventually, the father cannot stand the sight of the robot because he knows that it is not his son. As it turns out, the robot has a blue-core in its chest that allows it to pull off some pretty amazing stunts. When the evil political leader wants Dr. Tenma to remove the blue core from his son to put into the war robot, the father turns against him. Astro Boy escapes, but is exiled when enough explosions knock him off the floating chunk of earth called Metro City to the ground below where rusting robots lay piled in heaps. Metro City is a solitary island of land that levitates above the polluted earth. Astro Boy discovers new companions, orphaned humans, but he also realizes now that he is a robot. He can understand what robots are saying when they speak. Now, Astro Boy has to keep his identity a secret from his new friends, foremost of whom is a pretty little thing named Cora (Kristen Bell of "Veronica Mars"). These kids scour the earth for robot parts for another scientist, Ham Egg (Nathan Lane of "The Producers") who rebuilds robots and matches them against each other in gladiatorial struggles to the death in a coliseum Roman style. Astro Boy helps rebuild a gigantic robot named ZOG and Ham Egg reveals Astro Boy's secret and forces him to fight ZOG. The only problem is that Astro Boy refuses to kill. Meanwhile, the evil military leader, General Stone (Donald Sutherland of "M.A.S.H") sends forces to retrieve Astro Boy. One of the funniest scenes occurs when Astro Boy is battling a "Transformers" style robot and learns that he is equipped with a pair of machine guns loaded into his buttocks! Director David Bowers never lets the momentum slow down. The hyper-kinetic action scenes are spectacular with our underdog champ Astro Boy pitted against some wicked foes that want him dead. The theme of racial intolerance pervades the action with robots seen as our inferiors untilin the words of one humanAstro Boy emerges with more humanity than most humans. Occasionally, Bowers' film takes on a grim feeling, particularly when Dr. Tenma turns against his son. What sets "Astro Boy" apart from the usual competition is the subtlety of its storyline. This colorful storytelling is ideal for both children and adults.


As far as anime adaptations go I haven't seen the original series and have no idea how it corresponds to the original story, but after enjoying Speed Racer and Transformers this just isn't the same. The story at best is a fun retelling of the Pinocchio story. Boy is created, learns he isn't a real boy, makes friends with group of misfits and once again finds his way home to be with his creator. Sure there wasn't any blue fairy, but for there to be a "blue ball" of positive energy is an obvious reference. The cliché of using an evil politician who uses evil red energy to power "The Peacekeeper" was almost painful to watch, but it was fun seeing a robot with personality albeit cliché. Although Donald Sutherland was a great choice for a character voice actor and will be as easily recognizable as he was in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, his portray of evil bad guy was more lighthearted than James Woods evil bad guy in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Freddie Highmore once again captures the youthful energy as he did with Arthur and the Invisibles It was a fun movie and worth the matinée price. Better than most Pinocchio re-tellings. Softer than A.I. Artificial Intelligence in terms of robot gore and it even manages to poke fun at I, Robot with its small trio of RRF: Robot Revolution Force in that they can't breaks the laws of robotics and plans on tickling to death one of the other bad guys with a feather. A boy is created, learns he isn't a real boy, becomes friends with band of misfits and finds his way back home where he is accepted for what he is by his creator. The obvious reference to the blue fairy in the form of a fallen star with blue positive energy was just another give away reference to the classic Disney take.


This early short subject, beloved to some of us; really shows one of the great qualities that would set his (best) comedy apart: he was strange. Not exactly verbal comedy, nor really slapstick, W.C. seemed to create his own oddball universe much like, but never quite, ours.

I loved this short from the first time I saw it as a kid, and I think it's one of a kindness really makes it his best (though others are quite funny.) Mack Sennett wanted something more in the way of conventional slapstick; Feilds had to fight for this; which is in part a spoof of sentimental wilderness poetry about Alaska.

Nobody liked it at the time. Fields himself said, "maybe it's not good. But I like it." Thank Godness he stuck by his guns and went on to create his own one of a kind comedy world.


When this film was released in 1933, the majority of reviews were negative and even hostile. The film was hated and vilified; audiences and theatre owners found it tacky and cheap. They missed the whole point. The film is a sharp satire of both the Mellerdrammers of the early twentieth century and of studio filmmaking. Fields and Bruckman were too incisive as comics not to have done everything in this film very deliberately. From the overly obvious sets to the absolute WORST background projection ever seen, the film is a sly poke in Hollywood's eye and that's where its humor comes from. I just about wet myself the first time I saw Fields go out to "milk the elk". He stands in front of a background projection of elk in the snow and begins calling to them. When they start to run, they grow larger and larger, dwarfing the non-plussed Fields. Sadly, since this is a public domain title, it's hard to find a good copy of it. About the best I've seen is on the "6 Films by W.C. Fields" LD or DVD


When I first saw this film I was wondering if it would be a spoof of Chaplin's "Gold Rush." However it's totally different. Fields is excellent and the film has a very good moral! ;-) I love the very sad song he sings which doesn't seem to have a rhyme in it.

One warning however, for DVD fans. The version I have was on a cheap DVD (along with "The Dentist" and "Golf Specialist"). Apparently, the company did a very bad job of porting the film over to digital because the soundtrack of every film is off by about 2 seconds. So the dialogue & sound effects are very mismatched. There is another company that puts out a DVD which is better quality but apparently while the overall quality is better, the version of "The Dentist" is censored & has cheezy music added in.


I grew up during the '60s, when Fields was in vogue as a rebel along the lines of Bogart or Brando. Nevertheless, I didn't find myself laughing nearly as much at his feature films "The Bank Dick", "My Little Chickadee", or "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" as at those of Keaton or the Marx Brothers. It wasn't until the '90s that I happened across this short, which finally convinced me that Fields was a comic genius.

With its absurd juxtaposition of dulcimer, Mountie, Salvation Army girl, wayward son, snow, tambourine, dachshund, bonds, the Yukon, student quarrymen, and unfit nights, this short has more laughs in it than any of Fields's features.

I'd say more, but I have to go milk the elk.


I first saw this send-up of "the prodigal son" when I was a high school freshman. I think my teacher and I were the only 2 people laughing. I was astonished that a film that looks like it was filmed in a garage could make my face hurt. It has wonderfully screwy story arc, corny gags; it's all over the place and ends abruptly, but I love it.

The Vaudeville origins of some corny bits (the snow gag) amuse. Other motifs of the period are not worthy of inclusion, but what little writing there is makes me laugh as hard as anything recent. Fields' hogwash ditty is pretty terrific. I especially love a few of the sight gags, including a runt of a dog on a sled team, a leggy salvation army gal, and W.C. calling for Lena the elk. The sound quality is heinous, but the arbitrary scene changes relieve some of the tedium and claustrophobia of other Fields shorts (The Golf Specialist).

It mocks everything in sight; staginess, melodrama, propriety, actors who mispronounce words. I don't know that there any other 18 minutes of film make me smile as much as this ridiculous little movie.


This is quite possibly the crown jewel in the long and illustrious career of an extremely troubled and very funny man. Fields has a field day sending up a style of melodrama popular at the time. At one and the same time, this is atypical of Fields' work generally, but still has his fingerprints all over it as well. Highlights are far too numerous to list, but Fields's rendition of the song, "The Fatal Glass of Beer" (you can't really accurately call it singing), the running gag, "It ain't a fit night out for man or beast" and the ending are hilariously perfect, with a sense of timing of which Chaplin would have been proud. Most joyously recommended


Pompous ass Harold Bloom calls this the greatest film of all time, and I see what he means. It's an elaborate parody of the then-current northern melodrama - the family in the cabin worryin' and cryin', milking the elk amid the sloppy-cut rear projections, mushing the dachshund, spilling a hatful of soap flakes in the soup. W. C. Fields is an a-hole the way Eminem is an a-hole, it's a floating theme. He also plays the dulcimer with his mits on, narrates the tale of the salvation army girl who high-kicked his son in the forehead, "A trick she'd learned before she had been saved," has a crying fit with a mouth full of crackers. And more - all in eighteen minutes. It rocks!


The Godfather, Seven Samuri, The Third Man: all fantastic, but after messing around for many years pondering over what is "the best film ever made" I find that I need look no further than this abominable piece of piffle that conceals within its two creaky reels, the quintessence of the art. It is perfect.

The Fatal Glass of Beer turns not only the Hollywood film but also American drama inside-out. All its workings are on full display in every second, wriggling wretchedly.

Bill Fields was a world-class juggler of inanimate objects on the Vuadeville stage but here we see him, having progressed to the movies, juggling with the censor, the studio, the box office, his company, the very edge of reason itself and, more than usual, sobriety. His lamp is never lit but he certainly is.

This is the only picture in which Fields plays the Hero. He is neither The 'Great Man' nor the down-trodden husband; he is very much the head of his household. This gives him the sense of freedom to do what he likes. And he does.

Fields was famous for rehearsing lines verbatim, only to throw in an ad-lib on a take, I wonder if the line " My uncle Ichabod said (speaking of the city) 'T'ain't no place for women gal, but pretty men goo thar.'" was an on the spot invention? Certainly at hearing this the already weeping Constable appears inconsolable; is he covering his laughing with crying? I think so, as Fields adds " Comical old gentleman he waas... alwiz said somthin te make yer split yer sides a-laffinn..." It's certainly a brave line censor-wise. But then who could pitch such a missable curve better?

It is difficult to sum up the sublimity of the thing by just mentioning a few bits of business - many reviewers have waded through practically all of it - but of all that sticks in my mind and bursts out as laughter (sometimes in the most unfortunate situations) is the plain fact that included in Field's essential equipment for surviving the conditions in nineteenth century Alaska is an electric fan.

See it once and you'll see it forever.

They don't make 'em like that. (At all.)


I was driving to visit my cousin recently, & passed very close to the birthplace of W C Fields, a native Philadelphian like myself. It reminded me that W C has somehow gotten out of vogue. WHY?? Back in the 1960's & 1970's there was a huge revival of interest in his anti-establishment ways. We used to have birthday parties for him every Jan. 29th (I won the child-insulting contest one year). His films were on TV constantly.

It's time to get old William Claude back where he belongs! He was the greatest, & we need more of his brand of humor now. (Plus, he inspired me to learn how to juggle - a hobby I've now enjoyed for almost 40 years)

Best short: Fatal Glass of Beer

Best Feature: It's a Gift


This movie contains so much surralistic humor, so it stands for itself! The song about Chester is so funny, that there's almost no need to mention Fields' trembling voice when he's singing the song without any voice ("You know, we can't get any ipecac up in this part of the country."). The scenes where a "regiseur" throws corn-flakes into his face ("Tastes more like corn-flakes.") when he says the classic: "And it ain't a fit night out for man nor beast" and at the end of the movie don't throw any corn-flakes. It's so funny! For you fellas and girls: Don't let ya' temptations lead you to the big city, 'cause it surely will get you to "sell them bonds".


To avoid any confusion, I have to make clear that this is an update of a previous review I did on this short film. As I grow older, I find it increasingly necessary to add new reflections and insights into old reviews, so this is in itself a quite normal thing for me to do. What is extraordinary in this case, however, is that this new review is not just an updated version with a few new thoughts: it is, in fact, a review in which I've changed my mind on the film completely.

When I first saw THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, I was puzzled. I had never seen a W.C. Fields-film before, but I was well acquainted with most of the other comics from the 'golden era' and was excited to be introduced to this celebrated talent. I'd read several reviews of this film and taking all the praise into consideration, I assumed it would serve as a good start. I put the video in the player and was ready for a good time filled with laughs. 18 minutes later. Eh..? I knew the film was public domain; could it be that the distributor of my tape had left out all the gags and punch-lines on purpose? Through research I was convinced that I had, indeed, seen the entire thing. And the entire thing was, I thought, not much of a thing. If you've seen the film, you know what happens.

In my previous review, I wrote: "The part where the parents ask if their boy has any money left could have developed into a situation full of funny mistakes, but the film ends very abruptly and cynically," and "Maybe I'm too soft-hearted, but I can't say I found this ending funny. Had it been a Keystone-comedy from 1913 I could have accepted it, but Fields could do better. Fields widely portrayed cynical men, but this was too much for me, especially as the parents were so warm-hearted at first." Like the critics (and audiences) of the time BEER was released, the comfort in familiarity out-won any open-mindedness in me to accept something different. My statement "Had it been a Keystone-comedy..." reveals that I had become a prisoner of my own taste; I saw the film in context to comedies I was familiar with and enjoyed, interpreting its humor within the frames which Charlie and Buster had already established in me. I expected the pure gags which other comedians had performed so wonderfully at all times. I didn't get 'em. But that was hardly a coincidence.

Yes, a few demonstrations of Fields's familiar word-play may be found here: "He won't take Balto, my lead dog, 'cause I et him. He was mighty good with mustard." However, unlike in IT'S A GIFT and THE BANK DICK, in which Fields surprises us with one hilarious punch-line after the other, the verbal gags are at best only mildly amusing, serving as little more than "fillers" in order to maintain the interest of the viewer. What is remarkable about this two-reeler is perhaps not so much the dialogue in itself but rather the circumstances from which the dialogue, and the situations, evolve; it is not meant to be taken seriously. When his son has just arrived home, Fields remarks, while standing besides the boy and crying wife, "But I don't suppose we'll have him with us long..." Then he walks out of frame, stands with one foot on a chair, looks directly into the camera, and exclaims: "O-h-once the c-ihity ge-hets i-hinto a bo-hoy's system ... he lo-hoses his a-hankerin' fo-hor the co-hountry." I can honestly tell you that no line has made me laugh so uncontrollably hard in quite a while. Yes, the performer reveals his own consciousness of the camera that is filming him; that is the whole point, and that is what makes it so inconsistently side-splitting. When this film was made in 1933, the film industry was filled with melodramas which inexhaustibly tried to maintain its impression of being a mirror of the real world and not reveal the performer's consciousness of the fact that they were being filmed, in an attempt to appear convincing to the public. At the same time, however, these same performers in these same melodramas could suddenly be caught talking directly into the camera, spoiling any illusion if there ever was one. THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER pokes fun at the predictable Hollywood-productions of the time and it does it through such brilliant subtlety that it at times is hard to realize the funny parts; but once you get them, you get them well. "And it ain't a fit night out, for man or beast!" Fields exclaims while witnessing the snow-storm from his door. Each time he exclaims this line, a handful of snow is thrown directly into his face. When the storm has stopped, Fields nevertheless exclaims the same sentence. And the handful of snow is thrown in his face again, despite the fact that the storm has stopped. I almost cracked up.

Now, about the ending which I previously found so cynical. Well, it is hardly uplifting. But once you understand the irony and surrealism which this movie possesses, you realize that it doesn't matter; because, as we have seen through the terrible camera-work and exaggerated emotional reunions, this is not the real world. It is not even a parody on the real world, as comedy so often claims to be. It is a parody on an unreality --alias, melodramas-- which hopelessly wishes to be taken as reality, when every "jabbernowl" knows it isn't.

Disappointed, I tried some of Fields's features and loved them immensely. Recently (Feb. 08), having long rejected to see BEER again, I gave it another try; and I think you should do so, too, if you happen to share my previous opinions. And if you still don't get it, try another twenty times. It is hilarious, if you let it.


I grew up a fan of The Three Stooges...basically thinking that there was "no other comedy prior to 1960 besides them". Since that time, I still believe the Stooges, especially Shemp-era material, is the greatest comedy of all time. In the 1990's I came to appreciate the genius of Tim Moore & Spencer Williams. I have almost every episode of "The Amos 'n' Andy Show" and now consider them just a hair below the Stooges in terms of comic creativity.

Honesty needs to come into play here as I reveal that I had never seen a full W.C. Fields short or feature in my life prior to this year. My introduction to him was "The Fatal Glass Of Beer" and I am amazed at this short! Whereas most of the clips that I had ever seen of Fields turned me off from ever wanting to see anything else, this short makes me want to view his entire body of work.

If I had to make a short, this is probably what it would turn out to be like!


This is far and above the funniest short subject I have ever seen. It is funny from the inside, as a series of surreal ideas, as much as for what we see on the screen. The minimalist sets work perfectly, and Mr. Fields has never had better timing than he has here. As funny to think about as to experience, it might have been the main inspiration for Monty Python or Fawlty Towers in its use of attitudes and punctilios to score comedic points; and as a headlong assault on the Protestant work ethic, it is, like the aforementioned, priceless.


This Mack Sennet produced comedy starred W. C. Fields and it was deliberately constructed like an old fashioned stage melodrama--complete with the same type music, sets and entrances. The concept was kind of funny, but after a while the single joke got kind of thin. However, there was an eventual payoff, as the ending of the film was terrific.

The story begins with Fields singing an annoying and bad song about the evils of strong drink(?!). This is where the title of the film was derived, but about 80% of the short occurred after this and was unrelated to the song, other than the fact it was all told as a giant morality tale against vice.

Not bad, but certainly not up to the standards of such Fields full-length classics as IT'S A GIFT and THE BANK DICK.


I'm always in the position of being a spoilsport as I usually just review films when people don't see what I see in them. Most reviewers are extremely positive so there's not much point in heaping more praise on something so here I go again with the negative stuff. I'm a big film fan and I love delving into history and discovering actors and movies that aren't well known to me. When it's a hit, it's wonderful and when it's a miss like here it's a lot less fun. I've watched a little bit of Fields now and I'm convinced that he's not my taste and quite frankly I'm not sure why he's regarded as a top early comedian. Chaplin and Keaton were genuinely funny whereas I find W.C. mostly weird with an occasional humorous surprise. So far I've liked the Dentist the best and this one is the worst. Besides a rare chuckle for the cornflake comment and the quip about the dog with mustard I was pretty stunned at the completely unfunny material here. The scene with the bread being dipped is very frustrating and I didn't find an ounce of humor in the song near the beginning. I'm in the earlier stages of film history and I'm sure I'll develop more perspective and see more of Fields along with his other contemporaries. Perhaps my opinion of him will get better, but I'm afraid this film will not.


Very bad script, production, direction, and acting. Hillary Swank was the only reason I rented this, she is actually not bad but I feel sorry for her to be in this obviously released direct-to-video piece of raw garbage. It is like a bad 80s flick so imagine my surprise to discover it was actually made in the mid- to late-90s.

All of the characters were unrealistic, one-dimensional, and weakly developed. This was John Asher's debut as a director when his previous most memorable role was as Gary on the "Weird Science" TV series. He should not have strayed from in front of the camera. I wish someone would put warning labels on movies like this so that you do not waste your money or more importantly--your time.


I watched this movie and was disappointed in the end when Vic was seen as a bad cop and Colleen went off in the sunset with the guy who really is not a good person in all.

It should have been that Vic was undercover and he was the one who went off with the girl not the other way around.

The ending was not what I expected in this movie especially with Rob Stewart and Hilary Swank.

It could have been written better and the ending also should have been different.

Rob Stewart has a fan following and I'm sure they were not happy with the role he picked.

I know some of his future roles are much better hopefully he gets a lead part again in a TV series.


Some what unbelievable. Several bad cops try to pin a counterfit operation on the one good cop who is killed early on. Then a brother, in a star wars disguise no less, kills his baby brother in a truncated chase scene; aw come on, give me a break. The dead good cop's sister tries to find her brother's real killer only to discover its her ex-lover who is a bad cop. So she cuddles up to and makes out with the guy who she first thought killed her brother, but who turns out to be a good guy and they live happily ever after on the $3 mil in real and counterfit money that every body was after in the beginning. If any of this makes sense, you are obviously retarded. Be glad you missed it.


Pilloried in the decade that was His Time, Richard Lester had radishes thrown at him for being "modish," gimmicky, aggressively hip. (The great Manny Farber was uncharacteristically cruel, cruel.) He may seem in some lights like the Austin Powers of auteurs, but time has been kind both to his formal gifts (as magnificent as Nicolas Roeg's--or David Fincher's) and to the complicated, unsentimental, but hard-beating heart at the center of his movies. At least one Lester work, 1968's PETULIA, ranks among the greatest movies ever made. This little-seen classic, a sort of British-seaside ENDGAME, gets my vote as the most thrillingly beautiful end-of-the-world movie ever.

Coauthored by the "Goon Show" genius Spike Milligan, this post-apocalypse omnibus of sketches suggests John Osborne's Archie Rice rewriting an absurdist play by Gombrowicz. Tweedy lord Ralph Richardson post-atomically mutates into a bed sitting room while sixtyish, uncombed Michael Hordern uses the state of general unrest to get into bed with Rita Tushingham. (Her pregnancy arouses Hordern--until she gives birth, after seventeen months, to what is either a bird or a large pile of felt.) And above it all, Peter Cook flies on a hot-air balloon as a sexy cockney sadist--the post-nuclear Prime Minister to be, the first-draft choice of the Clockwork Orange Party.

A plot summary does no justice to Lester's and the DP David Watkin's images, which challenge the Vesuvian frescos of FELLINI SATYRICON for sheer overwhelmage. And the work of Lester's longtime composer Kenneth Thorne, with its English merriment never once acknowledging its own irony, ranks with the tip-top achievements of Rota or Morricone. This is a beautiful, haunting, great, sadly completely forgotten movie. Film hipsters have had their day lapping up Lucio Fulci and Jess Franco. Bring back a guy who once had a real job! Up with Lester!


Some far thinking person at our new state of the art Village Twin Cinema decided to run The Bed Sitting Room and 2001: A Space Oddyssey as a double bill here in the very early '70's. That's where I first saw both and they have been locked in my consciousness as equally great and poignant comments on the "future". In one we get to boldly explore space, the other has us desperately rummaging in our own refuse to survive.

I ache to see "Bed Sitting Room" again. Arthur Lowe and Mona Washbourne were exemplary, as was Ralph Richardson (and all of the rest).

With the torrents of abominable drivel that has made it to DVD release, it is hard to fathom why such a unique gem is not even available on VHS.

If there is a God he will inspire a DVD mogul to master and release The Bed Sitting Room, for the good of humanity - if not for my sake alone.


This is a wonderful surreal comedy based on the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus. You know that it is going to be an odd film right at the beginning, when the opening credits list the cast in order of their height. The film begins with the BBC (Frank Thornton) telling us through the facade of an old television that this is the third, or is it the fourth?, anniversary of the shortest war in history, lasting 2 hours and 28 minutes. England is now a barren landscape, littered with derelict cars and buildings, hills of old boots, broken crockery, and other debris. Forty million people perished and there are only 20 known survivors. The Queen did not survive, and of the 20 known survivors the next in line for the throne is a Mrs Ethel Schroake of 393a High Street, Leytonstone. Among the other survivors are Ralph Richardson (O Lucky Man!) as Lord Fortnum of Alamein, who isn't looking forward to his impending mutation into a bed sitting room. Michael Hordern is Bules Martin, who wears a 18-carat Hovis bread ring. Spike Milligan is a postman who wanders around and delivers some memorable dialogue, for example: "And in come the three bears - the daddy bear said, 'Who's been sleeping in my porridge?' - and the mummy bear said, 'that's no porridge, that was my wife' ". Arthur Lowe is slowly turning into a parrot (which is then eaten by Spike Milligan), while his wife, the owner of her own death certificate, turns into a wardrobe. His daughter is pregnant with a strange creature, which she has held inside her for seventeen months. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are a pair of policemen who perpetually tell the others to "keep moving!". Moore growls a lot and turns into a dog at the end. Marty Feldman is a wellington-boot-wearing nurse. It's a hilarious, absurdist treat, and one of my treasured filmic pleasures.


With it's completely surreal narrative and winning photography, The bed Sitting room hits me now for a number of reasons, the first of which, is that despite looking strangely contemporary, all it's main leads (Except the young uns) are dead. Marty Feldman, Micheal Horden, Arthur Lowe, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan and Sir Ralph, are all pushing up the daisies. There's something tragic about the cast in a comedy all being dead. For all intense and purposes, the film may as well be dead too as it was blind luck that I caught it. It is criminal that this bona fide classic never really made it past the main gates, while lesser films took the glory.

Made by Richard lester (A hard Days Night, Superman 2 & 3) in 1969, just before Monty Python hit pay dirt, it tells the story of Brits after the bomb, working class through to upper, it encapsulates the British eccentricities perfectly. It's pomposity and its sheer blooded bloody optimism. These characters, you might see on the tube on the way to work and despite furniture mutation and hunger, they're just the same. It's a testament to all concerned, that a potentially silly premise, is performed with total conviction and a little tragedy. It's especially weird to see Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir Micheal Horden as leads. In such a bizarre film, it swings the whole experience into brain frying proportions. It'd be like having Sir Ben Kingsley play Ace Ventura, Pet detective.

Another reason, this film is a triumph, is the superb set design and photography. While in Monty Python, it's surrealistic landscapes, while funny and inventive, never really touches the views on offer here, What was essentially a quarry, is now landmarks of Britain, with bits of it sticking out all over the place. stacks of shoes, dismembered traffic jams and indeed Bed sitting rooms clog up the toxic horizon, all glum and desolate, you half believe the story, as the landscape seems sort of real. I'll bet my mums dog that Python was influenced by the designs on display here. As the film was based on a play (By Spike Milligan and John Antrobus) I wonder how it looked in a theatre.

There you have it, a classic film in every way if you like that sort of thing. If you catch it, you'll wonder if you saw it, then you'll be angry that you've never heard of it, after that you'll never forget it, it's just a shame you'll probably never get to see it...


I saw it in 1969 and will never forget it.

The cast was a fine cross section of the best Pommie comedy actors of the period.

The sight of Marty Feldman in a nurses uniform with Crossed Bandoliers of syringes was surpassed only by Harry Secombes ode to the Pin Up.

Would love to get it on Video - Does anyone know how we can get it onto CD, Video, whatever.


The fear of mutating into a small apartment, in a world where building is forbidden! Or the best metaphor for a fear of progress or "modernity", I've ever come across.

One of the oddest things I've ever seen. Richard Lester must have an impressive budget for this. All the sets are ruins, but they are amazing ruins, cathedrals submerged in water, escalates to nowhere...a bed-sitting room in the middle of the desert.

At some point in the past England lost WW3, the shortest and most nuclear of wars, which has left Englands surviving population of about 20 or so completely, if not near completely insane. Those that are not insane, like Dudley more in his balloon powered police car, forbidding people from any kind of re-construction (less the attacks be re-provoked), well these other people are suffering bizarre mutations..mostly into furniture.

After a Lord transforms, slowly and hilariously into a full on bed sitting room, others begin mutating, into Cabinents and parrots.

The life of a pregnant girl and her family who have been living on the subway (riding in perpetual circles), who decide to go back to the surface world, coincides with the story of our Lord the bed sitting room, which represents a real problem...not only is the man an object, hes the first new building, and sign of civilization in years. When he asks a doctor what he should do about it, "My advice, charge 20 quid rent, be mindful of drafts".

Hijinks ensue, and though bleak at times (a few shades light of a dead baby joke), Richard Lester's madcap "The Bed Sitting Room", is one of those odd, clever, allegorical comedies, that's just too smart for it's own good. Too political and absurd in it's time, to have been properly appreciated. For people who like Monty Python, Alejandro Jodorowsky, or Steven Soderbergs "Schizopolis", of whom Richard Lester is the driving influence, this is the only post-ASPCA-slapstick comedy you need to watch.


"The Bed Sitting Room" is hard to describe to the average viewer. It reminded me of a Monty Python film with set pieces from a Salvador Dali painting. Many have compared the film to the work of director Alejandro Jodorowsky, which is probably the best way to describe the film's surrealism. Because of all the rubble and junk-piles turned into crazed surrealist imagery, It's also been compared to "The Cremaster Cycle". But I feel "the Bed Sitting Room" is much more enjoyable than the pretentious, self referential cremaster series. Did I mention how funny the film is? The story concerns a nuclear war that happened so fast, that hardly anyone remembers it. There is a dozen or so survivors. Because of all the radiation, one man is convinced he'll turn into a bedroom. A young girl is 18 months pregnant. Her mother turns into a dresser and her father a parrot, all due to radiation. Weird Huh? And we can't forget Mrs. Ethel Shroake, the survivor that's the closest distant relative to a now deceased queen of England. This film is utter lunacy and gets better with every viewing. The humor in the film is very dry. The more you think about the jokes, you realize just how ridiculous and funny it really is. So if your looking for an obscure, surreal end of the world wasteland, this is a film for you. I personally loved this film . Its wit and originality are in a category of its own. It's as if Monty Python and Jodorowsky teamed up to make a movie. "Long Live Mrs. Ethel Shroake!!!"


i happened upon this film being shown on the BBC, as it always seems to do with really good movies, late, late, late one night quite a few years ago. to my horror no matter how hard i tried to wedge the matchsticks under my eyes, i could not manage to stay fully awake and with disastrous timing my video had given up the ghost the week before...alas i was lost!!!!!!! the portion of the film i saw had me in stitches,(Marty Feldman's Nursey would have been ecstatic), all the cream of the newly emerging alternative comedy scene seemed to be taking part and set me on a, until now, fruitless quest to track down a trace of this classic through the years. the previous commentator stated he has a copy... GASP!!! THE HOLY GRAIL!!! if anyone out there knows how i can obtain a copy of this fantastic, much overlooked classic, please please please can they get in touch with me at nikimeijei@aol.com and let me know so that i may finally finish a film i began watching sometime in the late nineties. Have mercy on me and put me out of this misery.


It's refreshing to see a surreal film that is not full of gloom and doom or mystical mayhem. Granted THE BED SITTING ROOM does take place in a post-apocalypse England with a cast of absolute lunatics, but somehow it's all very fun. Director Richard Lester assembles a who's who of great British comics working in the late 1960s and allows them to run rampant. It's hysterical. Ralph Richardson has the title role (you'll have to see it to believe it) and Marty Feldman, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Roy Kinnear have featured roles. Best of all is the crazy family headed by Arthur Lowe and Mona Washbourne, who live on a never ending Metro train afraid to come out into the nuclear wasteland. When they finally do, daughter Rita Tushingham (17 month pregnant) is thrown into an arranged marriage with lunatic Michael Hordern. A priceless piece of entertainment & showcase for a lot of talented comics who did not necessarily have substantial film careers. It's chock full of great moments: Secombe's kinky request of Washbourne that she have a domestic dispute with him, as his wife used to; Kinnear giving Hordern a haircut without scissors or razor; Feldman's appearance as a nurse! One of Lester's best films. With very clever opening credits.


This was a very enjoyable film, but is very difficult to get access to.

I saw it on broadcast television while in Portland.

The film has wicked British wit, and has heavy surrealistic aspects to its production. Don't try to watch the movie from a causality standpoint (if A and B then C), just sit back and enjoy the ride.

If you can't stand surrealism, or if your movies MUST have a plot, steer clear of this title.

This is not really a spoiler, but don't read further if you just want the full impact of this wacky title.

The main character is dreadfully afraid that he is going to turn into an English Bed Sitting Room (a room in a house: Wikipedia "bed sitting room") All of this occurs against the backdrop of the world after it has been nuked to a trash pile. If this doesn't tell you how odd this film is, nothing will.

I laughed so hard while watching this movie, I thought I was going to wet myself.


We found a VHS copy! Watched it recently, and still laughed out loud, even though nuclear annihilation is not much of a hot topic. I would still highly recommend it for anyone searching for dark humor, sort of Monty-Python style.


i just love this film, it's such a shame it isn't on DVD yet. and a copy on VHS recorded years ago (before i was born probably). films of this quality are a rare treat, i can only compare it to those of monty python and the 1980's hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy TV series (the recent film was good but felt a little short).

---POSSIBLE SPOILER--- one of my favourite bits is the part where 'the bbc' turns up and announces the news ---SPOILER FINISHED---

if this film was re-made i doubt it would be as funny as the original and i'm sure they'd be told to remove certain lines of the script for reasons of political correctness.

just hope the DVD is out soon a must for anyone that likes monty python style jokes


One of those movies where one looks at everyone involved with the film and thinks a surefire hit but it isn't. Really just a series of skits about carrying on in the English way after a nuclear attack, the film never connects in any way with the viewer. Originally a play by Spike Milligan, I have a feeling that on paper the movie would seem hilarious and though a couple of scenes translate well (the tube train that keeps running even though no one needs it and the wedding) most of the skits fall flat. I, for one, cringed every time Marty Feldman appeared wearing a nurses uniform. Maybe part of the problem is that the film is definitely targeted towards a British audience and since I'm American, I don't get it but I think that even the English would find it dated today.


This made for TV drama is a re-make of a 1953 film called "Inferno", directed by Roy Ward Baker which featured Rhonda Fleming and Robert Ryan. "Inferno" was shot in 3-D. "Ordeal" is an effective re-casting of the original, but Arthur Hill cannot match the grim intensity that Robert Ryan brought to the role of the stranded husband. Diana Muldaur, while lacking Rhonda Fleming's glamor, is actually more convincing in her role as the faithless wife. On the whole, I slightly prefer the original, but the TV version is certainly worth your time. Oddly enough, the male actors who play the lovers of the women in both films are equally bland and ineffective.


Cold, unhappy Diana Muldaur schemes with young lover James Stacy to leave her overbearing husband stranded in the middle of the Mojave desert with a broken leg. Who of us cannot wonder: Could this happen to me? Could I survive if it did? Arthur Hill is the perfect chap for this rigorous acting workout: he's an Everyman, a survivor, and I sure wanted him to belt that broad when he had the chance. Muldaur made a career out of playing unlikable women, and yet I always admired her skill. Intelligent, glamorous, stylish with scarves in her red hair, I was never unconvinced by a performance she gave. I long for the days when ABC-TV produced classy, intriguing dramas for their prime-time spots. Whether it was Cloris Leachman in "Dying Room Only", Amanda Blake being driven crazy in "Betrayal", or conniving Stella Stevens in "Linda", they were usually worth-watching. Bravo to "Ordeal", another fine telefilm from the 1970s.


"Ordeal" is a quality television film from 1973 with a very good cast and great production values. The story of a somewhat shallow rich man who literally wanders the desert and in the process discovers his deeper self. The bright ,arrid Arizona desert is used to great effect and I was really impressed by the film's stately score. Seemingly all the main characters in the movie are unlikeable ,but Arthur Hill lets us see the subtle transformation from a man on a mission of hateful revenge(against a fed-up wife and the shifty trail guide who left him to die with a broken leg in the merciless desert)to a man who, in overcoming incredible obstacles(almost too incredible), he finds his place-connection in this stark natural world and an inner peace.The scene where he finds a water hole is beautifully done.This film is certainly a worth a look.


This noteworthy film stars Arthur Hill as a worthy and initially shallow businessman. His wife, well-portrayed by the memorable Diana Muldaur, schemes to rid herself of him, and her lover conspires with her, (As portrayed by James Stacy, as her slick opportunist lover).

Hill finds himself abandoned in the scorching, unforgiving desert, and at first is tempted to give up. There is a suspenseful soundtrack and he gradually learns to fight back, despite a broken leg, dehydration, and no rescue in sight.

Muldaur meanwhile enjoys the spoils of what she thinks is his eventual demise. She and her lover celebrate the fact that his tracks have been covered by rain, he is most likely dead. There are some nice shots of her 1970's style mansion, kaleidoscopic colors from that era, and set decoration.

They visit the desert to ensure that Hill has died, there is a suspenseful twist at the end, and you will truly enjoy this film. There was an earlier film starring Robert Ryan and Rhonda Fleming (circa 1950's) which I believe was a similar theme. Recommended. 8/10.


Produced during or just before the glory days of the made-for-television movie, this film depicts the struggle of a difficult man, left to his own devices in the desert. Hill plays a wealthy, but obstinate, heavy-drinking and bitter, man who is on a trip into the desert with his wife and their guide to examine a potential mine. When he falls from his horse and breaks his leg severely, the wife Muldaur and the guide Stacy leave him with some water and supplies and ride back for help. However, realizing this is a golden chance to be rid of Hill, Muldaur suggests that she and Stacy leave him in the desert to die of exposure and starvation! She offers herself and her prospective inheritance as the reward for his going along with the plan. While she and Stacy wonder about the status of their scheme as they lollygag around the swimming pool, Hill realizes what has happened and decides he is not going to be done in quite that easily. He sets his own leg using supplies that the duo has left behind and begins the arduous trek back to the civilized world. Meanwhile, his business associate Carey wonders what's going on and local sheriff Ansara keeps looking for him (even several weeks after the disappearance!) Hill is effective as the nasty grouch who begins to find inner strength and, eventually, inner peace through his harrowing ordeal. Some elements of his self-rescue, however, are either far-fetched or downright preposterous (witness the "Snow White"-like scenario at the watering hole in which a deer, a raccoon, a turtle, a rabbit and a skunk-!!- casually hang out with him as he quenches his thirst.) Muldaur, an actress who effortlessly projected cool calculation, does a nice job as well. She isn't the stunning siren that, perhaps, might be a more obvious lure for Stacy, but her money and her skill as a lover make up for that, certainly. Stacy is laconic and quite understated, though that makes him somewhat more believable. Sadly, he would suffer a devastating motorcycle accident not long after this, losing an arm and a leg. His pre-accident physique can be glimpsed in the poolside scene where he's garbed in just a navy swimsuit. Carey has a thankless part which he plays in a workmanlike way while Ansara tries to inject some flavor into his standard issue part. A remake of a 1953 film called "Inferno," which starred Robert Ryan and Rhonda Fleming, this is an enjoyable, if unspectacular, movie that has a more ambiguous and non-violent ending than the original film. Kitsch fans will enjoy checking out Muldaur's 70's clothing and home furnishings while scenery aficionados will appreciate the desert location filming.


When you have the reputation that Parker and Stone do, it is hard to get rid of the sterotypes that have been drawn around you. You are forever stuck in the mold that has been bestowed upon you. But perhaps sometimes when stigmas of that nature are forever embedded with your name and reputation, it actually gives them more leeway to make a statement that is political in nature. As long as they disguise that statement(s) with all that made them popular in the first place, they can get away with it. So now, if I said that beyond the non-stop vulgarity and infinite humour that this film contains, is a film that has an important message camouflaged in animation, would you believe me? Would you care?

First off, this is the most profanity laced film I have ever seen in my life, and that includes early Eddie Murphy efforts. But the profanity in this film had me in stitches. Honestly, that was almost not just a figure of speech either. I laughed so hard that I almost banged my head on the on the person in front of me. Remember how absorbed you were at the horror of war at the beginning of Private Ryan? Well if you had to parallel the two and replace horror with humour, that is a safe comparison. This film is so ******* funny and I really enjoyed it on that level. I can honestly say that I haven't laughed so hard since Office Space. The profanity goes a bit overboard at times but I think that was on purpose. Some of the humour is a bit gross ( seeing Sadam's rubber propalactic was funny but a little sick at the same time ) but I think these guys wanted to see how far they could go. And they went very far and they dared the MPAA to censor them even more, and hey, I was very entertained.

But on the political side, there are a lot of dicey issues that are covered here. Censorship for one. It's funny because we as Canadians and Americans have some of the same ideologies and one of them is free speech. But if that is what we want, then we have to be willing to go all the way. You can't pick and choose what is more free and more appropriate than something else just because it is not politically correct. Free speech means free speech. Free to express your thoughts in an open forum. This film tells us that free speech is free as long as you don't offend the masses. It also says that in MPAA's world it is okay to see blood and guts and intestines and brain tissue ( many of those films get an AA rating ) but profanity dictates that an R or an X is required to see the film. That really is silly.

The film also touches on racism in the armed forces and it shows how brain washed Americans get when there is a conflict with an opposing nation. It doesn't matter that perhaps some of the issues at hand are clouded and misunderstood, many people stand behind their government to the very end. Kill em' all in the name of the Constitution. There are also some stabs at religion and being gay and a plethora of other issues. A particular scene with Bill Gates is funny.

Parker and Stone have given the finger to the ratings system in America and I think people will like it. They have also given much more credit to the Canadian armed forces in this movie. If the U.S. ever went to war with us, it would probably be over in a day or so. So thanks for making us look at least competetive. That was cool.

It may be weird to read a review of this film and have comments about politics in here, because it really is a funny movie and I was in a good mood when I left the theater, but there is more to this movie than just humour. To accomplish that and still be known as the guys who made fart jokes and the F word popular is quite a feat. This film is there to enjoy but it is also there to ask some tough and interesting questions. Enjoy the film, but listen to what it has to say. That is, besides the F and S word, listen to what it wants to say.

**** One last observation and that is, when I was in line for the film, a lady and her five year old daughter were in front of me. When they asked for South Park, the cashier asked if she was sure because there is a lot of profanity in the film. The lady reassured her that it was fine. Her daughter can listen and watch but knows not to repeat. That is responsible parenting. Teach your kids right from wrong and hope they turn out well. That's all you can do. And I applaud that parent for doing so. She may never know who I am but I will remember her for quite some time. Maybe if more people were like that, there wouldn't be such a fuss about profanity. After all, they are just words.


I was not a fan of South Park before I saw BL&U, nor was I a fan of movie musicals. Well, I'm still not a fan of musicals, but I'm a fan of *this* musical, and am grateful to Parker and Stone for demonstrating that it's still possible to make a great movie on one's own terms.

For this movie, unlike the usual feature-length adaptation of a pop culture phenomenon, not only lives up to its pedigree, it wildly exceeds it. Yes, the movie does recycle many of the show's jokes, but it does so in new yet relevant contexts that keep the material funny if you are familiar with the South Park world. If you aren't familiar with that world (as I wasn't before seeing the movie), the gags are simultaneously accessible yet often subtle.

Subtle? Yes, many of the gags are. Indeed, one of the pleasures of owning a copy of the movie is having the ability to review the movie, in slo-mo if necessary, and discover throwaway sight gags that one has missed in the delirium of watching this anarchic satire the first time through. (And if you have the DVD, you can add subtitles to catch many of the songs' often elusive lyrics.)

Then there's the music. What is it about movie musicals that attracts great satiric minds? Not since Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" has a work of art so subversively exploited the conventions of the movie musical as South Park. From the droll opening strains of Mountain Town, to the Disneyesque "Up There," to the Les Miserables spoof, "La Resistance," South Park simultaneously sends up the genre while paying homage to it, and still finds room to use the songs to score delicious points against its myriad targets.

One last thing: this movie is not cynical. Beneath the scatological humor, the cartoon violence, the scathing portrayals of Wynona Ryder et al, and the backdrop of adult xenophobia, sexual repression and political opportunism, is a sensibility that exalts childhood as an island of honesty and idealism, if also of id-like impulse and frequent selfishness. In this they share space on the shelf of great satires with "Candide," "Gulliver's Travels," "Tom Sawyer" and especially "Huckleberry Finn"--classics that, like BL&U, also exposed the hypocrisies of the adult world "through the eyes of a child."

Elvis Costello once sang, "I want to bite the hand that feeds me/I want to bite that hand so badly/I want to make them wish they'd never met me." That BLU was shut out at the Academy Awards (having only garnered a nomination for the relatively tame "Blame Canada", which lost, appropriately enough, to the execrable Phil Collins) only vindicates the film's take-no-prisoners send-up of nearly everything that annoys in this suffociatingly focus-group-tested, PC-policed, cynically sentimental, violence-ridden, love-starved modern world. See this movie, and see the persistence of hope and possibility sparkling like a diamond amid the pop culture detritus of a quiet little red-necked, white-trash, strait-laced, mesuggeneh, US mountain town.


What can I say but OH MY GODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had heard rumors about this movie's extremities (no pun intended) and that it was much more...ahem...wild than the t.v. show. Now, I've only seen a handful of the television shows, and they're pretty racy and raunchy, but I've always liked what I've seen. It's definitely not a show (or movie!) for kids. Or the faint of heart, or the easily offended. But then again, if you know that you're an easily offended person DON'T GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

I loved this movie. Granted, I have to admit that I was shocked and surprised through 95% of it. But it was great nonetheless. It was funny and vulgar and said pretty much everything in a manner that was NOT politically correct. But then again, aren't we all getting pretty sick of political correctness?

I think one of the things that gets most of us, (at least myself) is that when we were kids that age, we never would have gone around saying half of what those kids did. Or, if we did, we did our best not to get caught! Of course, I was only ever threatened with getting my mouth washed out with soap...not my mother starting a war with a foreign country!

The musical numbers were great! They were very upbeat and will stick in the minds of viewers for years to come. In the future, when we're all sitting behind our desks (or whatever jobs we may have), we'll notice that we'll be humming certain catchy tunes and when we stop to wonder what it is, we'll remember the songs from South Park both with humor and with horror that we're actually humming them out in the "civilized" world. The scene I think the best for musical numbers was where several of the different songs were going on at one time. It was very "Les Miserables" like (I saw the musical so I know what I'm talking about) in a very sick and twisted sort of way. It was simply funny and light hearted.

This movie poked fun at just about everything in the book. Nothing was spared. Not Christianity, not different racial stereotypes, and certainly not the gay community. But none of it was handled in a fashion to be hateful or humiliating. In my opinion, all the jabs were meant to get people to see that there shouldn't be the divisions that there are and when people get separated, they leave themselves open to ridicule and criticism. Rather if we all came together and put aside the divisions and stereotypes, then perhaps we could all see the humor in remarks and jabs like the ones made in this movie.

As for the political statement: it's true, you know. This country (as are many others) is always looking for something or someone else to blame for all the "troubles." We as a nation are hypersensitive to every little thing and just about everything is taboo. From swearing to being able to purchase certain adult oriented "toys," a person can't do anything in this country without being censored or "forbidden" to. It's sad when a state's laws or a person's hysteria keeps people from their constitutional right of free speech and the like. And this is what this movie was trying to point out. I agree with the person who is his review of this movie wrote, "They're just words" about the swearing in the movie. And that's all they are.

I give this movie a 10 for its humor, its musical numbers and its obvious statements. I think that everyone (who has an open mind) should go see this movie...and then go again and take someone who doesn't have an open mind so that it can be opened by the hilarious things said and done in this movie.


If you're not a fan of non-stop swearing, crude humor, musicals, satire, violence, or just South Park in general then don't watch this. Trey Parker and Matt Stone hold nothing back during this movie. Everything they can't get away with on television they do so with Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Weather anyone believes it or not BLU is a musical in every respect. From the intro song(Small Mountain Town) to the money number(Uncle F*cker, which you will find yourself singing in the shower), this is a musical top to bottom. The movie kicks off with the kids going to see the Terrance and Phillip movie where they hear so many bad words they become corrupted and begin to use them in their every day lives. Kyle's mom is so outraged by this film that she, along with the rest of South Park, manage to get the United States to go to war with Canada for sending the Terrance and Phillip movie to America. Stan, Kyle, and Cartmen form a resistance group to fight their parents and the war, and Kenny goes to Hell where Satan and Saddam (who are gay lovers in the movie) plan on taking over Earth by using the war. This movie is so great it's hard not to love it, especially since it made the Book of World Records for 399 swear words and 128 offensive gestures. Parker and Stone out-did themselves with this movie. You'll laugh until you hurt.


South Park: Bigger, Longer and Un-cut is a great movie. Not only because the TV show (South Park) is one of the best animated shows of the 90's but also because of it's comedy, political and social satire, and though you can't see it right away, a look into censorship and what bad and good qualities it's doing to American life. And it also shows that Trey Parker and Matt Stone seem just like a bunch of comedy writers and composers, but that they could be truly freedom fighters by show-casing this film.

The story is about the four boys of South Park (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman) and after they go into a rated R Terrence and Phillip flick, they start to use their new founded dirty words to excessive use. Since the film is Canadian, a war breaks out between Canada and America. Kenny dies (thats not a giveaway because on the TV show Kenny dies in every episode) and winds up in hell to find Sadaam Hussein and Satan as gay lovers. Both plot sides are very hilarious (depending on if you watch the show) and it's very satirical (if you don't believe me, just look at Bill Gates getting shot in the movie).

The Movie seems quite content in it's dirty foul-ness and funny comedy musical type way to make us laugh (not that thats a bad thing), but I think that Matt and Trey are tying to tell us something with this film. It is a wakeup call to America that if censorship doesn't change soon, we might actually go to war with a country over something as arbitrary as censorship and freedom. Or... it's just a good old fashioned comedy with fart jokes, sex humor, and a Winona Ryder playing ping-pong in her private area. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. Never-the-less, this film is one of the best of the year. A++


Nothing can prepare you for this film. It's a one off. Undoubtedly the best film I have ever seen. I truly laughed until I cried in the cinema showing, bought the video and the soundtrack - which I never do - and have watched it several times over. The political undertones are frighteningly poignant. The idea is brilliant. It's the antidisney. It's a fart in the face of those who wage war in the name of decency. It's a bunch of foul mouthed kids spewing profanity. It's better than good versus evil; it challenges us to asses the criteria upon which we judge good and evil. It pokes fun at everyone, white, black, Jewish, Christian - but particularly the stupid and the bigoted. by ridiculing the fuss that is made against profanity, the writers have safeguarded themselves against adverse publicity from complaints. It's what the film is about in the first place. My only complaint is that this film is so brilliant that it made Team America seem tame.


its easy to see why a lot of people may be offended by this film. After all, it makes fun of black people, Jews, women , Canada, homosexuality, homeless people, fat people and of course Barbara Streisand...miss anything out!!?! yet if you like it you can't help but admit that the movie is comedy genius. The opening 10 minutes had me rolling in the aisles "how would you like to suck my b#lls, Mr garrison?" and the song "its easy mmmmkay" being some of the highlights. the jokes while repetitive (based on swearing or insulting someone) never get old and the genius of ideas such as "operation get behind the darkies" while being offensive are undeniably funny. the only people who would rate this movie any less than at least 7 are the pathetic types who'll say "oh its to vulgar and rude and offensive". thats the point! so if you're someone who can laugh at yourself (which we should all be able to in an un-serious movie such as this) and want to witness some amazing moments of comedy genius than this is for you. special shout out to the creators of south park for the character Eric cartman, the real star of this movie who would be up there on par with homer simpson for all time greatest comedy character if not for his foul mouth and habit of insulting well..everyone! 10/10 from me for all the nights this ones cheered me up with out fail.


I saw this movie and laughed and laughed and laughed. I was shocked and offended. It was one of the bravest movies of the year, nevertheless decade, or history. It was definitely bigger and longer. It certainly seemed uncut, even though it wasn't. See June 29 studio brief. It was hilarious.

Plot: The movie had a great plot. I won't give it all away, but it is definitely big. It starts with Stan, Cartman, Kyle, Kenny, and Kyle's little brother sneaking into the Terrance Phillip movie, "A**es of Fire," which has been rated R. They learn all kinds of swear words and use them at all times. The rest of South Park kids see it also, and by the next school day, the parents find out and totally hate the movie. They form a group against the movie. It goes out from there. There is also a plot with Kenny going to hell, and finding Saddam Hussein and Satan in love. Saddam is a hornball. And Satan regrets the whole relationship.

Crudity: Definitely for adults only. It probably has the most swear words than any other movie this year. It has cartoon nudity. It has breasts and wriggling penises. All cartoon, of course. It has violence galore by the end. Do not take your kids to see this, or be prepared to feel uncomfortable. All theaters must enforce the carding laws for this one. However, if none of this will offend you to the point of hatred, do not see this. It also has racism, sexism, and offends every group out there from the Gays to the MPAA to the parents.

As a whole: The funniest movie so far of 1999. I laughed so hard. I found it only mildly offensive personally, but then I also love the movie "Pink Flamingos." I cannot recommend this movie to everyone. I can recommend it to those who are not offended easily. This does not include the people who feel brave because they survived "There's Something About Mary." Parents will not like this movie unless they are completely open-minded, and I recommend not seeing it with your children. However, it is wonderful. I loved the musical format that they chose. Everywhere there is a song. Also stay past the credits, there is an after-scene. It is trying to be a "Pink Flamingos." I love it but can only recommend it to the group from 17-30, male.----------------------------10


First of all, let me preface this by saying that I am not a huge fan of South Park the TV show. While I find the TV show amusing, I do not watch it more than once every few months. So I had doubts about the movie, but my brother insisted I watch it. So I did and ended up purchasing the DVD the next day.

All comedy aside, this is one of the most masterfully written movies I have ever seen. The songs are hilariously funny and the way that they incorporate all the individual songs into one masterpiece is sheer genius. Probably one of the best musicals I have seen.

As for the humor, don't watch this if you are easily offended, because you will be offended.

Funny, funny, funny. 10 stars.


-and I say that being a person whose hated musicals all his life with a fiery passion

-The movie chronicles the events that takes place after the gang sneaks in to see an R rated movie. the movie is based on their favorite Canadian TV show "Terrence and Phillips: Asses of Fire." the movie contains lots of crude humor and vulgar language, and teaches them how to use the F word and other offensive language in a brand new way. pretty soon all the kids see the movie and start cussing like sailors, and this is where the problem comes from. all the parents lead by Kyle's mom decide to protest the movie and the protest soon turns into an all out war between Canada and USA. meanwhile Kenny dies and ends up in hell and whiles there he discovers that Satan and his boyfriend Saddam Hussein *LOL* are plotting to invade earth. and that's the f*cked up plot in a nutshell

-The whole movie is told through a series of wonderful songs sang by the characters. from the Danny Elfmanesque "Blame Canada" to the laugh out loud "Kyle's Mom's A *female dog*" all the songs in the movie are just perfect and fits it like a glove. the humor is the same as that of the TV show, and by that i mean stereotypical racial jokes, fart jokes, gay jokes, pop culture jokes, and sexual jokes. the animation is also the same which must be great news for the studio because by doing that the movie was made very cheaply. Trey and Matt like always do the voices for about 70% of the characters in the movie, but this time they have some celebrity friends to help them out. I heard that Clooney did a voice for the movie but i couldn't recognize it. The best thing about this movie and also the TV show is of course Cartman. he's let loose in this movie and completely uncut so we get to hear him in his whole anti-semitic glory. Later on the movie his filthy mouth ends up saving the day.

-I love this movie. it's exactly my type of humor, it doesn't hold anything back and is wonderfully filthy. all the jokes whether racial or homosexual jokes are simply meant as just JOKES and nothing more. conservative people who find that kind of humor to be crude can go listen to Bill O' Reilly BS them to death.

-Don't blame Canada guys, that's where Sarah Polley lives :)


South Park is one of my favorite TV shows, so I decided I had to see the movie. Once the movie started I was into it very quickly. (This part contains Spoilers) In the beginning, Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny sneak into an R-rated Canadian movie that is made by their idols, Terrence and Philip. The film is a little bit more than just a lot of foul language. After the kids see it, they start swearing all the time and tell their friends about it. Soon, a lot of kids in the country see it and also start swearing. The parents become very concerned about this. One day Kenny does something similar to what happens in the movie and ends up getting killed. The kid's Moms decide to start a war against Canada and execute Terrence and Philip. If I told you the rest, it would ruin the fun of the movie.

This movie is a musical with some very clever and hilarious musical numbers, one of which was nominated for an academy award. The storyline is very clever, looking at how much came out of such a simple idea. At the same time this movie does have some good points that were brought up, such as how people think media makes kids to do things, and about freedom of speech. This isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it is definitely a clever movie with some huge laughs and good messages.


SPOILER ALERT! This is one of the finest satiric cartoons ever made. I am convinced that South Park is the best show on TV (and the only excuse to turn on that disgusting Comedy Central [AKA The Beer and Sex Channel,]) but some people wonder if the movie is as good as the show. Take my word for it, it isn't. It's ten times better. In the movie, Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny see an R-rated film starring their favorite Canadian actors, Terrance and Philip. The movie is entitled Asses of Fire, and if I may quote Arthur Taussig, the title is the least offensive thing about it. In the opening scene of Asses of Fire, we discover why it was rated R. I won't give away one of the funniest parts of the movie, but I'll just say that I didn't know you could use that many obscenities in only three minutes. When the movie ends, the boys leave the theatre repeating all the words they've heard in the film. Not knowing what the words mean, they continue this behavior the next day at school. Their teacher sends them to the guidance counselor who subsequently calls their mothers. As those who watch the show may have guessed, Sheila Brosfloski, Kyle's mother, is outraged and begins a campaign to have the film banned.

It's general pop-culture knowledge that Kenny McCormick is killed in nearly EVERY episode of South Park. One can naturally assume that his death in the movie would be the Kenny-death-to-end-all-Kenny-deaths. It is, but unlike his frequent deaths in the show, his death in the movie is a huge contributing factor to the plot. This may be a slight spoiler (if you can call the way in which Kenny dies a spoiler.) The boys end up seeing the movie again, and Kenny is killed while imitating something he saw in the film that may be too inappropriate say in this review. He is banished to Hell for skipping church to see the film, and we discover that Satan and Saddam Hussein are in a homosexual love affair. In this relationship, Satan is surprisingly warm and caring and wants to communicate with Saddam, but Saddam just wants sex. The conversations between these two characters throughout the film are hilarious. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Sheila Brosfloski's movement to have Terrance and Philip banned has spun out of control. Canada is blamed for all of the problems of America's youth, America is preparing to literally wage war against Canada, all Canadian-American citizens are sent to death-camps, and Terrance and Philip are scheduled to be executed. Back in Hell, Kenny listens to a conversation between Satan and Saddam. Bible readers know the seven signs of the end of the world. The fall of an empire, the coming of a comet, etc. We discover that when the blood of Terrance and Philip touches American soil, Satan and Saddam Hussein will ascend from Hell and rule the earth. It is now up to Stan, Kyle, and Cartman to save humanity from the horrors of every Christian's worst nightmare, and his boyfriend, George W. Bush's worst nightmare. This film is more than hilarious. I am convinced that Matt Stone and Trey Parker are the funniest individuals in America. This film is an animated musical, but parents beware, it doesn't bare the Disney family-friendly stamp of approval. The best songs in the film are "Up There," "I'm Super," "What Would Brian Boitano Do?," and the infamous "Blame Canada," which was nominated for an Oscar. The best voice jobs by the creators were Saddam Hussein (Matt Stone,) and Satan (Trey Parker.) I could watch this film twenty times every day and never tire of it. Caution: while this film is animated, it is certainly not for the kiddies. It is filled with vulgar language, but it is not gratuitous. The language used is the purpose of the film. The moral of the film is that no matter what words your children learn from a film, it is not the filmmaker's job to raise your child. It's an anti-censorship film. It is the up to the parent to put it into context and punish accordingly. I would recommend this film to everyone who is not easily offended or an extreme Christian, YOU WILL BE OFFENDED. If you're into satirical cartoons, or just want to see Canadians drop bombs on Alec Baldwin, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut is a must-see.


South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut is unique, as it is likely the only movie adaptation of a television show that was popular with both critics and audiences. It is also one of the funniest animated films ever made. The film takes satiric aim at American culture, through the premise of a war between the US and Canada started by an "obscene" Canadian film. Like MASH, South Park contrasts the perceived obscenity of language and sexuality with the true obscenity of war and violence. The film has become even more poignant in these dark times of wars fought under false pretenses.

The film is also a musical and benefits from the catchy tunes of Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman. Highlights include the "Blame Canada" song and a Stanley Kubrick/Anthony Burgess tribute involving the V-chip. It is an excellent film overall and is among my favorite animated features. 10/10


Eminem meeting Disney and a horror film (you'll know what I mean when you've seen the film), it really has not much of a plot, but it still is entertaining. Due to a few comic lines a few nice songs and a good moral. Well of course you might consider it offensive but I don't (OK I'm from Holland and we've brought you Paul Verhoeven) but still, you can't be offended if you have a sense of humour and if you remember this is ONLY a film.

The message of this film (the moral) is the same that the makers of South Park have tried to bring over in their series, only they stuffed it in a better box with this film.

7 out of 10

To all the people who criticised this movie, because of it's bad language, violence etceteras: You have NOT learned a thing and you'd better watch this movie again.


Oh My God, I liked this movie soo much! Really, ''South Park:Bigger Longer & Uncut''is hilarious,and only people who doesn't have any sense of humor are not going to appreciate it! The story itself does not have much sense, but who cares? The songs are so funny (specially Terrance and Philiph's one) and we have great scenes, like Saddam Hussein and the Devil fighting because of sexual problems, or all the students who are classmates of Eric, Kyle, Stan and Kenny saying lots, but LOTS of cursed words! Like all South Park's episodes, we have a critic inside the joke: in this movie's case, is to criticize mainly the hypocrite north American society, among other things.


I, personally loved this movie! The rudeness, vagueness, and profanity just makes it better than expected! If every movie was like this, not only would the world be a much better place, but I would be going to the movie theater every day, instead of spending all my money at Best Buy! Kids shouldn't watch this at all. That's the only downside. They can't see how funny this movie really is! The good thing about Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, is that they can make fun of everyone and anyone they want, and the people will be too busy enjoying this movie to do anything about it! So, this movie is about when two Canadians, Terrance and Phillip, make a movie. The profanity angers Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Kenny's mothers (but mostly Kyle's) after they see it, and they tell them never to see it again. They disobey, (as usual) and it leads to Kenny trying to attempt one of the stunts, (catching your "fart" on fire)leading to his death when a Doctor replaces his heart with a baked potato. This angers the mothers' even more, ultimately leading to a war against Canada, and the execution of Terrance and Phillip. To stop the execution, Cartman, Stan, and Kyle launch "Le Resitance" to stop the war, stop the execution of Terrance and Phillip, and stop their blood from reaching the ground or Sadaam Hussein and Satin from taking over the world!


I've been watching the show since it started back in '97, so of course i went and saw the movie when it opened. I was a little concerned when hearing that it was done as a musical, as all the voices are pretty unique and wasn't sure how they would convert over to singing, but was pleasantly surprised. The songs are very well done, and the 'singing' voices of the characters are all actually pretty good!

I was definitely excited to also see what they would do without needing to be censored for TV. The comedy of the TV show shines through, and you can easily see how "different" the authors are when they're not required to keep some things out for TV viewing.

As the show continues to do well and keeps coming back for more, they should definitely make another one!


i think South Park is the funniest cartoon ever made. it may be rude but thats the best part of it. simply Trey Parker has done an excellent job! the tv show, movie, songs and everything else are great and i must add Cartman is the funniest cartoon charecter of all time and his voice is so cute! People who stay away from South Park should at least try watching it once and see what they were missing...


A hilarious musical besting Trey's earliest forray into film "Alferd Packer, The Musical" (also in this DB, though that one not R rated) This is NOT..I repeat NOT a movie for the kids. And yes they will take every measure possible to get you to bring them. It is hugely vulgar and uses combinations of profanity I have never heard before. Beware the "Video Sleep Over" parties come September. However, you are not going to be able to keep the tykes away from exposure completely, so best to talk to them aboot the content and language first. Do the job that the story is aboot. Parent your children.

That being said, the film is one of the funniest of the season. Funnier, even, than The Spy Who Shagged me...sorry comrade Mike. Myers wouldn't be welcome in the world that develops around South Park Colorado. Nor would I, as we are both Canadians, and Canada is a four letter word in this SP.

The songs in the flick are well conceived and executed. Parker is a latent musical director with a great sense of humor. "It's Easy, MMMkay", "Blame Canada", the "Uncle F**ka" song and dance, and "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" are good examples of his prowess. You even detect a hint of "All I Really Want" from Alferd Packer poking into a song. You soon become desensitized to the language (for good or bad) and can appreciate the cleverness of the lyrics and staging.

I recommend this to anyone who has consciously or unconsciously hummed "Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo". But beware where you choose to sing some of these songs.

There are some subjects and comments which will make some feel uneasy, like the scenes in Hell but I think they're cleverly designed to bring some of our phobias to bear and beg the question "What do you expect from Hell? What's taboo in Hell anyway?"

I'm still alive and kicking so the movie won't kill you.


The Southpark movie is pretty good. It is layed out like a musical, and had many catchy (if not raunchy) songs. There is A LOT of blue language, so don't bring the kids. There were some really funny parts, (I.E. Bill Gates.) but on the whole it was like a long episode of the show without the censors.

Also I found it ironic that the plot of the movie was based on how americans can take massive amounts of violence in movies as long as they don't say any naughty words. Which is proably why the rating committee wanted to give this movie an NC-17 rating because they slam on them so much. Anyway, very funny, very crude and very entertaning.


When Trey Parker and Matt Stone were writing the script for the movie, they had to make a decision if they wanted to "dumb down" material for the non-fans. Instead, they decided to make this movie for the fans-and by God, this has got to be one of the funniest movies I have seen all decade. There was never a dull moment, the audience was uproarious, and I was laughing harder than I have in years.

Even going as far as to top There's Something About Mary in its crudeness and extreme vulgarity, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut does what few TV-to-movies do: make a jump to the next level by pushing the obscenity to the limit.

I'll try and not spoil too much. The four kids go to see the Terrance & Phillip movie, "Asses of Fire." There is a musical number featured in the movie-within-a-movie which had the audience rolling, the lyrics consisting almost entirely of the f-word (and the TV show's bleeps are discarded for the film). The boys soak in the movie's naughty language and come out spouting forbidden obscenities. Soon other children see the movie. In the school classroom, there is an eruption of swearing and the boys are sent to the school guidance counselor, Mr. Mackey, who calls in their mothers to make them aware of what the Terrance & Phillip movie has done to the kids. They form The Mothers Against Canada and try to have Terrance & Phillip executed. Canada defends its humor while the United States laughs at them, and Canada retaliates by bombing the Baldwin brothers (very clever). Soon Canada and the U.S. are engaging in full-scale war.

Meanwhile, Kenny dies (not surprisingly) and goes to Hell, where Saddam Hussein and Satan are in a homosexual love affair. Saddam only wants sex every five minutes and Satan wants to be loved. Their scenes in bed are a reason why kids should not see this movie. Back on Earth, the kids form a group to save Terrance & Phillip, "La Resistance" (obviously paying homage to Les Misérables) and make a plan to rescue Terrance & Phillip from the big USO show, where they are to executed. Guests at the USO meeting include Big Gay Al and Winona Ryder (who is happy to demonstrate her famous "ping-pong ball" trick). The kids attempt to sneak into the show and free Terrance & Phillip.

This movie will shock you. You will not believe some of the jokes in this movie. It will offend many people. The film takes equal shots at Jews, blacks, Canadians, Bill Gates, and Jar Jar Binks, to name a few. I'm quite sure many will be offended by "The Mole" character and what the military's plans are for the 14th battalion (snicker).

Fans will undoubtably love this movie. We finally see Kenny without his parka and hear him speak, and there's none of those annoying bleeps. I am a fan. I loved it. In fact, I'm going as far as to recommend it as a candidate for one of the best of 1999, let alone best comedy of the decade. This movie is non-stop laughs and it's very, very entertaining. It's not all toilet humor, either. The creators manage to get a message through, and there are large satirical tones concerning our modern society.

I paused while writing my review to consider people who aren't fans of the show and what they will think, and I have kept those in mind. There is a lot of swearing and a lot of frankly gratuitous sexual material. I salute Trey Parker and Matt Stone for having the guts to push the R rating to its boundaries. This film is fun for movie buffs and those who love political humor. And so, I am awarding it four stars. In these trying times, we need a good laugh or two.


I have been a longtime fan of the controversial TV show South Park, and I went to see the feature-length movie the first night it came out. Well, Trey Parker has done it again - shocked me to the point that my jaw almost hit the floor (and I do NOT shock easily).

Even those (myself included) who believe that the show has lost its novelty (the new episodes have kinda sucked lately) - are in for a treat with this one.

"South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" has absolutely NO barriers in its comedy - it pokes fun at gays, straights, blacks, whites, Jews, Christians, the handicapped... you name it. It even pokes a LOT of fun at Canadians (which I am), which makes it a hilarious free-for-all that is NOT for children or the easily offended.

Most of the characters are here (except Mr. Hankey - a shame, but I can't really see where Parker could have written him in), and there's a LOT of hilarious musical numbers (including the side-splitting Terrance and Phillip song, "Uncle F--ka"). If you think you can handle it, go see this movie by all means. If you're prudish and easily offended, stay home and rent "The Horse Whisperer".


The movie version of "South Park" had me --- and this is not exaggeration -- laughing so hard I was falling out of my chair. I was laughing so hard it *hurt*.

A) For using satire to make valid points about censorship and individual responsibility, this is the best movie I've ever seen.

B) It's the best movie musical made since MGM left the mass-production business. The multi-national production number of "'Kyle's Mom is a Stupid Bitch' in D Minor" is worth the price of admission.

C) It's a fabulous, fearless boot to the butt of Political Correctness.

Roger Ebert wrote that he felt very guilty about laughing, not knowing if it all "had a point." He apparently was buying popcorn when Kyle flat out stated the point of the movie: that parents need to quit blaming "bad influences" and start *being parents* by talking to their kids.

The gags are non-stop, the songs are terrific and there is an unbelievably touching moment involving Kenny near the end. Ignore the current lameness of the TV show; this is a five-star movie (even on a four-star system).


If you carry all of your sensibilities into the theatre with you will surely have them all crushed. This movie was made to make fun of itself, its viewers, and most others in between. They spare no one- and it's beautiful.

The story would stand alone (in the world of South Park). The cracks, the singing numbers (M'kay), and the eyebrow raising humor just add to the enjoyment of the film.

Since most of the jokes did not have the traditional set-up/punchline format, I embarrassingly found myself being the only one in the theatre laughing through much of the movie.

Best of all, the movie really does present a relatively accurate microcosm of American ignorance and intolerance as well as the -soon to be- trademark humor of *the next generation*. The messages of the irony of American Freedom of Speech is also a focus of the movie (if you could claim it to have focus). Overall, it was a funny, abrasive comedy that will keep you laughing again and again.

This will be the movie I'll show my children when they get old enough to ask, "What was your childhood like daddy?" -If they can handle it (but I think we all know that, by then, they will be desensitized well past the extremes of this movie).


parker and stone push their vision right over the edge and make fart jokes all the way down. i can't even begin to tell you how obscene and vulgar this movie was, because the audience and i were laughing so hard, we'd miss parts. the only people who should really be offended by this are saddam hussein (but not really since he's a... anyways) and winona ryder (since her piece didn't make any sense). i just really want to see the versions that the MPAA jerks didn't give an R...


Ordinarily I try to avoid gratuitous obscenity, but in this movie it is a necessary and integral part of the story.

Between laughing, I must admit to watching in frequent open-mouthed admiration at some of the brilliant ideas.

This cartoon presents several levels of ideas, including, as strange as it might seem to anyone turned off by the language, some rather profound philosophical notions.

Having once resided in North (brrrr) Dakota, I always get a kick out of jokes about Canada (it's not really a country, you know) and Canadians, who seem to love their socialized medicine but come south to the States to buy their groceries and liquor and tobacco so as to avoid the obscenely high taxes that pay for all the "free" "services" from the Canadian government. (And frequently they come for the more readily available medical care.)

In fact, one of my favorite jokes came from a waitress in a restaurant in Grand Forks, N.D.: What is the difference between a Canadian and a canoe? A canoe might tip. (It's a joke very popular in Florida, too.)

All of which might seem to have nothing to do with this movie, but deep down ... it seems to have nothing to do with this movie.

Anyway, I loved "South Park," and try to catch the nightly replays of the TV show.

Not every show is a gem, but often enough there is a spark of brilliance that I must express my admiration and respect for its creators, and especially for this longer, uncut, and uncensored movie.

Not for the squeamish, as the cliché goes, and certainly not for the easily offended, but it is for anyone who can appreciate an inventive story and some really exceptional music.


I don't watch the show, and the movie had me laughing for the majority of the running time! I didn't even expect to like it as much as I did. Even the musical numbers are good.


i had never watched the south park series before seeing the movie. a friend put the movie on and i was blown away. by the time the first musical number started, i was rolling on the floor laughing. i couldn't believe how smart and stupid it was at the same time.

i feel like south park actually explores a lot of social and political issues way more than other serious movies that try to get deep.

some of the movie is really really stupid and that is funny. and some of it really does address bigger issues, including censorship, war and religion.

somehow fart jokes just make it work. don't ask me why.

if you are an independent thinker who likes ridiculous comedy you will love this movie!