Amazon.com video review:
OK, let's get all the disclaimers out of the way first. Despite its
colorful (if crude) animation, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
is in no way meant for kids. It is chock full of profanity that might even make
Quentin Tarantino blanch and has blasphemous references to God, Satan, Saddam
Hussein (who's sleeping with Satan, literally), and Canada. It's rife with
scatological humor, suggestive sexual situations, political incorrectness,
and gleeful, rampant vulgarity. And it's probably one of the most brilliant
satires ever made. The plot: flatulent Canadian gross meisters Terrance and
Philip hit the big screen, and the South Park quartet of third graders--Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman--begin repeating their profane one-liners ad
infinitum. The parents of South Park, led by Kyle's overbearing mom, form
"Mothers Against Canada," blaming their neighbors to the north for their
children's corruption and taking Terrance and Philip as war prisoners.
It's up to the kids then to rescue their heroes from execution, not mention
a brooding Satan, who's planning to take over the world.
To give away any more of the plot would destroy the fun, but this
feature-length version of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Comedy Central hit
is a dead-on and hilarious send-up of pop culture. And did we mention it's
a musical? From the opening production number "Mountain Town" to the cheerful antiprofanity sing-along "It's Easy, MMMKay" to Satan's
faux-Disney ballad "Up There," Parker (who wrote or cowrote all the songs)
brilliantly shoots down every earnest musical from Beauty and the
Beast to Les Misérables. And in advocating free speech and
satirizing well-meaning but misguided parental censorship groups (with a
special nod to the MPAA), Bigger, Longer & Uncut hits home against
adult paranoia and hypocrisy with a vengeance. And the jokes, while indeed
vulgar and gross, are hysterical; we can't repeat them here, especially the
lyrics to Terrance and Philip's hit song, but you'll be rolling on the
floor. Don't worry, though--to paraphrase Cartman, this movie won't warp
your fragile little mind. Unless you have something against the First
Amendment. --Mark Englehart
