South Park, le film : Plus long, plus grand et pas coupé

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.

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.

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++

When "South Park" first appeared on the scene, I dismissed it without ever really watching it. I wasn't too interested in watching little kids yell and curse at each other. When "Baseketball" opened last July, it was there and then that I began to understand the humor and musical styling of "Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Last year also saw the release of the duo's "Orgazmo" and "Cannibal : The Musical", both made prior to the "South Park" phenomena. I became a fan. With "South Park : Bigger, Longer, and Uncut", the television show makes the giant leap to the big screen with a completely over the top feature that will probably end up as the one summer film that gives the audience the most pop for it's coin. To synopsize the film would be too painful (and boring). It's so packed with plot and characters that a one sentence generalization would do the film no justice. I'll put it this way : If you don't know, get, or find "South Park" funny, DON'T GO SEE THE FILM. There might be droves of walkouts as soon as the opening sequence ends by people who thought that a cartoon could never be "that bad". The R rating and the "Uncut" of the title are there for a reason. Heed the signs. Paced like a bat out of hell, "South Park" is the funniest film to come around in some time. While most of the jokes might seem stale to real "Park" devotees, Director Parker knows exactly how to keep the film flowing, and in the process, show us new sides and characters that used to be unattainable on Comedy Central. The movie is vulgar and offensive, that's the idea. But Parker and Stone never once get meanspirited about things, always making sure everybody get a slice of the laughingstock pie. The dreaded "bleeping" of the curse words is finally gone, leaving Parker and Stone their first chance to show the world just how far they can take this concept. After hostilities with the ratings board over the NC-17 given to "Orgazmo"(which was harmless fun), this new film( which is far more raunchy than "Orgazmo") can be easily viewed as one big middle finger to the ratings board. It's the first film I have ever seen that purposely goes unbelievably far just to see what they can actually get away with. It's very interesting to compare this film, which made it out with a R rating, to others that were slapped with the NC-17. I believe that this is what Parker and Stone had in mind. Watching the antics of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny on the silver screen does have it's advantages. The film is decidedly cinematic, often jumping to show-stopping musical numbers that I love Parker for. Working with Marc Shaiman, Parker brings us a whole new load of songs that are equal parts silly, and yet retain some musical respect. A just world would find evil Canadians Terrence and Phillip's "Uncle Fu**a" at the number one spot on the charts. Like "Cannibal", the songs stay in the head. They move beyond their comic foundation and feel like real songs, Parker has a musical gift and this "South Park" feature really showcases it. But don't fret fans, the film is jammed packed with comedy that represents what "South Park" is all about. Canadians, African-Americans, Jews, Catholics, the poor, the wealthy, gay, straight, bi, men with voiceboxes, men with puppets on their hands... Everyone is made fun of here. And every moment of this 80 minute film is comedic gold. Like the "Beavis And Butthead" film, this movie comes out just as people are beginning to write off the TV series. And similar to "Butthead", this film has made a true fan out of me. No other flick this year will have the stamina, the audacity, and the sheer momentum to please like this little "South Park" film. I give Parker and Stone endless credit for crafting a film that nobody will expect, and that every fan will relish.--------- 9