Home Video: The Simpsons Movie

I realize that I should tread carefully when derailing a well-reviewed film based on a highly successful television series in its 19th season. I never liked "The Simpsons". I am not sure if I have ever watched an entire episode, but this hour-and-a-half experience is enough to turn me off forever. It has its clever moments, but I feel as if I am getting dumber every moment. It completely abandons any notion of reality to overdo every joke, and that is something I find utterly annoying because it does not pay off. It tries way too hard to poke fun at itself, with speeches about dumb people paying for something in a theatre they could just have seen for free on TV. Had I not rented this via Blockbuster Online (therefore paying nothing for it), I might have heartily agreed with that statement. The plot is evidently and purposefully ludicrous, but I was never able to take it seriously. That is the point, I understand, but to me it is all just mind-numbing garbage. I did laugh a few times, maybe eight or ten times out of a whole hour and a half.

D-

Oscar chances: This effort certainly cannot trump "Ratatouille" for a win at the Oscars, but it is likely one of three major contenders for the other two slots. I think it will lose out to the far superior "Bee Movie" and the as-yet-unseen (by me, at least) foreign film "Persepolis".