david silverman's THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (2007)

maybe the best thing about seeing The Simpsons finally make it to the big screen is watching a perfectly inflated, good-to-very-good caliber episode of the show with an auditorium full of people; as we've all forged our own personal relationships with American humor's most important family unit, it's easy to forget that millions of others all over the world have done the same, and it's honestly fascinating to sit with a group of strangers and see who's responding to what. (that's not to sound snooty, of course, because no matter what facet of The Simpsons' inimitably broad-yet-oddly-specific humor they're responding to, it's still The Simpsons, and odds are it's pretty goddamned funny.) due undoubtedly to the veritable all-star team of contributors from the show's glory days (go on, ask a Simpsons geek who his favorite writers are), the film manages an effortless return to form, inspired in a way few post-heyday episodes have been and tackling a quadrupled running time with easy grace. there are even a handful of canon-worthy gags, including a razor-sharp look at the proximity of Moe's and Lovejoy's and a single, pitch-perfect celebrity cameo. it's funny how a movie literally a decade in the making ended up being one of the summer's least disappointing.