The Simpsons Movie
(directed by David Silverman)

This weekend marks the move of America's favorite dysfunctional family the Simpsons from the suburbs of television to the urban center of the big screen. After all of the viral marketing of Simpson-ified magazine editors, real life Kwik-E-Marts and ticket giveaways, is it too much to hope that there's still fresh material to be mined from the long-running animated sitcom? According to the critics, the movie is just more of what you've come to expect from the show—cultural commentary, sight gags galore and lots of heart. Sounds like this weekend's movie going plan should involve a large tub of popcorn, and a side of donuts.

In the LA Weekly, Scott Foundas describes the movie as a "90-minute, years-in-the-making comic wind-up machine that begins by mocking its own audience for paying good money to see what it can watch at home for free and proceeds from there through the most wickedly funny arsenal of assaults on big government, organized religion and corporate America this side of Borat (which, like The Simpsons Movie, somehow managed to use Rupert Murdoch’s money to do it)."

While Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times found himself charmed by the movie despite it's humble origins writing, "I'm not generally a fan of movies spun off from TV animation. The Flintstones and Ninja Turtles moved me only marginally. But there's something about the Simpsons that's radical and simple at the same time, subversive and good-hearted, offensive without really meaning to be. It's a nice balancing act."

Other new movies hitting theaters this weekend include the chefs-meet-cute remake with Catherine Zeta-Jones No Reservations, LiLo's horror flick I Know Who Killed Me, the sports comedy Who's Your Caddy? and the nature documentary Arctic Tale. If you're not a fan of Springfield's residents, watching cute polar bears rolling around in the snow sounds like a pretty good option for a humid July Saturday.