I'm probably the largest Simpsons fanboy on these forums and for this preview, went through a series of preparations that would've done the comic book guy proud. For instance, I spent last night at my brother's place, since I didn't want to be caught by the monsoon should it choose to act up, and set my alarm for 8:00. While camping at the theatre is something I hope I never get down to doing, this was the first time I came close to understanding the mindset of people who do.

Anyway all of this effort was TOTALLY worth it. I can afford to kid around now and say I went into this movie with no expectations, but I would've been terribly disappointed if it was tame and sucky. I was entirely unprepared for how good it would be, though. Rather than follow the Family Guy trend of pointless surrealism and having a chockfull of references that you'd have to be some sort of a dickless repository of pop culture to grasp, and/or incessantly referencing older episodes/situations, it features several pretty original and fresh jokes and gags

In that sense, the film manages to straddle what every other film franchise dreams of doing — it's accessible enough for a total newbie to get in and enjoy it for its own sake, and hardcore enough for the committed fan to not feel cheated at all.

The plot, like the plot of a lot of Simpsons episodes is sorta arbitrary — for instance, Homer daring Bart to go to the extreme is an obvious setup for the Bart skateboarding nude sequence, but frankly, who cares. If you want to see a coherent narrative go watch something else (though not the Indian release of The Host). The bare bones of it is, The Simpsons are forced to leave Springfield due to Homer screwing up and then return. (Incidentally, I'm SO fucking glad they didn't turn this into a tired road trip film)

The quality of writing is fantastic - better, i daresay, than it's been in the last couple of seasons I saw. There's really not much more to add-- I could try telling you about some of the funny stuff, but considering we are just 5 days away from its theatrical release, there's no point. It's like watching 4 and a half episodes back to back, something I've whiled away a lot of time doing. Eat your motherfucking plagiarising heart out, Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story. That was one story that ought to have remained untold.