Just got back from the second earliest screening in my city (the first was ridiculously early) and wow. This is absolutely everything Simpsons fans could ever want from their first big screen adventure. Great jokes, fun animation, a really strong emotional core and plenty of subtle, little nods to complete Simpsons nerds who study the show religiously, like me!

The story, I'm sure you know by now, is basically Homer contaminates the entire city, which is then encased in a big glass dome. Homer and the rest of the Simpsons are then hunted down by the townspeople, and forced to run. They find themselves in the middle of Alaska, which is privy to one of the funniest scenes that has anything to do with the Simpsons (I won't give it away, but it involves Bart, Homer and a lot of snow). There are lots of fun cameos to watch out for, including Albert Brooks, Joe Mentegna and Tom Hanks. It's just got everything we would ever want.

There were a few jokes that fell flat, but I can't think of a single comedy that doesn't have a few clunkers. For Simpsons fans, it's a must. For those who don't really watch it, then it's just a good movie. You don't have to have seen a single episode of the show to understand what the filmmakers were going for. My advice to everyone on the planet: see this movie. Right now.

Best. Movie. Ever. Five stars, ten outta ten, two thumbs up, whatever the rating system is, The Simpsons Movie gets full points in my book.


Matt.

Due to Homer's boundless stupidity Springfield becomes the most polluted city in the USA and it's up to the big fella to redeem himself by making things right.

The most disappointing thing about the movie was that it wasn’t different enough from the television show to warrant bringing it to the big screen. It was basically just an extended movie length episode.  

On a positive note, I guess the temptation, for all involved, would have been to work in as many of the show's characters as possible, but thankfully they didn't do that and there weren't any unnecessary appearances from anybody. This pretty much had everything you come to expect from the Simpsons; a few laughs, a bit of social commentary and an interesting character driven story.

With the Simpsons being such a popular show, the pressure would have been on for all involved to do the show justice and to live up to the massive weight of expectation riding on the movie. Considering all that they did a pretty good job.  

I guess it just comes to down whether you’re prepared to pay the price of a movie ticket for something that’s not that different to the show. I felt I got my money’s worth.

-------=================SPOILER ALERT=================------

The angry mob, the destruction of the house, the motorcycle ride to the top of the dome.  Those three visuals -- and a few others, like the angle of Lisa walking to the three houses when she's talking about the lake -- are visuals that are made specifically for the theatrical experience.  The rest of the movie is arguably in the visual quality of an average episode.  Average episodes do also sometimes do elaborate visuals that would be great visuals theatrically also.  Roeper and the other guy gave it two thumbs up, and it deserved that score.  

Every episode of The Simpsons is gold.  I love how the series has evolved over the years, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next episodes, and the next movies.

Just got back from the cinema. I thought the movie was good but nothing out of the ordinary. It felt like an extended version of a normal episode (which is fine in itself), it had a couple of great scenes but most of it had already been revealed in the trailers.

Not a waste of time but not as good as I hoped for.

What a depressing movie.  I’m so glad I didn’t pay to see it in theaters.

Remember that episode where the family’s watching intellectual stand-up comedy and Homer bangs his fist against the screen yelling ”Stupid TV! Be more funny!”. it was like that, only the humor wasn’t intellectual, so much as it was tired and predictable.

I mean Schwarzenegger jokes? The accent isn’t funny by itself anymore and it’s been done to death. Here’s a classic McBain moment that’s actually funny.

Quoted Text Kent Brockman: I'm here with Rainier Wolfcastle, star of the McBain movies, telling me about his new film, Help, My Son Is A Nerd. Rainier Wolfcastle: My teenage son returns from a fancy East Coast college, and I'm horrified to discover he's a nerd. Kent Brockman: I'm laughing already. Rainier Wolfcastle: It's not a comedy.

And what’s with all the ”Homer injures himself” humor? You see it a mile away. Homer with the hammer was terrible. It’s like that’s all the show knows how to do anymore. Make Homer hurt himself. That’s lazy comedy.

A lot of the humor in it felt so forced, like the super-glue to the crotch gag. That’s not even funny.

And don’t get me started on the ”rock and a hard place” joke…my god that was embarrassing.

I wrote this about the trailer when it came out, in an open letter to Matt Groening (in a momentary lapse of humility), but I think it still applies for the film:

(Pardon the essay format)

I couldn’t even muster a snicker from the oh-so imaginative antics of Homer being smashed, repeatedly, into a wall by a wrecking ball. Yes, an actual wrecking ball. I could not laugh, not even gesture a smile, if for nothing else then the sake of courtesy. Something was definitely wrong, and then it hit me what had happened. The Simpsons had sneezed its soul out!

You see, when you sneeze, it’s your soul that tries to escape your body, and saying ‘God bless you’ crams it back in there. The Simpsons had 'sneezed', circa 2000, and hadn’t bothered with so much as a ‘gesuntheit’. And thus, the show had become a soulless, re-animated sit-com scouring the airwaves without purpose; without remorse. Without “Funny”. The once brilliant social satire had mutated into the realm of bland situational comedy, finding humor, not in its characters, but the extravagance of impossible plotlines, celebrity voices and embarrassing slap-stick.

The kind of comedy that defined the Homer of yore was his inability to understand social etiquette, unflinching devotion to the television media and downright moronic rationale. There’s a scene from the episode “The Front” where Homer is taking a test in High -School Remedial Science and principal Dondelinger informs the class that he’s back to teaching to cope with the recent loss of his wife.

Homer: Will this be on the test?
Dondelinger: No!
Homer: Awww... (erases "DEAD WIFE" from his notes)

This is a great example of Homer’s social ineptitude -- funny because the world in which he functions keeps his sense of reality in check and exposes the foolishness of his remark. It’s not the whole world that’s zany, it’s just Homer that’s dumb.

Today, the show isn’t parodying others so much as it’s parodying itself. A crude pastiche of the actual characters, rendering them nothing but bodies to pratfall and quip lines such as “Don’t go there!” and “get a room”. It’s a no-holds-bars bonanza where the plot has been augmented to fantastic proportions, venturing on incredible adventures each day, and suspending the bounds of reality to the point where the contours of The Simpsons and the fictitious show-inside-a-show Itchy and Scratchy begin to blend. It’s overblown, over-driven and, hopefully, over soon.

So, with the risk of sounding like a fanatic purist, I’d like to ask Matt Groening to put The Simpsons out of its misery as soon as possible. That, or be frank about the franchise and insert a laugh-track so we at least do away with the pretensions.

P.S. I’m not a crackpot!

My two cents. I laughed probably 5 times throughout the movie and they were rather small laughs. An episode from season 4 or 5 gets me 10 big ones.

I really just hate what the show has become and what the movie turned out to be. But it looks like most people love it. I’ll just end here with an overwrought scoff at everyone who liked the film, like the self-styled know-it-all I am.

Cheers.

P.S.

I did enjoy some of the references and nods to old episodes, espeically when they jump the gorge and the crashed ambulance is still there.