South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

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.

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.

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.

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++

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.