The Simpsons Movie stars Homer (voiced by Dan Castelleneta), Maggie, Bart (who is actually voiced by a woman named Nancy Cartwright), Marge (voiced by Julie Kavner), Lisa and pretty much every character you have ever seen on “The Simpsons” T.V. show.  I will say that my two favorite characters of the series are Itchy and Scratchy.  I just loved seeing how they would murder each other every show.  They are actually in the opening scene of the film, which was hilarious. 

The Plot: The plot line deals with Springfield and its horrible pollution.  Apparently, Springfield has become the most polluted city on the planet.  The people keep dumping their trash into Lake Springfield and it is killing their environment.  Shocker, Lisa starts a petition to help clean up the Lake, which is success until “someone” (I put this in quotation marks so it is not ruined) dumps a very toxic substance into it and forces the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) to close off Springfield.  Now, they do not just close it off, they put a huge glass dome over top of it.  Without giving too much, The Simpsons eventually have to save Springfield and deal with their own family issues at the same time.  The reason I am being so vague in this plot description is because I do want to spoil ANYTHING for anyone.  This is the most basic outline I could give. 

The Review: Overall, the film had a ton of funny jokes, but after a while it became really old and redundant.  The one joke that Matt Groening (writer and creator of the series) kept poking at was political humor.  I have nothing against political humor and I think it is hilarious (Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko), but the jokes in The Simpsons Movie became really tired after the first forty-five minutes or so.  It just seemed like the same anti-American government joke one after the other. 

Another point that I wanted to bring up was the length of the film.  I have no problem watching three different “Simpsons” episodes back to back, but having the same story for about an hour and a half just became really old after a while.  

Was the film funny?  It has its great moments.  One of my favorite scenes in the movie, which was actually in the trailers (which is where most of the funny jokes were put), was when Homer is literally stuck between a rock and a hotel called “A Hard Place.”  That might be one of the cleverest things I have ever seen.  There were a lot of moments like that in the film, which is great, but as an overall movie, I was not that impressed.  Maybe “The Simpsons” just was not meant to be seen in the theatres.  

The Verdict: One of the jokes the film makes in the beginning is how stupid people would be to see this movie in theatres, because you can see it at home for free.  Well, that right there explains my rating for the movie.  I give it 2.5 BDK’s because I feel that it should be seen either as a rental or on cable T.V.