Team America: World Police
By: Mark Runyon | Category: DVD Archive | 07/05/05 | 10:53 PM
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 Grade: C+ |
Genre: Comedy/Satire
Summary: Team America is disappointing because of the cards they play versus what they had in their hand. It starts out incredibly well with this interesting puppet angle and savvy political satire that takes no prisoners. Ultimately, it gets so weighted down by Parker and Stone trying to pander to their core fans that any real sting gets sucked out of this one.
Oh what to do with Team America: World Police? On the one hand, it is a biting political satire, sharp and an equal opportunity offender. On the other, it's a low grade James Bond spoof punctuated by warped G.I. Joe battle calls revolving around the Parker and Stone's 4th grade humor. They are truly the most unlikely comic geniuses and their own worst enemy, all rolled up into one. Now that is quite an accomplishment for a pair of guys who make a living off of dick and fart jokes.
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How much dope were these guys smoking the night they were hit with the revelation to use puppets for this film? Are there really that many able bodied puppeteers out there to even shoot a film like this? It takes a second to get used to, but it is a very inventive device that works incredibly well. It's hard to get too offended by anything coming from a puppet, even if that puppet is blowing up another puppet. The smallest things are so spastically funny, like watching them walk or their cheese ball fighting where they just kind of lump up against one another. Don't even get me started on the sex scene. Not only did they whip out the Kama Sutra, but they also wore out the book's spine with that scene. You can only sit there in a constant state of disturbed amusement.
Team America is an elite squad of cocksure frat boys who are intent on saving the world from itself. They are the world's policemen whether that world actually wants to be policed or not. It's savage commentary on our countries' constant butting into places where we aren't wanted. The opening scene captures Team America attempting to disarm a group of Arabs from their WMD. They get their man, but in the process decimate the Louve and topple the Eiffel Tower. They're perplexed as to why the French aren't throwing them a parade like they'd just been liberated from the Germans.
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| Team America: World Police |
Starring: Voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller & Daran Norris
Director: Trey Parker |
| Buy or Rent Team America |
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The Team recently lost a key member and team leader, Spottswoode, goes out in search of the best actor alive to fill his place. Gary is reluctant at first, but after some coaxing from the resident hottie and a goofy bout with patriotism, he decides to throw in his $1.05 to the cause. They go off to stop Chechen terrorists from detonating their weapons of mass destruction, yet they fail to take out the source. Our real bad guy is none other than North Korean leader Kim Jong. At least the Parker and Stone realize who was the real threat in the Axis of Evil. We should have left Sadaam munching on his Doritos and directed our aggressive energies on Iran and North Korea. Jong is a riot, playing the prototypical Bond villain who makes shark niblets out of the U.N. weapons inspector and breaks into song about how lonely it is being the world's foremost ruthless dictator.
It's interesting that they never bring Bush, Cheney or Rumsfeld into the fray. Jon Stewart has proved that there's enough comic material provided by these three stooges to make ten sidesplitting comedies. I guess they were looking for more challenging targets. Team America seems to operate more as a covert op like 007, or maybe Austin Powers would be more appropriate, with tacit approval from our government big wigs.
There are many elements that just don't work. Jong recruits the peace loving Film Actors Guild (or F.A.G. -- yuck, yuck) to aid in his plan. The initial jab at the actor's activism is funny but to make them a full-fledged enemy of the state is senseless. Since when does someone trying to use their stature to make the world a better place a bad thing? Trying to cram them into this role is dumb and doesn't add up. What about the irony of the fact that the one person that Team America deems can save the world is none other than -- an actor? Also, the 9/11 references were unnecessary. The Team would compare a coming terrorist attack as 9/11 times 1000 or 911000. We're not exactly at a point with that event where we're ready to cut up about it, and I doubt we ever will. It was unnecessary. The film's biggest flaw is its South Park: the Movie mentality. South Park is a funny show because they say a lot without explicitly saying it. There is something left to the imagination. When you set Parker and Stone loose from the restriction of the common decency of cable television, they cuss like sailors and exact all sorts of pointless violence -- even if it's inflicted on puppets. They lose the edge of what makes the TV show great. Less is always more boys.
Team America: World Police is disappointing because of the cards they play versus what they had in their hand. It starts out incredibly well with this interesting puppet angle and savvy political satire that takes no prisoners. Ultimately, it gets so weighted down by Parker and Stone trying to pander to their core fans that any real sting gets sucked out of this one.
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