'The Simpsons Movie': Homer goes Hollywood
MOVIE REVIEW
by KEN BARTOLOTTA Reporter

If you're a fan like I am, if you spend a good portion of your time quoting the most random of references and doing Mr. Burns impressions you worry about these sort of things.

I'm of course referring to "The Simpsons Movie," put quite simply, the most anticipated movie of the summer and a film that has been more than 18 years in the making.

As fan boys everywhere packed crowded theater houses across the country, we sat with fingers crossed in hopes that the creators of this show wouldn't disappoint.

By all measures, "The Simpons" will someday come to define 20th century entertainment and be viewed upon as a high point in our ever-dwindling aversion to what entertains us.

Sneer at that if you will, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather be represented by Bart and Homer than Jeff Foxworthy's latest turn as host of a show that's actually titled "Are You Smarter than a 5th Gr ader."

But "The Simpsons" has had its detractors over the years and the movie doesn't do anything spectacular to change that.

It's nothing new, it's an hour-and-a-half long "The Simpsons" episode, chockfull of the sort of off-the-cuff humor that has come to mark the show's near two-decade-long run.

Quite simply, Homer fails to listen to Marge's advice and nearly dooms his town, loses his family and acts like a complete and utter moron along the way.

It's a plot that has become a bit tiresome over the years but it's always worked, and if Matt Groening and company continue to have a will then it's going to continue to work time and time again.

Sure, as a super fan of this series I had a number of complaints with the film: Hate-filled bartender Moe wasn't in it enough, nor was troubled entertainer Krusty the Clown or billionaire C. Montgomery Burns, but I'm not here to nitpick, it really is a funny movie.

In short, even the worst episodes of "The Simpsons" are better than most of the mind-numbing drivel that television execs have been shoveling out as of late, and the movie is funnier than most of the stuff Hollywood has been producing.

And that's what we want, we don't want Homer to save the world, we don't want the show to go beyond its reach or attempt to be an epic film of mythological proportions, we just want a tale about a dim-witted bald man and his newfound love for a pig.