..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
The Simpsons Movie
Directed by
David Silverman
It is not all that unusual for this writer to lead with some business information at the top of a review. I also agree with the many who feel uncomfortable with the new tendency of straight criticism to lead with opinions about things other than the movie. It’s not that I consider myself above the law, but that I see myself as an oddity in the system. Today, the circumstances of this review are actually a bit more significant than the review.
The Simpsons Movie has been at the center of a whirlwind for the last couple of weeks. Between the first unwanted info break, by Newsweek, and today there have been complaints about screening treatment and embargo treatment, there has been a false story (still uncorrected or amended) in the Los Angeles Times claiming an internet boycott of the studio, and a threatening letter by the Chicago Film Critics Association that was tied to selective screenings of some of the films Fox really was hiding… all mashed into a long, angry battle that led to something good… Fox, from top to bottom, decided to take it all seriously and to seek an actual working solution. (The CFCA is currently in the process of setting an agreement with the studio, the details being distributed amongst the membership today. I hope the LAT will cover the story of how things worked out as intensely as the non-existant internet boycott.)
Ironically, it was Fox, with The Day After Tomorrow, that started the trend of not screening films for critics before release (though there were a few selective screenings a few days before release with firm day of release embargoes). This led to Sony experimenting with not screening, first their Screen Gems product and then bigger films. To the irritation of critics – already irritated by Traditional Media’s decisions that are making us, particularly white male critics over 40, an endangered species - The Day After Tomorrow was a first weekend smash and almost every piece of Sony product that didn’t screen opened to over $20 million.
But the same open thinking that led Fox to shut out the critics on Emmerich’s master-piece-of-shite is now leading the studio to consider the big picture. The Simpsons Movie has been a bumpy ride in every media turn. There was a Tuesday morning screening for the trades, a lot of print, and others here in L.A. There were screenings in New York last week for select media that were doing interviews. And of course, there was the premiere last night here in L.A. Fox is doing two screenings on Thursday to try to get everyone else in as early as possible. Still, not everyone ended up serviced the way they would like on this. But the discussion continues.
And after yesterday morning’s screening, Variety.com was up with a review in less than two hours. I, for one, was perfectly happy to wait until Friday to review the film. But when I saw that, I asked the studio, “Why is Variety.com, not acting as a print outlet, but online and free to the world, being given an advantage over the entire web?”
The answer came this morning… there is no reason. My embargo was lifted and others, I was told, were being contacted to lift their embargoes. Obviously, this doesn’t open anything for people who haven’t seen the film. But it is an issue of principle, not detail.
My personal take would be that if the trades want to print reviews in advance, that’s fine with me and not an issue given the insider nature of the print magazines… but if they are online, they are no different than anyone else. Moreover, if they feel they are so deserving, they should be happy for everyone to write when they like, as they are so much better than everyone else, no one would bother with us pesky web types in future.
On top of making a step towards a real balance in how media is treated – which is always a double-edged sword – Fox knows how I feel about the film… which is to say, this is not a “you liked it, so write” situation.
And now…
I wish I could say that The Simpsons Movie was, at least, a great extended episode of the series. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is even quite that.
Watching the film, I found I had plenty of time in one lobe of my brain to consider form as well as function. That’s not a good sign. The magic of the television series is that some very funny people go into a room and cram about 70 jokes into a 22 minute episode with a very simple story. Like almost every sitcom, the star of the show is the spiritual center of the show, but not the center of the comedy. The Mary Tyler Moore Show would not be the same with out MTM… but the comedy came from Ted, Lou, Murray, Rhoda, Phyllis, the Happy Homemaker, etc, etc, etc. A lot of the time on The Simpsons, Marge is “the reactor.” Homer and Bart tend to drive stories. But at least half the gags in an episode usually come from characters other than The Simpson 5.
The first big problem with The Simpsons Movie is that we have way too much of the Simpsons and almost nothing of the supporting comic performers. In fact, the most significant non-Simpson in this film is a brand new character. And though I love Albert Brooks and he does a great job as Russ Cargill, narrowing the entire supporting crew down to two or three jokes each in a film this long is not only irritating, it’s a narrative problem.
It’s almost as though the filmmakers looked at other cartoons that moved to the big screen and refused to make similar choices. For instance, Beavis & Butthead Do America offered an idea that really could have worked… a family roadtrip. The South Park crew made a musical… nope!
The movie suffers most of all from what a lot of this summer’s movies have suffered… self-seriousness. Do any of you really need a movie in which Bart seriously considers how he has been raised by Homer and Marge? Is sealing off Springfield and/or destroying it really a funny idea? Do we really want to get into the depth of disappointment that Marge has for Homer?
This ain’t Spider-Man 3!
An Ahnuld as president joke in a Simpsons movie is a little funny on its face. But don’t Simpsons fans want to see Homer face off with The Presidentinator? Shouldn’t Krusty and Mr. Burns be a central part of whatever evil is coming to Springfield? Don’t we want an adventure for Moe and Wiggum, and Kent Brockman, and Nelson, etc, etc, etc.
Don’t get me wrong… there are plenty of laughs in the film. But there was not one laugh-out-loud choke-on-your-gum laugh in the film and I could probably count the simple lols on my two hands. (One very serious critic sitting next to me laughed harder than me or anyone else in the room. Critics!)
I don’t dislike this film. But I have seen half-hour episodes that made me laugh more than this quadruple-dip. And the very best stuff in the film is in the margins, little throwaways that don’t have a lot to do with the central story of the Simpsons themselves.
On the business side, the film is still quite the controversial title amongst people who read tracking. Some think $50 million is possible… others think under $20 million. Crazy. I feel strongly both ways, basically coming down somewhere in the middle. The marketing has been brilliant and relentless, especially if you are trying to watch a Fox show from behind the blanket promotion on the network. But then again, NBC/Universal blanketed every outlet they had for weeks on Evan Almighty and didn’t get close to what they aspired to getting.
Me? Mostly I would have liked a better movie. My happiest memories of it may well be that it is a landmark of a studio stepping up and taking a hard, comprehensive look at how it interacts with the entire media and not just the top of the food chain. I can’t begin to assure that it will all come out right. It is a work in progress. But I am convinced that there is some good intent, in no small part because it would make everyone’s job easier. And as a wise person recently said to me, we are all “just lots of people muddling their way through.”
