Beavis and Butt-head Do America

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

After a surreal Godzilla-esque dream, Beavis and Butt-head wake up to realize that someone has stolen their television. The pair then embark on a quest to replace it. After stealing and destroying a TV from school (resulting in their expulsion) and ruining the TV in Tom Anderson’s camper, they visit a low-quality motel that advertises “TVs in every room”. There, they encounter a drunken Muddy Grimes (Bruce Willis), who is waiting for two hired hit men, the same guys who stole Beavis and Butt-head’s television, to murder his wife, Dallas.

Muddy, thinking that Beavis and Butt-Head are the killers he has contacted, says that they must “do” (murder) his wife. Thinking that by “do”, Muddy means “score with”, Butt-Head convinces Beavis that both of them can “score”. Muddy then hands them a photograph of Dallas with instructions on where to find her. Beavis asks if they can watch TV first, and Muddy subsequently shoots it. He drives them to the airport to catch the plane to her hotel room on the Las Vegas Strip. During the plane ride, both Beavis and Butt-Head manage to cause chaos and Beavis consumes massive quantities of caffeine pills given to him by an old woman (Cloris Leachman). He subsequently transforms into Cornholio, and almost causes the plane to crash when be barges into the cockpit and scares the pilots.

After causing a mild stir in a Las Vegas casino, the boys find themselves in their hotel room, which is adjacent to the room of the hunted woman, Dallas Grimes (Demi Moore). Dallas soon realizes they have no idea what they are actually hired for. While Beavis and Butt-Head begin fighting over who will “do” Dallas first, the police arrive to arrest her. Thinking quickly, she plants a stolen biological weapon known as the “X-5 Unit” in Beavis’ pants in order to get rid of it as evidence. She then gets them tickets on a coach to Washington, D.C. instructing them that she will be waiting for them in the Capitol of the United States and will let them “do her” there.

The stolen biological weapon attracts the attention of the ATF, headed by Agent Flemming (Robert Stack) who orders a body cavity search on everyone he encounters and in spite of his tough talk, relies on fellow Agent Bork’s (Greg Kinnear) assistance, virtually all the time. Agent Flemming becomes convinced that the duo are criminal masterminds after accidentally destroying the Hoover Dam, by effectively cutting the power to Las Vegas. On the tour bus, they visit landmarks including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park. After becoming stranded in Petrified Forest National Park, they wander through the desert and meet two drifters (Earl Hofert and Tony Darling) who strongly resemble them. The men, former Motley Crue roadies, tell them that they once hooked up with two “sluts” from the boys’ hometown of Highland, Texas, 15 years earlier. They also share similar personalities, as evidenced by Beavis’ father’s fascination with fire, and Butt-head’s father’s pulling down his pants and farting in the fire, creating a large fireball. Neither the men nor the boys make the obvious connection of their parentage, and the drifters abandon Beavis and Butt-head before they wake up the next morning. The boys then continue to trek through the desert, and, after munching on a peyote cactus, Beavis goes into a mescaline induced hallucination, featuring music by White Zombie with animation inspired by Rob Zombie.

The next day, they are found by Muddy, after nearly dying of dehydration. Muddy decides to take them the rest of the way in his trunk to hunt down Dallas, and they spend the trip laughing at his car jack and pretending to masturbate. In the middle of I-81 in Virginia, Butt-Head jacks the trunk open, and they escape by jumping onto the road, causing an 18-wheeler to swerve off the road, resulting in a huge, 400-car pileup. Beavis and Butt-head casually walk past the scene and get back on the tour bus, stopping at the United States Capitol Building before finally reaching the White House. Before Dallas can meet with Beavis and Butt-Head to recover the weapon, she is confronted in the parking garage by Muddy, who flies into a rage when he realizes that the two managed to escape from his trunk. Muddy and Dallas then briefly reconcile before they are arrested by the ATF while having sex in Muddy’s car. Faced with the possibility of a 60-year jail sentence, Dallas betrays Muddy by saying that he hid the weapon “in some kid’s [Beavis] pants”, ironically she still gets the sentence.

The ATF is dispatched to the White House due to Beavis and Butt-Head being there on the same day as the “Give Peace A Chance” conference. Beavis consumes caffeine pills (following a fight with the bus driver), sugar and coffee while on the White House tour, then transforms into Cornholio again. He wanders around the White House and picks up the red phone in the Oval Office, causing the military to go to DEFCON 4. Meanwhile, Butt-Head also wanders around the White House and encounters Chelsea Clinton in her bedroom, making a pass at her. She promptly throws him out the window, where ATF enforcers detain him and perform a cavity search on him. Beavis leaves the White House and looks at the photo of Dallas before going to masturbate in Tom Anderson’s camper. Anderson discovers Beavis and throws him out of the camper, and the ATF spots Beavis walking around pants-less. They think he has the weapon on him and are just about to open fire when Anderson opens his camper door, telling Beavis to take his pants with him, which causes the ATF to go after the pants. The pants are ripped open, with the weapon flying out of them. The weapon, landing safely in Butt-Head’s hand, is recovered. Blame for the incident is ultimately pinned on Anderson, who is arrested along with Dallas and Muddy. Agent Flemming informs Beavis and Butt-Head that their adventure will remain top secret. President Bill Clinton then makes Beavis and Butt-head honorary ATF agents, and gives them a contract for unlimited alcohol and firearms.

Not too much later, they return to Highland and find their TV in front of the hotel. The film ends with them carrying their TV into the sunset while insulting each other with various names, such as ‘Ass-Goblin’.

REVIEW:

I was in high school when Beavis and Butt-head first came on MTV. At that time, though, my dad decided that the one year we actually had cable was enough, so I only got to see a few episodes. Fast forward a few years and thanks to YouTube and Netflix I was able to see what I missed. Oh, and then there’s the little fact that they came back to the airwaves back in October. So, what better way to start off 2012 and celebrate the legacy of Beavis and Butt-head than with Beavis and Butt-head Do America?

If you know anything about these guys, then you know it’s all about utter stupidity and nothing more. So, how does this work as a film? Better than you might think, as a matter of fact.

Often times, when television characters make the jump to the big screen, they seem to lose something in translation, if you will. The only thing Beavis and Butt-head lose is the fact that they don’t make fun of any music videos. Of course, that has to do with the plot point of the missing television, though.

Said plot involves the two getting their television stolen and, through their own ineptitude, getting drawn into a federal investigation due to their involvement with a guy who thinks they’re a couple of guys hired to assassinate his wife. I think you can guess what happens from there, right?

No need to really go into the plot and story, from there. It is your usual hijinks we get from these two. Basically, you’re either going to like it or not. I don’t know anyone who is straddling the fence on these guys, come to think of it now.

The animation here looks a little different from the cartoon. Not radically different like the difference between the first and second seasons of The Boondocks, but it does seem to resemble something more like Heavy Metal, to me for some reason.

Voice casting is a vast upgrade from the show. Bankable names, especially at this time, like Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Cloris Leachman, and Robert Stack lend their talents to this flick. Moore and Willis actually are married, or divorced, rather here.

You wouldn’t think they would lower themselves to something like this, and yet they sound like they really enjoyed it. Well, at least Willis does. Demi sounds like she’s just reading the lines on the page.

Some of the best moments of the film involve the music. Take for instance the opening credits scene where they go into this 70s  Shaft-esque groove. I think they may have even gotten Isaac Hayes to write it. The show is known more for their love of metal, so of course there is some good headbanger music. They have a hallucination to some White Zombie music, which apparently was animated by Rob Zombie.

Final verdict on Beavis and Butt-head Do America? This is one of the underrated gems of the mid-90s. Dare I say, it has ben forgotten by the public, which is a genuine shame because it has all the making of a great comedic film, especially if you’re into the  kind of humor that these two have provided for years, and hopefully will continue to bring us for years to come. I highly recommend this film to anyone that just needs a film that doesn’t require you to do anything other than sit and watch. So, watch and enjoy!

5 out of 5 stars