The Simpsons Movie rakes in $71.9 million

The political overtones were a bit too much. The whole lefty, greenie, save the planet thing seemed over the top. It fit with Lisa, but, come on. Suck up to Gore a little more, would you? Oh, the Itchy/Hilary presidential bit was unneeded.

Still a fun movie.

I gave the movie a 6 out of 10. If you didn't see all the trailers you had more laughs then I (because I saw them) - what was left was the beating of the bullies, the Mickey Mouse bit and the "gay gay gay" bit.

I had a lackluster experience. I expected more of seasons 1 to maybe 12 which I regard es good. The movie was as much so-so as the last 6 seasons were.

There were too many cop-outs. Using Wolfcastle prevented any Bush jokes. For pollution they used a lake in the middle of nowhere (as it seemed) because Springfield is in the middle of states on all 4 ends of the US - instead of taking on Hurricanes and global warming. Then they use Lisa on the scissor-lift instead of Al Gore who'd be a *hint* _massive_ *hint* reason for the lift to fail. The glass dome was ridiculous in so many way because apparently nobody would miss Springfield anyway (Tom Hanks said so).

I already said it somewhere else that the episode with the Smashing Pumpkins of the TV Show had a better plot than the movie. Homer catching cannonballs - that was something.

Polluted Alaska? Where? Everything we saw of Alaska were oil-pumps that looked as if they'd been polished recently instead of actually spilling oil onto the snowwhite permafrost ground - which is what they actually do in real life, you know.

They showed the finger, genitals - but they did not show feces. I mean they didn't even show the pig poop once - why was that? Strange. And home running the car through a concrete barrier - year sure.

And the lack of pop-culture references only the real fans would get... man. Spiderman... Harry Potter...

I thought since they assembled all the writers from the earlier seasons we would get more than the (admittedly good) Mickey-Mouse joke. That one seemed to be the only witty one...

Most of the time I laughed, thought about the joke, and was kind of ashamed that I laughed because the premise of the joke was so god damn dumb. Not witty, which I liked so much about the Simpsons. Nothing close to a "don't ride the bomb" joke, and nothing that spurs Schadenfreude either, you know, guilty laughs because a joke was so darn dirty and offensive you had to laugh. Like the ones they did on the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner.

I didn't get why Bart went to Flanders - since he had done that before and honestly Homer didn't betray Bart as much as he did before.

But in the end I have to agree - the movie is kind of good. But it's not in any way close to the way the show had me laughing tears in the past.

The movie cost 70 million to make (how much were the voice people getting?!?!) so how much did they spend on marketing? I saw an ad every 2 seconds on TV. That's got to be like 30 million right there if not more.

I'm not a huge Simpson fan, but still can't help getting caught up in the hoopla. Haven't seen the movie yet, but love the simpsonizeme website.

Here are a few more fun Simpson activities to do.

http://redlightnaps.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/simpson-character/

I agree with you thoughts Joel about the movie, but I thought the movie was good. For me, it wasn't great nor horrible. I enjoyed what I saw and would see it again, mostly because of the subtle humor used throughout.

It seemed like the 350 or so in our theatre enjoyed it a lot... that's the most I've ever heard an audience laugh at a movie, both in volume and quantity. And Marge's tape (I'll stay vague so as not to spoil hopefully) was surprisingly hard-hitting, even though you knew in the end all would be well. I agree with one of the quotes I saw in the paper this morning though, for the longest-running sitcom in TV history to be able to pull in $72M it's opening weekend still shows how much support the Simpsons has.

The naked Bart was the best bit! One of only a few actual laugh-out-loud gags for me.

The TV show really hasn't been funny in at least 10 years. I am a big fan of the first 7-8 seasons, and I do wish it had been canceled years ago (I try an episode or two every season, and spend most of it wincing at how dreadfully unfunny it is). HOWEVER, I saw the movie this weekend and really enjoyed it! It's a worthy successor to, say, Season 8. It was actually funny, and suitably up-sized to the movie screen. It didn't rely on celebrity voice cameos. And although I would've like to have seen more of Mr. Burns, Smithers, Krusty, and Patty & Selma, I appreciate that they focused on the core family instead of bringing in lots of new characters. It made me want to watch "The Simpsons" on TV! I may have to stick to the DVDs to avoid crushing disappointment.

So if you think "The Simpsons" on TV is funny, go see the movie. If you think the current show is awful, but liked it before, GO SEE THE MOVIE. I don't think anyone who appreciates "The Simpsons" will be disappointed.

Homer, you DO realize that the movie WAS rated PG-13, right??

I thought that the movie was great, it had an over-the-top story like the recent years of the show but with the exceptional jokes of the old years.

Last I checked it WAS rated PG-13, so the poor kids shouldn't have to get over seeing an animated bong.