I should begin by explaining why the "I wish I was watching..." topic exists. As I've mentioned before, I don't really believe that the worth of a movie can be quantified simply, which is why I try to steer clear of more typical "criticism" (it's got nothing to do with the fact that I have no idea how to intelligently criticise a movie, I swear). That being said, I have for a long time held that if, while watching a movie, you ever think to yourself "Man, I wish that I was watching [insert better film]", then the movie has failed on a fundamental level. For example, while watching The Expendables, I thought to myself "Hmm...I've not seen Die Hard in a while, I really want to watch that film again." By my own law, The Expendables (a watchable, if not incredible movie) fails because I could have just watched Die Hard to begin with. I call it the Tibbetts Test. Patent Pending.
It followed then that if I was writing a review of a movie that fails the Tibbetts Test (all rights reserved, copyright 2015), that I should shed a little light on the movie that my brain favoured. Thus the birth of "I wish that I was watching..."
However, anyone who has ever been a party with that guy who is just desperate to tell you about a movie he likes, will know that it is very rarely of interest to hear someone waffle on about "This movie that, oh my god, you totally have to see!"
Weirdly, I've never met that guy at a party...
So that being said, these will be shorter bites of movie appreciation. Lighter on the in-depth analysis, but hopefully not too heavy on the lavishing praise. And our first client is South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut, which I couldn't help but wish I was watching instead of Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny.
Now, you might be thinking that the South Park movie is a different animal entirely from the Tenacious D movie, but they actually have a lot in common.
For example.
Both movies rely on gross out and shock humour throughout. Both movies think that you can hit comedy perfection by finding the exact right number of F-bombs. Both are musicals aimed directly at the kind of audience who would reject even the notion of singing in films (God, what I would give to be able to see the reaction of the first Bro to witness Stan Marsh singing his little heart out). Both films even have the main characters encountering Satan. So why did watching Tenacious D have me pining for South Park? What does the latter do that the former can't?
Firstly, the comedy in the South Park movie is a lot more subtle (wait, wait, hear me out). No, South Park is not exactly known for it's subtlety and the movie is no different - one can hardly commend the song "Shut Your Fucking Face Uncle Fucker" for its use of subtext (oh and, yes, parents, it's another sweary one - sorry). But despite that, there is a lot of humour that does live below the surface of the film. Even on this umpteenth viewing, I was spotting background gags that I'd never seen before - the operating room schedule in the hospital in which Kenny dies lists item one as "Disembowel Kenny" and item five as "Kill Bond", with doctor "No" assigned to it.
Oh...and spoiler? Sort of?
On top of this, while The Pick of Destiny endeavors to say...very little, really, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are sticking to their tendencies of filling their projects to the brim with attacks on everyone in sight - fans and detractors alike. It actually takes the brain a while to settle into the numerous layers of meta criticism being thrown about. The movie makes clear that anyone who so much as giggles at the potty humour or bad language is merely occupying the mind of immature pre-teens. But to not have a sense of humour about the whole thing is to occupy the reactionary minds of the local PTA grown-ups. Defend a cause? You're crazy! Shirk responsibility? You're a coward! And just as you, the viewer, are about to jump to your feet and scream exasperatedly at your TV "Do you want me to support your show or not!?", the movie says "Hehehe...Satan is gay with Saddam Hussein...LOL!". So you sit back down, suspicious, confused, and pretty confident that, somehow, the joke is on you. But who cares? Because the joke is really goddamn funny!
...What do you mean you don't do that?
Moving on...the music is also phenomenal. Like the Tenacious D movie, one could easily listen to, and enjoy, the South Park soundtrack in isolation, but unlike the other movie, South Park's songs are all there to back up the story. There is no greater proof of this than with the Les Miserables pastiche towards the movie's climax which mashes up most of the score into one medley, bringing the main opposing forces in the story together into one song which, for an immature animated comedy about four boys learning to curse, is simply astonishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LonKGuS9uuQ
Finally, when the South Park movie tries for pathos, it nails it. Satan suffering in an abusive relationship (and his touching song about how he wishes he didn't have to be evil all the time); Stan's lovesickness; Kenny giving up his life to save his friends. It all has a genuine effect which one simply doesn't expect from a South Park franchise - it is a true curveball.
Before the rise of Superhero movies, this and Elephant Man were the most shocking unmaskings in cinema history.
In the end, I don't know that I've managed to avoid giving South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut a severe tongue-bathing. However, I've hopefully evidenced that there is a genre of what I've now decided to call Brosicals (think Sweeney Todd, Avenue Q, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker's own The Book of Mormon) and in this genre, there are better and worse examples. South Park is one of the better examples - and we must truly respect its authoritah!
That's a wrap.
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