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DJK-5
Reviews
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
America declares war on Canada for exporting bad language
I've seen this movie twice and still haven't caught every joke. "Bigger, Longer and Uncut" moves at quite a clip. What's written on the Mole's watch, for example? This is one of the funniest satires to come down the pike in a very very long time. The MPAA is slammed repeatedly. Knee jerk parental conservatism is slapped down again and again. I was a little disturbed, however, by the behavior of one audience I saw the movie with. During the scenes in hell there was what I perceived as an inappropriate reaction to Satan & Saddam's love life. Now, it's pretty clear that Parker & Stone are indeed attempting to rub our noses in some of the more 'colorful' aspects of man to fallen angel love.... but are they (Parker & Stone) aware of bull necked straight boy reaction to this in-your-face depiction? The reaction was one of derisive laughter and execrating gagging.
So - one gets back to the argument that sometimes satire - if it is too subtle is lost on all but the most discerning audience - and though the satirical bar may have been raised - some folks have no problem simply walking under said bar.
Woman Obsessed (1959)
Hayward becomes bride to broody Boyd
This neighbors to the North melodrama was released by 20th Century Fox after Hayward's Oscar win for "I Want To Live!" It isn't a terrible film, but it isn't terribly good either. Hayward's Mary Sharron is widowed early in the story when her husband is killed by a falling flaming tree during a forest fire. Hayward grieves. Tries to run the farm herself. Is forced to hire moody Fred Carter (Steven Boyd). Hayward watches him chop wood in a tight white tee shirt and eventually marries him. Her son Robbie (Dennis Holmes) - a dreamy kid who hangs out by a quicksand pit and enjoys watching stock footage fauna frolic in the woods, has some difficulties with Carter - especially when Carter kills a deer and forces Robbie to watch the gutting. Carter gets tougher and touchier and more and more moody - he's a ball of psychological sturm und drang roiling with anger centered on his mamby pamby brother.... Carter's Canadian accent grows thicker as the plot careens toward rain and resolution. Carter rapes Mary - she becomes pregnant - Carter moves out to the barn - and threatens to leave altogether. Rain arrives, signaling: (as it always does) change. Carter carries Mary miles in the torrential downpour to town so that she can deliver her baby safely. She eventually learns of this selfless endeavor and her heart softens again. But, Carter is redeemed only after Robbie pulls him from the foreshadowed quicksand sinkhole. Unfortunately Hayward doesn't get much of a chance to crackle but fun performances and a decent amount of melodrama make this a fair one to catch.