Spring Break
Movie Review: ATHF film is great, and if you don't like it, don't watch it
Stephen Greenwell
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: Entertainment
This sets the tone perfectly, and shifts into the first act, as the Aqua Teens escape from Egypt and then shoot off in a log cabin rocket made by a time-traveling Abraham Lincoln. This sets up a slavery joke, which is inappropriately funny, and then the movie just abandons any pretense of a coherent plot with further twists.
Some of these twists are funny. Some are not, and there were noticeably less laughs as the movie progressed. Things rebounded in the last 20 minutes, but due to the absurdist, ri-cock-ulous nature of the show, not everything can hit for everyone. In particular, I wouldn't have minded a little more of the Mooninites and Plutonians, who are discarded for major parts of the film.
There are some noticeable guest voices for the new characters. Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) voices Lincoln, Chris Kattan (SNL again) plays Water Melon, Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness, the recent Old Spice commercial with the super long boat) plays the fourth Aqua Teen and even Tina Fey provides a very special voice at the end of the film.
In addition to these characters, some series regular also return. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, mc chris, Dr. Weird, his assistant Steve and Space Ghost all make appearances. The main theme song has also been revamped, with new lyrics by Schoolly D and new animation.
It is somewhat exasperating to try to review this movie, by the way. For almost everyone, you either "get" ATHF, or you don't. If you like shows like Family Guy, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and The Brak Show, or the more absurdist moments of the Airplane! films, then you'll enjoy this.
That's a bit of a cop-out answer, but professional reviewers aren't doing any better with the ATHF issue. Conventional papers like The New York Times and The Boston Globe have both unfairly panned it, since it is radically different from anything else in theaters, and almost no "conventional" movie-goer would want to see it. By the way, Wild Hogs is now up to $146 million, you swine.
Some of these twists are funny. Some are not, and there were noticeably less laughs as the movie progressed. Things rebounded in the last 20 minutes, but due to the absurdist, ri-cock-ulous nature of the show, not everything can hit for everyone. In particular, I wouldn't have minded a little more of the Mooninites and Plutonians, who are discarded for major parts of the film.
There are some noticeable guest voices for the new characters. Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) voices Lincoln, Chris Kattan (SNL again) plays Water Melon, Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness, the recent Old Spice commercial with the super long boat) plays the fourth Aqua Teen and even Tina Fey provides a very special voice at the end of the film.
In addition to these characters, some series regular also return. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, mc chris, Dr. Weird, his assistant Steve and Space Ghost all make appearances. The main theme song has also been revamped, with new lyrics by Schoolly D and new animation.
It is somewhat exasperating to try to review this movie, by the way. For almost everyone, you either "get" ATHF, or you don't. If you like shows like Family Guy, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and The Brak Show, or the more absurdist moments of the Airplane! films, then you'll enjoy this.
That's a bit of a cop-out answer, but professional reviewers aren't doing any better with the ATHF issue. Conventional papers like The New York Times and The Boston Globe have both unfairly panned it, since it is radically different from anything else in theaters, and almost no "conventional" movie-goer would want to see it. By the way, Wild Hogs is now up to $146 million, you swine.
