Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.

"Not to condescend to the faithfully stoned: Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a trip," writes Eric Kohn in the New York Press. "Which makes its feature-length incarnation, aptly titled Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, into a befuddling journey."

"Adapted from the popular show on the Adult Swim programming block on the Cartoon Network and directed by that show's creators, Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, the Aqua Teen movie is strictly for cultists, and even they might find less than 90 bongless minutes hard to sit through," writes AO Scott in the New York Times.

"I just saw a movie in which a pack of french fries, a wad of ground beef and a milkshake save the world - or at least, New Jersey - from a psychotic giant exercise machine built 70,000 years ago by aliens," writes the Washington Post's Stephen Hunter.

Updated through 4/19.

"Self-aware to a fault, the movie is post-explanation, post-narrative and, most important, post-effort, which makes plot summary not only undesirable but unwise," advises Sam Adams in the Los Angeles Times.

Slate's Dana Stevens: "Neither a satire, a pastiche, nor a parody, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters> is like the bright-colored gunk you might vomit up after a weekend of gorging on cartoons, B movies, and bad science fiction. But when I compare the movie to vomit, I don't mean it in a bad way."

"Oh, people I know love ATHF - unabashedly, and I don't think it's just drug-induced - but it has no sticking power for me. And showing me ATHF bigger and longer and uncut doesn't do much to change that," writes Cinematical's James Rocchi.

"[T]his motion picture is brutal, amateurish, insulting, and occasionally brilliant," writes Brian Orndorf at Hollywood Bitchslap.

On the whole, the movie "feels deeply calculated rather than genuinely crazy," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek.

"Next to Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny looks like a Ken Burns documentary," writes Peter Hartlaub in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Update, 4/19: Nick Schager: "A self-consciously anti-conformist, surrealistic animated saga for adults, it glides along to the beat of its own foul-mouthed drum (or, rather, the magically powered drums of Rush's Neil Peart), never stopping to offer any concessions to mainstream audience expectations or demands and, in the process, proving to be that rare major studio-financed movie whose every fiber is the product of a thoroughly unique, maverick voice."

Posted by dwhudson at April 13, 2007 1:25 PM