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[netflix] [IMDb] [simpsonsmovie.com]

Homer pollutes the local lake and causes Springfield to be quarantined under a huge glass dome while the family escapes to Alaska. Ostensible hilarity ensues.

I wanted to like this movie. I really did. Really.

But I didn’t. At least not very much.  It felt really contrived and forced. Homer is normally endearing in a stupid, oafish sort of way. Here, you just want to smack him. And Flanders was downright creepy. And how on earth could they have made Albert Brooks boring?!?!? There were some laughs, but few and even those felt forced.

I was so puzzled, I listened to some of the commentary, which I think reveals why it felt so contrived. It actually was contrived. Every single joke was audience test marketed. Hundreds (they claimed) of revisions and script alterations (all, apparently, at the last minute) even changed the whole thrust of the film. Cartoons can make it to film just fine; look at South Park. But this was really not very good at all. Sort of an extended tv episode during their worst season.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.