Indie-Mation Club Week 22: ‘South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut’ Review

In the small quiet mountain town of South Park, Colorado, four kids – Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny – sneak into the new Terrence and Philip movie in theaters and discover a whole new vocabulary of swear words. Naturally, they like saying these words, but it gets the attention of the parents who blame the country of Canada for making the movie in the first place. And after an accident where Kenny dies (again), all the adults, led by Kyle’s mother Sheila, declare war on Canada and plan to execute Terrence and Philip. So it’s up to the boys to stop them and save Terrence and Philip before they die and before Satan, Saddam Hussein and their hellish army invade Earth (because it’s South Park, so why not).

Oh, did I mention it’s also a musical?

Given the title Bigger, Longer & Uncut, you can imagine that they were able to get away with a bit fouler language than they ever could on TV, and they take full advantage of the R rating. In fact, this almost got an NC-17 rating but only got the R rating after taking out a few swear words. Yeah, the violence, stereotypes and sex jokes were fine but LANGUAGE, that’s too much. It is so unapologetic in its crudeness and it really does work in the movie’s favor. Like with the show, there is a lot more going for it than just swearing and poop jokes. There actually is some good commentary about freedom of speech, censorship, and parents’ obsession with the bad language their children are exposed to and the rather extreme lengths they may go through.

And above all the social commentary, the movie is still insanely funny. If you are a fan of South Park’s style of humor then this does not disappoint. Celebrity parodies, fart jokes and swearing galore, it’s everything we could ever want out of a big screen version of a show featuring cows forming a cult around a clock or killer goldfish from a parallel universe. And if you are a die-hard fan of the show, there may be a few easter eggs you spot. Just to give an example, apart from a season 1 callback song from Cartman, there’s a point where you can see Scuzzlebutt in the background (He Lives).

As I mentioned before this is also a musical, and that’s another major highlight of this film. The songs are all quite well-made and pretty memorable. They have a Broadway-esque feel to them and they are equally as hilarious as they are catchy. Where else can you hear a Disney style ‘I Want’ song sung by Satan? I think for me the best songs are Mountain Town, Blame Canada, La Resistance, the aforementioned ‘I Want’ song Up There, and a certain song from Terrence and Philip I’m choosing not to name.

Not only would I call South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut one of the best movies based on a TV series, but I’d even go as far as to call it one of the best musicals period. The commentary is on point, the humor is funny and unapologetically crude, and the songs are some of the best musical pieces ever. If you’re a fan of the series then this is a definite must watch. If you’re not, that’s a little harder to predict. If you’re easily offended or if you get turned off by excessive swearing then maybe this isn’t for you, but if you can get past all that and are just in the mood for a raunchy musical comedy then I’d say come on down to South Park and have yourself a time.

Edited by: Kajsa Rain Forden