World Police
Movie Reviews
This also affects my views as a critic. I don�t rate comedies based on the laugh factor because I know what I laugh at: everything. My friends make fun of me for it, and they should because I laugh at things that insult my intelligence. And so I have given poor ratings to films that have made me laugh.
�Team America� made me laugh. Hysterically. Embarrassingly. Very loudly. In fact, I was having trouble breathing. But I don�t want to make you think that this is a comedy, it�s not really. This is a Trey Parker and Matt Stone movie, meaning: it�s a lesson in vulgarity. In this case, bizarre and uncomfortable vulgarity.
Why is it bizarre? Parker and Stone have made this film entirely out of puppets. Little rubber marionettes that have strings on them. The duo uses the puppets in purposefully clich�d action sequences with a swashbuckling line followed by a gargantuan explosion. Many of the situations are burns on Jerry Bruckheimer (finally).
In the introduction, we are in Paris, France. All clich�, all very funny. A little French boy is eating a fudge pop and runs into a group of terrorists, one of whom is Osama bin Laden. We see them converse (�der ker, der ker, Mohammad Jihad�), and then reveal a weapon of mass destruction. Team America intervenes, shooting out of the sky from jet aircrafts and helicopters. They shoot at the terrorists, but miss most of the time and end up obliterating the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe.
Okay we get it; America is ignorant and destructive and only screws things up, even when we�re trying to help. Hollywood has given us our fair dosage of liberalism, and this is no different...or so I thought. It turns out that Parker and Stone don�t want to offend one group of people. All they want to accomplish is offending everyone. That�s their masterpiece.
Apparently, I like getting offended and seeing others get offended, because I couldn�t help myself from laughing. Sentence after sentence, song after song, �Team America� was a huge ball of stupid political inhumanity that achieved the snowball effect in the form of laughter. As it got more and more ridiculous I just kept laughing. And, yes, I am ashamed.
As in �South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut� Parker and Stone are taking the liberty of putting the fate of the world into the hands of idiots. Except this time, it is Kim Jong Il, who is portrayed sort of like Elmer Fudd � that is, if Elmer Fudd sang songs and cussed up a storm equal to an F5. Team America is stationed inside a hollowed-out Mount Rushmore, where they keep their vehicles. In one of the funniest moments, the four president�s head open up and Team America�s airborne vehicles exit. The song playing is ridiculously funny.
All criticism aside, I am choosing to give this a favorable score (partially due to a wonderful Michael Moore puppet). But note to Parker and Stone: it would be nice if you chose sides, soaped up your mouths, and made valuable, smart comedies. No strings attached. ***