I have a bunch of old work that I need to chronical somewhere. I figure here is as good a place as any. This is a sample movie review I did just a few months ago.
After seeing the Simpsons movie something becomes abundantly clear. This is where all of their fresh ideas have been going for the last few years.
It's no secret that the Simpsons has been declining in quality since sometime around season 12, using increasingly tired and predictable jokes. About the time of season 15 the decline started to get steeper, occasionally even going as far as using jokes from previous episodes in the same way the new episodes of family guy fail us time and again. One can hardly blame the creators of the Simpsons though, they are going on 19 seasons- the longest running sitcom in history.
There is no telling why the movie is exempt from this deteriorating standard of The Simpsons. Maybe the creators saw this as an opportunity to reestablish The Simpsons as a leading comedic voice of the modern world. Maybe they really were saving jokes for the movie and the series suffered. Maybe they finally brought John Vitti and George Meyer out of whatever closet they've been keeping them in. Maybe the writers were so ecstatic that they could finally use foul language that they just went nuts. Regardless of the reason, the excellence of the movie is going to lead to increased ratings for season 19.
The Simpsons Movie is very much like a Simpsons episode that lasts an hour and a half. Surprisingly, however, the movie went on far less tangents then the show, which recently doesn't get into the meat of the episode until it's almost over, and stuck to one main idea and the branches of consequence it caused. Thematically and cinematically this is a refreshing change, but at the same time there is something endearing about the modern Simpsons 'Where the hell are they going with this' mentality. Also different from the TV series is the focus on the Simpson family. The movie centers almost solely on the Simpson five and treats the town as one entity rather then giving each character in the town a personal storyline like in the show. This is regrettable, because they had the time to give a little more comedy to these loveable characters that they've spent years developing.
Aside from the length something new that the Simpsons' team had to work with was the more flexible MPAA guidelines. By and large the Simpsons used this to their advantage, finding comedic effectiveness in things that would never be allowed on TV. They also used adult language well, humorously accenting key moments- unlike family guy, who, when in a similar situation decided that it would be entertaining to add in profanity on the proportionate scale of rap music. Of course, The Simpsons actually understands the concept of subtly, something Family Guy is wholly unaware of. The Simpsons Move did go overboard at one point though: during a several minute sequence in which Bart was naked, the audience was greeted with several seconds of Bart's animated wingwang. Not only was the joke that surrounded this exhibition more or less ineffective, the nudity itself was deplorable. Under other circumstances the joke might have been acceptable and even funny, but Bart is 10 years old, making this some sort of comedic pedophilia.
The animation of the movie was very similar to the animation of the last few seasons- only bigger. Not just because it was on a movie theater sized screen, but because the events in the movie where bigger the animation was suitably grander. The production quality was well below the international standard of 2d animation. This, of course, made it miles ahead of most American projects.
The Simpsons Movie is an excellent comedic movie that reminds us why we love the Springfield family of 5 so much. It is not, however, a groundbreaking cinematic achievement. It fulfills the very basic motion picture goal of entertainment, but it isn't very challenging. This is still good news. The Simpsons Movie is a good pick for an entertaining film.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
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