Anyone else seen it? I didn’t think it was anything spectacular, just a long episode with a few good moments.

I always thought this whole film would be forced. Simpsons has been the longest running sitcom, and this movie should have been made years ago. I seldom ever watch the Simpsons anymore on TV because it all started to blur. Even though Family Guy can rip off some of the Simpsons’ ideas for episodes, Family Guy just happens to make me laugh because it can put a totally different spin on it somehow. I just don’t find the Simpsons humorous anymore. I keep waiting to hear of a “FINAL EPISODE” episode but it never comes. People still watch it I guess, either because it still pumps out fresh material on current events and pop culture or maybe it’s just become so embedded into FOX that they can’t detach it fearing the whole network would implode under the weight of Bill O’Reilly and Amercian Idol.

But what disturbs me is that this film is getting surprisingly good ratings. I’d find it hard just to sit and watch nothing more than a 2 hour made-for-TV episode. The stupid critics couldn’t give a bit of slack for Michael Bay and Transformers which I still think is awesome, yet they seem to enjoy an extra extended episode of the Simpsons which by all predictions prior to its release were saying it just has to suck. In a normal 20-25 min TV episode there are quick jabs and fast paced changes in the plot, just enough to make some sense with little downtime for the audience to get bored. I just fail to see how they’d keep it up this way for roughly 2 hours without commercial breaks. For the type of show that the Simpsons is, it couldn’t seem to work for motion picture status. But then again, if a show like Aqua Teen Hunger Force can try to make a movie, why not the Simpsons? It surely has to be better than that.

I liked Simpsons. All through most of the last season and a bit i was thinking, ‘man this is really not funny, i hope they’re saving their comedic energies for the movie…’ And I was pleased. I went in expecting a long episode anyway, kinda hoping it wasnt going to be like the FG ‘movie’ that was split up into three “episodes’, and thats what it was.

As for the ‘critics not giving a bit of slack to transformers,’ I didnt think it was as good as everyone said it was. I admit I was probably a victim of over-hype, and it was a good movie, but it wasnt super-special-amazing-fucking-awesome like people made it out to be. But thats beside the point, Simpsons was funny, period.

ps - Groening said recently (cant be bothered to find link, look on fark or something), that Simpsons isn’t ending anytime soon.

A lot of the reviews seemed to be based on nostalgia. I think Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ which seemed a little high, as they explained it as in Simpsons lore as “Season 9 funny” about the time I started to lose interest. They also broke down the plot, suggesting pretty much every major plotpoint for the family has been done before, even going as far to point out some have happened 3 or 4 times seeing as there’s like 450 episodes, yet somehow the film attained a pretty good review. Just like Jep and my brother, they also mentioned it starts strong and dies off a bit .

I’m amazed Simpsons has managed to live this long, its a show that’s been on 9-10 seasons too long. These days its become much like Garfield, unfunny but familiar thus comforting to many.

Just saw it today, and I quite liked it. It wasn’t up to the standard of ten years ago, but it was certainly better than recent seasons would suggest.

The stuff with Bart wanting a better father was the only thing that really stroked me the wrong way. It only seemed to make him seem all emo and kept him from troublemaking. Other than that the plot was suitably ambitious, there were no painful musical numbers and the laughs were solid.

Hot Rod was better.  I went in with such lower expectations than I did when I went to see Simpsons at the midnight premiere.  So as I watched Hot Rod I laughed so hard cried.