Beavis And Butthead Do America
Nothing epitomized 1990s pop culture back in that decade any moreso than Beavis And Butthead, the two heavy metal loving teenage idiots created by animator Mike Judge partly as a response to the rancid atmosphere of political correctness as imposed by the Bill Clinton Regime, taking on the system not necessarily by being the political polar opposite to Clinton but rather by projecting upon everybody and everything they encountered an attitude of complete and utter stupidity, not to mention total ignorance right down to being borderline illiterate. And as aired on MTV once a week (and eventually daily), the whole phenomenon blew up to be bigger than just about anything ever seen in cable television history (at least until the rise of South Park whose creators have readily acknowledged the influence that Beavis has had on their own work). As for Judge, besides recognizing the irony in having himself do the voice work for both main characters (in essence doing whole scenes where he was basically talking to himself), he would find himself spending the better part of the decade working on the show non stop while hitting successfully out of the park in being funny more often than not and reportedly becoming so burned out in the process that he would literally cut the deal to make a theatrical movie in order to get out of his contract early and be able to focus on other projects such as King Of The Hill (which sadly would recycle the Tom Anderson character from Beavis for the less amusing Hank Hill and would also feature an obnoxious teenage character who was merely a Butthead clone). That theatrical movie released in 1996 certainly has the feel of a fire sale episode where everything must be thrown out there to raise the stakes and essentially make it the biggest episode ever as well as the last one. Sadly, a number of key supporting characters from the show would wind up being left out of the movie, mainly Stewart (the Winger fan), Coach Buzzcut (Judgeās tribute to R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket) and of course Todd (the bullying older kid who nonetheless was worshipped by the duo despite being mistreated constantly by him). Thankfully, Anderson and his good ol cliched chestnut homilies did make the cut along with some new characters voiced by an impressive roster including Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Robert Stack and Greg Kinnear. The film begins with the worst possible scenario being presented to our two stars: They find that their beloved television set has been stolen and that is no small thing, since the majority of the show saw them sitting on the couch and commentating on various music videos in their inimitable style. The duo go out looking for it and after an encounter at their high school with their hippie teacher Van Driesen (who winds up getting his later on in the movie) and ultra stressed out Principal McVicker, they stumble into a hotel room occupied by a shady criminal (Willis) who unceremoniously tells them up front that he will pay them 10 grand to ādoā his wife (Moore, who was married to Willis in real life at the time) which Beavis And Butthead interpret as āscoringā (screwing) with his wife but which obviously the real intent is to carry out a hit on her instead. Willis sets them up with plane and hotel reservations in Las Vegas to do the job for him only for us to find out that she is carrying a highly powerful biological weapon (a virus) which she plants on Beavis and thus makes him and Butthead the target of an overzealous ATF agent (Stack, who actually disowned the movie almost immediately after recording his part) who tracks them as they travel across the country mostly by bus en route to Washington D.C. to either detonate the device or possibly sell it to any number of foreign envoys who are in town for an energy conference. And that right there is the bulk of the movie, depicting the two of them as they encounter various landmarks and character types (including Cloris Leachman marblemouthing her way through the role of a dottering old woman whom they seem to run into constantly) all while giving off the same consistent attitude of stupidity and ignorance that came to define them as the top pop culture icons of their decade. The exception of course is always when they come across an attractive woman as it pertains to their never ending quest to get laid: Besides Mooreās Dallas Grimes (who actually goes so far as to tease and manipulate them in order to get them to do what she wants), we also witness Butthead develop a borderline fixation on a cute stewardess (āCome to Buttheadā) and even Chelsea Clinton when the action not only gets into Washington D.C. but also The White House. Thank goodness that Judge had the foresight to include not one but two Cornholio segments (possibly the greatest alter ego for any fictional character ever and Iām including Clark Kent by that account) without which they might as well have shut down production and moved on to something else. Cornholio (triggered by Beavisā overdosing on any products containing caffeine ingredients) not only continues the concept of the title characters maintaining a consistent attitude of stupidity no matter whom they encounter, he also comes to be the best singular representation of it, seeing everybody he encounters as either being a threat (āare you threatening me?ā) or as somebody who can help him obtain the one thing that he requires more than anything else (TP for his bunghole). And when Cornholio winds up taking over an airplane or even Clintonās oval office (finding himself on the phone with NORAD where the idiot generals are ready to launch nukes on his command to supply him with TP), it is truly the best moments of the entire movie since Cornholioās primary power is to be just so manic that he literally intimidates almost everyone he meets man and boy. But the real enemy here is not Stackās cavity search fixated ATF agent, but rather Anderson himself and his seemingly intolerant outlook on anything and anyone younger than him, quick to remind everyone that he is not only a veteran of two foreign wars but also using that as a reason to justify not doing what heās told when either law enforcement or federal agents give him orders as a part of doing their job. And his attitude towards Beavis And Butthead as evidenced by their various encounters over the years on the show makes him ripe to be the fall guy in this movieās primary scheme along with Willis and Mooreās mom and pop arms dealers. Judge certainly understood this was the last hurrah for his iconic heroes so he and his producers brought in as many perks as they could for this last stand, including having Isaac Hayes do a 70s style title song and also having soundtrack contributions from AC / DC and Ozzy Osbourne along with even including a scene where the duo meet up with their long lost dads(!). Bottom line: If one was a fan of the duo and the show itself in the early to mid 90s (and at the very least it was impossible at the time to not at least have heard of the show even if one wasnāt a fan), then the film delivers in spades and then some, coming across as being one of the best comedies of the decade and possibly of all time specifically for not drastically altering their main characters and the mindsets that they were known for (Judge is pretty much a comedic genius when it comes to exploiting the natural stupidity of regular people in general for laughs as evidenced by his overall body of work) while planting them into a story that was worthy of having cinematic appeal as opposed to the TV medium (with a supporting cast to justify that fact) in what turned out to be their swan song (until an all but aborted comeback attempt over a decade later) as even though some fans complained that (unlike South Park) the official theatrical feature for this franchise did not occur until they were āpast their primeā, it should be noted that the low grade style of animation used for Beavis was never meant to be for a long term theatrical franchise, so this one and only (for now) film incarnation stands as both a tribute to the phenomenon itself and also an apt, faithful, fitting concluding storyline where The Great Cornholio is rightfully allowed to get his fair share of bowsā¦
10/10