BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO THE UNIVERSE:
THIS SPACE ADVENTURE KICKS WUSSY STAR WARS IN THE NADS!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
PARAMOUNT+ AND MTV ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS
Beavis and Butt-Head take their stupid antics and desperate needs to score to outer space in Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, the new film based on the iconic MTV animated series from the 90s created by Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Office Space, Extract). Obviously, since I was born in 1993 I did not watch Beavis and Butt-Headduring its initial run, but during middle school when I was getting into adult animated shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and several Adult Swim shows I started watching episodes of it via On Demand, DVDs, and their first theatrical feature film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America originally released in 1996, which was actually the very first Beavis and Butt-Head thing I saw as a kid.
I loved Beavis and Butt-Head when I was a tween and still enjoy the show and movie now, though I don’t watch the series quite as often anymore as I do South Park, but whenever I’m in the mood for something stupid with a hint of intelligence I can always count on these lovable dumbasses for a good laugh. It’s also pretty cool that Beavis and Butt-Head remain pop-culture icons decades after the original run of the series, having appeared in an introduction to the 2010 film, Jackass 3D, had a long-awaited revival season in 2011 on MTV, and now in 2022…a brand-new movie on Paramount+.
What do you do when your last movie had Beavis and Butt-Head screwing around in Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and the Hoover Dam, and becoming public enemies of the government turned heroes? You take their bungholes up into space in what was being marketed as “The Dumbest Science Fiction Movie Ever Made”, still less dumb than Battlefield: Earth so mission failed.
But in terms of recapturing the nostalgia of the original series and bringing it to 2022, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe scores. This is a very funny movie with laugh-a-minute jokes all throughout the film and a surprisingly clever take on the fish out of water story with the same old Beavis and Butt-Head duo from the 90s stuck in 2022.
The film is set in 1998 after the events of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America where Beavis and Butt-Head (Both voiced by Mike Judge) destroy a science fair because of their antics and a judge sentences them to space camp where they become fascinated by a docking simulator. However, when a female astronaut named Serena (voiced by Andrea Savage-Step Brothers, Dog Bites Man, Veep) invites them to go into space and perform the docking mission for real, Beavis and Butt-Head see this as yet another possible opportunity to finally score with her and all sorts of hijinks ensue on the spacecraft, resulting in these lovable idiots going through a black hole and ending up in modern day 2022.
What started off as a quest to score suddenly turns into a race against time to save the universe as Beavis and Butt-Head are hunted by the Deep State and constantly warned about an upcoming universal disaster by alien versions of themselves cleverly named Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head. Beavis and Butt-Head will need to adapt to the modern environment, learn how to use iPhones, save the day, and score.
The film also features the voices of Gary Cole (Kim Possible, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, The Bob’s Burgers Movie) as Mattison, Nat Faxon (The Descendants, The Way, Way Back, Downhill) as Jim Hartson, Brian Huskey (Childrens Hospital, Veep, Bob’s Burgers) as Richard Wack (Huh Huh Huh, he said Dick Wack!), and Toby Huss (The Adventures of Pete & Pete, King of the Hill, Copshop) as Todd.
Overall, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is as delightfully stupid and funny as the series it was based on and is sure to make fans old and new very happy. It’s the same Beavis and Butt-Head you know and love interacting with 2022 technology and social norms and it’s beyond hilarious.
It’s the kind of film that takes full advantage of its premise, Beavis and Butt-Head in outer space, it’s a legendary narrative that practically writes itself. Plot wise, it is very similar to the one from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America but with more of a sci-fi twist and in any other case it probably wouldn’t have worked, but thanks to some really funny jokes and gags that embrace the stupidity and chaos of space and time travel, it never feels like a repeat of the last movie.
Some of my favorite moments include a scene where they break into a college classroom and learn about white privilege, an incredibly funny variation of the sad break-up montage cliché, and one of the funniest Cornholio sequences throughout the franchise’s history and a downright hysterical payoff.
I will admit, the absurdity and wackiness of the plot do start to level out during its climax a little where they have to race against time to go into a wormhole and get back to their time. Instead, they do a very Beavis and Butt-Head resolution that is quite funny but may be divisive to some longtime fans.
Nevertheless, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe proves that Beavis and Butt-Head’s style of slapstick and physical comedy isn’t going stale anytime soon with a delightfully goofy premise, jokes that blur the line between stupid and brilliant, and the likable bromance of its titular characters that have stood the test of time for decades and decades more to come. Grab a plate of nachos, woman with big thingies, and prepare you laugh yourself silly all the way to the cosmos.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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