Beavis, Butt-Head, Tom Anderson, Mr. Van Dreesen, Principal McVicker : Mike Judge FBI Agent Fleming : Robert Stack (Airplane)
Little Old Woman : Cloris Leachman Motley Crue Roadie No.1 : David Letterman Tour Bus Driver : Richard Linklater FBI Agent Bork : Greg Kinnear (uncredited)
Dallas Grimes : Demi Moore (uncredited)
Muddy Grimes : Bruce Willis (uncredited)
Beavis And Butthead Do America
is the big film spin-off of the animated
TV series and is one which will have no trouble finding an audience, mainly
because those who are already familiar with the duo's antics and goals in life
will queue round the block to see it, whereas those who think it just plain
sucks, won't.
The television series mixed stories full of insults and pop videos, with
criticism of the latter blended in. Although the film forsakes the pop clips,
music is still a mainstay of the film, the opening credits containing a song
sung by Isaac Hayes, and being a pastiche of Shaft and Charlie's
Angels to a scene in Las Vegas where Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Love
Rollercoaster" pumps out with a band dressed in typical 70's style.
The film begins with Beavis and Butthead recreating a Godzilla film as they
walk down a street full of skyscrapers creating havoc by destroying cars and
buildings as they begin to have a fight, the damage from which escalates as
does their insults towards each other. However, it soon becomes apparent as
Butthead awakes that it's all a dream. In fact, he's rudely awoken by Beavis
who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Why? Because the TV have been stolen
leaving him reduced to a gibbering wreck, able only to click the remote control
at the empty space left.
Their quest to find the TV leads them to a motel where they meet Muddy Grimes,
a redneck who mistakes our heroes for two other men who have been hired to kill
his wife, Dallas. However, as Muddy refers to the job as asking them to "do
his wife", Beavis and Butthead immediately start sniggering and spend the next
hour of the film thinking that they're going to score with the babe in the
photo, and their greed is boosted by the fact that they think they're going to
be paid $10,000 to lose their virginity.
Once they meet Dallas Grimes in Las Vegas, she turns the tables on her ex,
promising Beavis and Butthead even more money plus lots of sex if they go back
home and kill Muddy instead. Unaware to the pair, she sets them up with a
device which can kill several blocks of people when set off. This attracts the
attention of the US Government, and life for the duo gets more and more
dangerous, although they just think the whole outing is "cool".
As in the MTV television series, creator Mike Judge provides the voices
for most of the main characters, although with this being a film, so it requires
some guest appearances. Airplane's Robert Stack does the job of
FBI Agent Fleming proud, a special agent who takes no crap from anybody, and
anyone who tries to give a bit gets a full cavity search!!
Cloris Leachman is a Little Old Woman that Beavis and Butthead keep
bumping into, the former finding delight in all the pills in her handbag, and
as he downs them all, so does his higher state of consciousness turn him into
Cornholio, proclaiming "I am Cornholio! I have no bunghole!"
David Letterman is one of the Motley Crue roadies that the pair bump
into (the other played by Tony Darling (who he?) ), and I couldn't help but
feel that the roadies look rather familiar... :)
The rest of the famous names are rounded out with cult director Richard
Linklater, Sabrina's Greg Kinnear and now ex-husband and wife,
Demi Moore & Bruce Willis.
The picture is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 ratio, with a very obvious
level of grain that can only be ignored if you really get into the film.
The average bitrate is a fair 6.45Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
Your speakers will never have to do too much work as most of the sound is
confined to dialogue and plenty of "huh-huh, huh-huh"'s from the boys.
Extras :
Chapters :
30 chapters for the 78-minute film which is superb. Why can't we have this
many for every film?
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English alone, with surround sound for the Germans.
Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), German,
Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish and Turkish.
And there's more... :
Two Teaser Trailers, totalling 70 seconds. They're funny, but that's it.
Menu :
A basic static and silent menu with a shot of Beavis and Butthead and the usual
options.
Overall, I found this film to be a great laugh, albeit a short one.
However, I only fear for Paramount's sales as most people will be saying
"Beavis and who?", since the B&B fad's now passed us by and it's
been a long time since new episodes have featured on MTV.
It won't win many new fans, as it requires a fan to appreciate the "style", and
endless bouts of Huh-huh, huh-huh, something which won't strike a chord
with everyone on first hearing. Then again, would you expect anything else from
a cartoon duo who started life in the short 1992 film, "Frog Baseball" ?
:)
With almost zip in the way of extras, this is definitely a case of rent
before you buy.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
