My Simpsons Movie Review

Finally saw the movie last night. I won't make this really long, but the movie wasn't everything it could be. Compared to the "golden years" of the Simpsons (which brought us episodes such as the Monorail, Cape Feare, the Stonecutters, Mr. Plow, Hank Scorpio, etc.) the movie was just, well, meh.

If you haven't seen it some of the stuff below might be considered spoilers.

Observations:

• No "stories" from Grandpa -- even though it would have been easy to insert one.
  
• No action in Quik-E-Mart
• As in the series, Homer never really goes to his job at SNPP anymore.
• Very little of the story involved any of the regular Simpsons characters.
  
• I wish the previews had left more of the funny parts as surprises.
• I wish I hadn't read any reviews of the movie, which told me about any funny parts the previews didn't already show.
  
• It was only 87 minutes, but it looked like they didn't even have that much material, that they had to pad it a bit. (The scissor-lift part for instance... it was dumb and distracting.)
• No action in the retirement home
• So much of the movie was not plausible... Yeah, it's a cartoon, but in the "golden years" the show was still realistic for the most part... the characters just never aged.
  
• Using Albert Brooks as the voice for the EPA guy... just made made me think about the Hank Scorpio episode the whole time. That would have been a funnier movie, to just extend that episode*.
  

There's more to be said, but this is what I'll write for now. I think almost everyone who loved the show at some point will see the movie once, but I don't really feel the need to go see it again and again, or even buy the DVD.

* Seriously, I don't remember any quotes from the movie that are eternally repeatable. As opposed to the Hank Scorpio episode which gave us these gems and more: (These are off the top of my head, quotes may not be exactly correct)

"Do you have any sugar?" "Yeah, here you go. Sorry it's not in little packets."

"Oh, yeah, the hammock district."

"... on your way out, if you could kill a few people it would really help me out"

"I tackled a slacker at work today"

"Everyone take out a circle of paper"

"I know they say two glasses of red wine a day is healthy, but I just can't drink that much!"

"When you get home there will be another story on your house"

"Awwww... The Denver Broncos?!"