There have been a record number of nominees for the title, Grossest Film of 1999.

There's Something About Mary looked a cinch to win until Austin Powers drank that cup of something he thought was tea.

However, with the votes now counted, the winner of the coveted title is - may I have the envelope, please? - South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

That title tells you everything, really - except that the film which follows it dispenses with the innuendo and throws the smut straight into your face.

South Park, for those who can't get Channel Four, is one of the new breed of adult cartoons from America. Its relatively small TV audience notwithstanding, its cult has spun off a whole industry of cuddly toys, posters and other paraphernalia.

Its explosion on to the big screen has been long awaited, especially by holidaying teenagers anxious to up their dirty-word quotient. They'll have a field day here.

The good news is that South Park: The Movie is extremely funny, and clever with it. The bad news is that it's essentially a one-joke idea which has played itself out after the first 40 minutes. The remaining 40 are really quite tedious.

The story concerns the familiar quartet of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny sneaking into an 18 certificate Canadian movie and then going home and parroting all its profanities.

Soon, most of the town's children are doing the same, prompting their horrified parents to form an action group which eventually causes America to declare war on Canada.

Meanwhile, the newly-assassinated Saddam Hussain forms an alliance with the Devil to assume control of earth should the war reach its expected conclusion.

Clever touches include the pressure group Mothers Against Canada conspiring to implant electronic V-chips into their children, which give them an electric shock every time they swear. Such references to American culture and social politics may be lost on an adolescent, British audience, though.

And that's the trouble with satire of this kind: however well-aimed and well intentioned it is, people will go just to hear the dirty words - which is precisely what the characters themselves do. It's like the ranting of Alf Garnett, finding favour with the very people it's supposed to be offending.

Given this, it would be fascinating to know how the British censors justified giving South Park a 15, and not an 18 certificate. The fact that 15, 16 and 17 year-olds will want to see it shouldn't have entered into the matter.

The film differs from the TV series not only in its greatly-increased profanity but also in its use of song - rousing, full-bodied Disneyesque tunes which make you want to stand up and applaud.

And though the animation is deliberately rudimentary, there are genuinely interesting techniques - focus pulls from one character to another - I've not seen before in a cartoon.

My favourite moment is when Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest man and father of its most despised computer software, is summarily shot in the head. That, as anyone who's used Windows 98 will tell you, is entertainment.

David Behrens

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.