The Simpsons

I look back and see it's been a while since I wrote. I blame the heat. Really.

We've been in the 90s consistently for the last two weeks or so, and I just wilt in temperatures above 80 or 85 degrees. The heat just saps my energy. Plus, I've been working a lot. That'll do it, too.

Jayne and I had a date night last Sunday and went to see "The Simpson's Movie."

The review

The movie was OK -- like a long episode, as Jayne said -- but it wasn't uproariously funny or deeply insightful.

I loved the Spider Pig sequences -- that's vintage Homer. Also, the scene in the church is hilarious, especially when Grandpa Simpson starts talking in tongues and Homer opens the Bible, looks through the pages and declares in frustration, "There's no answers in this thing!"

But a few things just didn't mesh and, as I say, went clunk. Spider Pig was dropped too soon. It would have been great if it was Spider Pig (aka Harry Plopper) who came in and saved Homer and Bart in the end from the EPA guy. The pig could have used a web -- I would have been rolling on the floor for that. It also would have represented a reconciliation of Bart and Homer because Spider Pig caused the initial break that is the focus of the film.

Also, the whole Colin kid. I got the one-liner about Bono, but after that, what's the point. Again, funny and Dickensian if Colin would have been the son of the EPA man.

And lastly, I felt at a loss that many of the standard secondary characters hardly appeared -- Patty and Selma didn't say a word between them, Apu was minor and Mr. Burns and Smithers were minimal. Even Comic Book Guy could have been used more.

My final thought: It was a fun movie. Go see it. At a matinee where the price is lower.