The Simpsons Movie
Grade: C-

D'oh! After firmly and hilariously establishing itself of the best TV shows ever in its first decade, The Simpsons fell into a downward spiral in the late 1990s, and has now stepped into even deeper quick sand pit with this ill-advised leap to the big screen. There are some terrific sight gags (my favorite one shows Springfield's crazy old recluse lady scrubbing all her cats on a washboard), but screenwriters James L. Brooks and Matt Groening are as miserly as Montgomery Burns when it comes to doling out zingy one-liners. The paper-thin plot finds Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie exiled in Alaska, having escaped a citywide quarantine enforced by the EPA after Homer dumps a silo full of pig shit into the river.