'Simpsons' Movie Reviews Are In!

And now, at last, Matt Groening's brilliant creation has arrived in cinemas, dated only in the sense that we all know it began in 1990, but otherwise terrifically funny and contemporary. Though I admit: after this vast historical wait, there is a tiny bit of a letdown, only because The Simpsons Movie just can't offer the shock of the new which is such a part of the moviegoing experience. And one gag is recycled: Homer again attempts to soar over Springfield gorge, Evel Knievel-style, with the same anti-climatic results.

But we've been spoiled by so much quality. The gags are razor-sharp and lightning-swift; they keep coming, and the writing just puts everything else to shame, in the cinema just as on television. I watched the screen with my eyes darting all over the place, not wanting to miss a single sight-gag. And in fact there is something hallucinatory in seeing the characters at giant size, especially swooping through the landscape for the (modified) opening credits. When Lisa's yellow face fills the screen for the first time it's like some sort of acid trip.

The story is too silly and involved to summarise, but it involves Homer rescuing his family and saving Springfield from a grotesque conspiracy by President Arnold Schwarzenegger to despoil the environment - a president who declines to consult any briefing document: "I vos elected to lead, not read!"

It cheerfully alludes to Dr Strangelove, Spellbound, and The Truman Show, though Groening leaves unsolved the puzzle of whether his creation was in any way inspired by Homer Simpson, the dopey midwestern accountant in Nathanael West's Hollywood novel The Day of the Locust. Unfortunately there isn't much screen time for the show's greatest villain, nuclear plant supremo Montgomery Burns, though Burns has one outstanding line. Relishing a moment of power over his fellow Springfielders, he sneers: "So! For once the rich white man is in control!"

Police Chief Whiggum has what is probably the best single gag, munching doughnuts off the barrel of his gun, and almost blowing his head off when his mobile phone goes off: "Whew! That was a close one!"

Undoubtedly, reconfiguring The Simpsons as a feature film has meant scaling back the ensemble of minor characters and building up the conventional drama within the family itself; this has meant some sacrifices but it is brilliantly done, especially the agonising relationship between Marge and her daughter Lisa, who is embarking on a romance with a handsome young Irish boy. Marge looks on, all too aware of the excruciating disappointments that men can inflict on a young female heart. "I'm so angry!" sobs Lisa to her. "You're a woman," says Marge solemnly, "you can hold it in for ever."

Homer is a joy whenever he's on, especially when he conceives an inappropriate love for a pig. When they watch an erotic moment on TV, Homer turns wonderingly to the pig and says: "Maybe we should kiss to break the tension ..." Marge comes back just in time: "What's going on here?" A huge laugh.

So many movies promise what they could never deliver in a million years. The Simpsons movie gives you everything you could possibly want, and maybe it's a victim of its own gargantuan accomplishment. Eighty-five minutes is not long enough to do justice to 17 years of comedy genius. It's still great stuff. Like Homer with his nachos, I could gobble it up until nightfall.