"South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" on DVD

Crude, Rude and Lewd, Dude

If you're looking for a DVD that goes out of its way to offend - in the name of freedom of expression - the "South Park" movie may be your best choice.

Based on the TV show of the same name, "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut," is a musical comedy that tackles all sorts of taboos and assaults good taste. Of course, this is exactly what one would expect from a South Park movie, so on that scale it succeeds very well.

South Park sees the famous four (Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan) sneak into a Canadian-made "R-rated" movie at which they learn (or, perhaps "relearn") all sorts of cuss words they can use to amaze and delight their little friends - and freak out their parents.

Said parents revolt, which eventually leads to the US declaring cultural and literal war on Canada, from whence the offending material was inflicted.

Meanwhile, to no one's surprise, Kenny is killed. He goes to Hell, where he meets Satan himself and his homosexual lover Saddam Hussein - and thereby kicks off another subplot.

By movie's end you'll witness all sorts of mayhem, violence, some sexual material, and enough cuss words to turn the air blue. In short, it's South Park.

There's also a dose of social commentary hung onto the plot, most of which is aimed at defending free speech. Unfortunately, this seems to be more in the way of defending the right to have a pottymouth than it is a well thought out pro-free speech argument based on ideas or ideals. And as such, the social commentary fails as anything more than a convenient rationalization for cussin'.

But this is South Park, after all, and not that there's necessarily anything wrong with a well-placed cuss...

The songs are clever, if rude, and there are a certain amount of laughs for non-South Park viewers, but the movie will undoubtedly be much better received by fans of the TV series.

Animation quality is mostly awful, but true to the source material - though there's the odd bit of slick effects animation thrown in.

The widescreen DVD (enhanced for 16x9 TV's) is in Dolby 5.1 surround and audio/video quality are up to the standards one expecs from a DVD. Extras are limited to trailers and chapter stops.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, from Paramount Home Video
81 minutes, Widescreen (1.85:1), Dolby Digital
Produced by Trey Parker & Matt Stone, Screenplay by Trey Parker & Matt Stone and Pam Brady
Directed by Trey Parker

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