Most of you have seen the movie, yes? Some, like me, have yet to see it.
There was a big reveiw in the local paper along with 19 reasons why The Simpsons is the best thing that happened to pop culture.
Brace yourself for some spoilers. If you're not intrested in them, simply skip it and just head to the ending. 

"At this stage in American pop culture, the question is not" Why a "Simpsons" movie? But instead: What in the name of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon took so long?

There are laughs and pleasures to be had throughout "The Simpsons Movie"- but they are familiar laughs and familiart pleasures. And while familiarity is a key to success on television, a medium in which people esentially invite their favorite characters into their homes, it is often death in a movie theater, an enviornment in which we seek escape and sensation rather than homey tradition.

After nearly two decades, Portland native Matt Groening's dysfunctional yellow family and their fellow inhabitants of fictional, fractures Springfield are still funny folks, make no mistake. But they can no longer suprise and delight in quite the fashion they did in those halcyon years when bootleg Bart Simpson T-shirts were the rage and class and office clowns sounded subversive when they blurted out "D'oh!" after committing or witnessing an error.
Well, for whatever reason of business or art that delayed it, "The Simpsons Movie" arrives with less anticipation that might have greeted it 15 years ago - which both works for the film and against it. On the one hand, the hype attendant on its debut is less heated (if no less ubiquitous.)  On the other hand, the franchise has acqured a stale air that the film must shake off if it's to rescue the Simpsons' bygone glow of shock and glory.

Given all the complications, it's gratifying that "The Simpsons Movie" is a legitimately entertaining film. It never truly sparkles or shines, but it barely ever plods or frustrates. The filmmakers have taken the effort to work out a full length plot and give virtually every major character a cameo at the very least, while including the sorts of suprising celebrity apperances the series is known for (Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, and the members of Green Day do the duites). But at the same time, the film feels like a long and not particularly distinguished episode of a series the best half-hours of which can still make you pass a beverage- if not a snack- through your nose.

The film opens with a flattish prologue that finds the Simpsons at a movie house watching an Itchy and Scratchy film. Homer complains that he can see this sort of stuff on TV for free: a dangerous joke the tinge of which the film never quite erases.

A typically knotty narrative begins: Pollution at Lake Springfield has reached dangerous levels, and Homer inadvertently turns the situation from meerly dire to genuinely life-threatening; the federal government (under the leadership of President Schwarzenegger, motto:"I was elected to lead, not to read") takes drastic measures to quarantine the city; when the citizens of Springfield learn that Homer is responible for their situation, the Simpsons flee for their lives. Meanwhile, Bart has his eyes turned by the fatherly ways of Ned Flanders, and Lisa meets a boy who shares her intrests in music an liberal politics. And the government's plans for Springfield become increasingly draconian.

The film more or less provides the sorts of things we expect from a Simpsons episode: Homer's gluttony and stupidity, Merge's sense of conscience and loyalty to her idiot husband, Bart's blend of defiance and insecurity, Lisa's alturism, Grampa Abe's senility, the lust of Milhouse, the greed of Mr. Burns, the fatuous newscasts, the dim-wit cops, and so on.

The writers have struggled mightily to provide a close-up, if not a line for every recurring character in the history of the show, which turns out not to be a good thing nessicarily, underscoring, as it does, the slight token use to which so many of them are put. Equally, none of the new characters - the evil Enviornmental Protection Agency chief, Lisa's new beau, an Inuit medicine woman- manages to create a distinguished impression.

Still, the film has delights: a scene of domestic bliss between Homer and Marge and the "Snow White"-esque denziens of an Alaskan forest; little jabs at Disney and Fox; allusions to movies and "Simpsons" episodes; Hanks' smug self-parody; some genuinely funny sight gags and witty jokes. And it moves with grace and speed.

So it satisfies- but no more. As I say in terms of the attention span of popular culture, "The Simpsons Movie" arrives eons after hat should have been it moment, and who can say what form it would have taken had it been created and released in a more timely fashion. At this time and in this form, it's amusing enough and breezy enough not to dissapoint. But it never dazzles or chalenges or truly delights. And that leaves me fairly certain that whatever Bart Simpson would say about it probably couldn't be printed in a family newspaper."

Overall Grade: B
The Lowdown: Admiable but not special; like a long and only pretty good TV episode.
Run Time: 78 minutes.
Rated: PG-13
-SHAWN LEVY
(© July 27, 2007, The Oregonian)

What?..woah O_o, sorry to hear that,..wonder why you have to wait so long though? Thought it was out in most of Europe earlier than that 

I've finally got to see it on Saturday.
It wasn't what I had expected it to be. I don't know if it was the person who kept talking really loud in the front of the room, or if it was the parents who brought their young children to a film that is fit for teenagers.

Don't get me wrong, the animation and colours were great, and everything seemed to fit, but it felt a little lax. Almost cliché at moments, as Kasper has suggested.

Some of the parts for the trailers and some of the voice actors never appeared. Maile Flanagan (voice of Uzumaki Naruto in English dub) was supposed to play Colin, and Erin Brokavitch was never there.
I did like Green Day's cameos, though. ^^

I guess it was just me at that day, everyone else seemed to have enjoyed it alot.

Well I have just returned from seeing the movie, finally... and since it appears we have several topics about this subject matter, I'll just pick this one to post my own little review in.

**WARNING: If you have not seen the movie yet, you may want to skip reading this review... I am not going to make any extra-special efforts to not spoil anything, so unless you don't care about finding out a few things, then it is in your best interest to wait until you have seen the movie before you read this.**

Well, let me start off by saying I've come not to expect much from any new Simpsons episodes, and the movie was no different. However, due to my low expectations, it didn't really disappoint me either. It was exactly what I had expected it to be; a long episode. Nothing truly special at all about it. Some moments made me laugh genuinely, but other parts were just plain awkward; the inclusion of full-frontal nudity was stupid and unnecessary. And Lord knows, I'm not one for censorship, and that's not why I thought it was stupid - I just thought that giving Bart all of these random objects to cover his genitals, be it bubbles, butterflies, plants, or what, only to reveal them in the end, left me scratching my head. It was just so... pointless.

Another thing that disappointed me was the lack of side characters, or their participation at least. We saw hardly anything from Apu, or Dr. Hibbert; and Mr. Burns and Smithers, two of my favorite characters, had barely any lines. And were Principal Skinner or Groundskeeper Willie even in the movie? I couldn't tell.

The characterization of Lisa was extremely disappointing as well. Now, I enjoy the character of Lisa, but the way they portrayed her in the movie though was just awful. First of all, she was overly-liberal in her efforts to save the lake. I share her concerns about the environment, but in the movie they completely overdid it. And then when she meets Colin, her character becomes an awkward, stumbling, lovesick moron most of the time. Bad, bad, bad.

It did have its good moments, though; the inclusion of Tom Hanks, one of my favorite actors, was a nice surprise and made me laugh pretty hard - "Isn't it nice to have a government you can trust?" And the bomb-disabling robot that committed "suicide", was pretty funny as well... although I still felt that most of the humor in the movie was lacking, as it has been since the early days. One of the funniest moments I can remember from the old show is from the 9th season, when Apu lives with the Simpsons in an attempt to convince his mother that he's Marge's husband (The Two Mrs. Nehasapimapetilons) - the moment is when Homer goes to Moe's and discovers that Moe is leaving on vacation. "I'm finally gonna see Easter Island", he tells Homer. Homer responds with, "Ah yeah, going to see the giant heads huh?" And then Moe's face goes absolutely deadpan and he says "With the, what now?" They just didn't have any of the real Simpsons humor in this movie... some of the humor that's been lacking for many seasons now.

Overall, the movie wasn't a disappointment, but definitely will never be considered one of my favorite movies of all time.

My rating: 5/10

Dagdamor
You mean "I like men now"? Yeah that was a little weird and out of the blue. It didn't really bug me though, I just thought it was a little random. I still don't think that the whole nudity thing was really necessary, though. Just seemed...  I dunno, pointless. And cartoon nudity is well... disturbing.

brakusaetsya
Yeah, she said her speech and campaigned for the environment and such, and then when she meets Colin and they start rattling off these facts about environmental safety measures...? Uhhh... and of course there's the moment when she snaps her clipboard in half because of her anger at the pollution. I don't know, I just got the impression that she was really laying it on too thick.

brakusaetsya
Well, regardless of WHY it was included, I still think that they went a bit overboard. I mean, it was just the whole feeling I got... in some episodes they capitalize on her liberal-ness, in others, not so much... this was simply one where they did. I don't really like it when they focus on this - it makes it seem like she's just an annoying, nagging little activist who will never be satisfied. If you want to change the world, there are other ways.