"Team America: World Police" Grade: B+ R, 98 m with the voices of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Directed by Trey Parker. Opens tomorrow.
"Team America: World Police," "South Park" co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker's new film is a lot like one episode of "South Park." In the second season, Stone and Parker promised an answer to the last season's cliffhanger: who is Cartman's father? Instead of answering the question, the duo aired an episode starring Terrance and Philip, the farting duo's made for TV minifilm, "Not Without My Anus." It was one big inside joke. So is "Team America," a big action extravaganza done entirely with puppets.
The film opens with our hero, Gary, a Broadway actor who is recruited by Team America, a super-commando task force. Their goal: to police the world and kill all terrorists. Team America must use Gary's incredible acting powers to infiltrate the terrorists and discover who is behind the upcoming terrorist attack that would be 9/11 times a hundred.
It would seem as if "Team America" is either a political satire or simply a parody of Jerry Bruckheimer-style action films. However, "Team America" seems to be a combination of the two. It almost seems as if Trey Parker and Matt Stone should have aimed their razor-sharp comedic genius on a more focused target. None of the content in "Team America" is anything new to anyone that's been keeping up with "South Park."
What is new is the medium. So long foul-mouthed cut-outs, hello foul-mouthed puppets! "Team America" is not just Peter Jackson's Muppets-on-acid "Meet the Feebles." While Parker and Stone's puppets explode, bleed, puke and do it doggy style, there is an overall tone of complete seriousness that makes the whole thing work. It's such a delicate balance and the movie has a huge potential to fall flat on its face.
The incredible sets and marionettes built on one-third scale are extremely well designed. The acting of the puppets matches Parker and Stone's dialogue exactly.
But, this is not to say that "Team America: World Police" is not on par with Stone and Parker's work. It will make you laugh. It will make you laugh until your face hurts and the funniest part of "Team America" is its music, and this is no surprise to anyone keeping up with Parker and Stone. Every time the team goes out to fight the terrorists, a theme song straight out of a "G.I. Joe" cartoon accompanies them into battle.
In terms of the political commentary, the first half of "Team America" takes shots at the cowboy mentality with which the Bush administration has viewed the war on terror. On every mission, Team America manages to destroy every national monument it comes across, and they are seemingly no less destructive than the terrorists themselves.
However, in the second half of the film, Stone and Parker let liberals have it by spoofing celebrities that have taken anti-war stances. A puppet version of Sean Penn says that Iraq was filled with rainbows and chocolate-filled rivers before the war, and a puppet Michael Moore chows down on hot dogs while chanting to bring the system down.
Ultimately "Team America" is the easily most offensive film of the year, and has on onslaught of very hilarious material and will please any fan of "South Park"
