My feelings about this film are best summed up in two phrases from another member of the preview audience: "Cheap and nasty" and "Misguided talent".

I realise that I (we?) am probably going to be in the minority, at least as far as the majority of visitors to this web site goes, but I have to be honest...

On the plus side, the film gets marks for raising a very valid point: the way that censorship systems, particularly the American one, is skewed in favour of violence and against bad language. The film asks, which is actually worse? Or are they both equally bad?

Secondly, the film explores the danger of fanaticism, especially when that fanaticism is granted access to the mass media, and to those in power. In this case, America ends up at war with Canada over a relatively trivial matter, which had been blown out of all proportion by those in power, and their lackeys in the mass media. As such, the film sounds a necessary warning bell, about the next time America seeks to play global policeman (or big bully, depending on your point of view) somewhere in the world.

And lastly, some of the musical numbers are quite good, one even earned an Oscar nomination.

Now to the minuses...

In my review of Dogma, I started by saying that it set out to offend. This film takes that skill and elevates it to a fine art, succeeding in offending just about everyone and everything. It is filled with a great deal of profanity, so much so that I felt like screaming, "enough already". I guess they were trying to make a point, and some people think constant swearing is a laugh riot, but I'm past that phase and it soon got annoying and unnecessary. There were some students in the audience who were laughing uproariously throughout, so I guess tastes in humour differ...

I have never seen South Park on television, so I had to adjust to the characters, and the unusual animation style. I found it to be a mix of "cheap" and some computer generated stuff. In particular, I found the "raise-and-lower-the-top-half-of-the-head-when-people-talk" method of mouth movement to be both silly and annoying, but I guess some people will think it artistic. Just don't expect Disney-style animation :-)

The film also has a (to my mind, totally spurious) sub-plot involving Satan and Sadam Hussein. Good old Sadam (US public enemy #1) has died and ended up in hell, where he became Satan's lover. Satan gets to play the female part. While original for the first few minutes, the device quickly tires and becomes silly, and we are left asking, "what's the point?"

And so, at the end of the day, my impression could be summed up as, "nice idea, badly executed". I realise that most of you will differ with me on this. Be warned though: the film WILL offend you, particularly if you are female or religious.

-- Ian Douglas