Team America World Police
Team America World Police
Directed by: Trey Parker
Written by: Pam Brady, Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Starring (the voices of): Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daran Norris
Only the creators of South Park could come up with the terrifically twistedidea of spoofing a Hollywood action film using wooden marionnettes — and onlythey could actually pull it off. Their disdain for the movie industry’s overuse ofartificial computer-generated effects, combined with news of the live-action Thunderbirdsmovie in production inspired Trey Parker and Matt Stone to get back to basics. And Team America World Police was born.
I had high hopes for this movie as I totally loved the concept, but wouldthere be enough humour to carry an entire movie of puppets for 90 minutes?South Park has never been a favourite show of mine; despite the obviousintelligence and sharp wit of its creators I always felt it lost its edgewith too many crass jokes and easy shock value gags. Would Team America fallvictim to the same problem, or would Parker and Stone create the truemasterpiece that they were capable of? For me, Team America World Police hitthe nail on the head — it’s a clever comedy that works on multiple levelsand rarely has a dull moment.
Team America are a group of freedom fighters (seemingly unaffiliated withthe U.S. government), who jump into action whenever their supercomputerI.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. warns them of impending terrorist attack. Assembledby the mysterious millionaire Spottswoode, the team consists of Chris (former starquarterback and sensitive leader), Sarah (the soft-spoken psychic), Lisa(the blonde bombshell) and Joe (the loose cannon with a chip on hisshoulder).An unexpected vacancy appears on the team’s roster when one of the teammembers is killed in action (right after popping the question to Lisa, no less) andSpottswoode approaches Broadway actor Gary Johnston to join the team.After overcoming some personal demons, Gary comes on board and Team America set out to stop a nefarious plot involving South Korea’s Kim Jong Il and the Film Actors’ Guild (F.A.G.), headed up by Alec Baldwin.
Not since the TV series Spitting Image have marionnettes been put to suchgood comedic use.They look great, very realistic at times, and many of the likenesses offamous people are hilarious in themselves. The puppet faces are also veryexpressive, and convey a lot of subtle emotions to the point where they really do seem real. I’m sure the irony of recreating Hollywood style overacting with wooden puppets is something that was not lost on Parker and Stone. A lot of the movie’s laughs come from poking fun of the marionnette’s limitations as well, often drawing attention to the fact that they are attached to strings (which were left in the final cut on purpose) and overemphasizing their inability to walk properly. There’s also a great gag towards the end of the film involving the use of real cats. Ingenius.
The use of original music in Team America World Police is definitely one ofthe movie’s most memorable elements; as we’ve seen in South Park or CannibalThe Musical, Stone and Parker can write some some priceless musical numbersincluding the de facto Team America theme song “America… Fuck yeah!”, “Pearl Harbour sucked (and I miss you)”, or Kim Jong Il’s heartfelt solo “Lonely”.
As you might expect from “those South Park guys”, there is a fair amount ofshock and gross out humour here, but it’s not overdone and doesn’t get inthe way of the fun. The profuse vomiting scene is one of the highlights, notto mention the ridiculous marionnette sex — which, even when toned down to avoid the NC-17 rating, still pushes the envelope. (I’m sure the unrated DVD is already in the works.) I don’t see how this movie is really offensive at all, as even the blatant middle eastern and asian stereotypes are so over the top that it’s obvious they are poking fun of American ignorance. I guess some of the actors that were portrayed in the film were upset (Sean Penn in particular) but I think they were just a little unsettled to see likenesses of themselves getting their heads chopped off and riddled with bullets.
Mostly though, it is the action movie send-ups that really got me hooked on this movie and had me giggling like a little schoolgirl. They succeeded in recreating so many of the Hollywood cliches to the point where the movie seemed better written and more Hollywood-esque than a lot of the blockbusters we’ve seen in recent years. Each of the characters have these ridiculous personality quirks and back stories that come out at the most inappropriate moments. What’s even more impressive is that they rarely had to stoop to lampooning specific scenes from popular movies either, with the exception of some references to Star Wars and the inevitable Matrix bullet time gag.
While there are a few lulls in the movie and a handful of jokes that fall flat (uh… Michael Moore is fat and eats a lot of hot dogs… haha) I still have to say this was the funniest movie I’ve seen this year. It’s not a laugh a minute, and if you come in expecting that kind of thing you might be disappointed, but the humour is more intelligent and more rewarding than say.. Scary Movie 1, 2 or 3. In fact, a lot of it just comes from playing the marionnette thing completely straight, and the jokes don’t always jump out and slap you in the face.
A lot has been said about the so-called “political statement” being madewith this film, but I don’t think it’s all that political. Sure, the story is based on current events, but as anyone can tell they aren’t playing sides here… anyone is fair game to Parker and Stone. Personally, I found the most poignant thing about the whole movie to be the blind patriotism and naive heroics of Team America themselves and the black and white view of the world that is so often presented in the media.
To be honest, even if the humour didn’t work, I was prepared to like this movie… I mean, come on, they have made a Hollywood action flick using marionnettes for Pete’s sake! How can you not give them props for that? But it turns out that the movie blew away my expectations. I want to see it again and again. Will Team America World Police inspire a marionnette movie trend in the near future? I seriously doubt it. Will it strike box office gold? Uhh… I think that possibility’s already been shot after the decidedly lukewarm opening weekend. But regardless, this one is destined to be a true cult classic for years to come, so catch it on the screen while you can. — Sean
Comments (9)
It’s been said too many times for me not to comment.
Spitting Image wasn’t marionettes, it was puppets.
Next time, it’s your ass.
Posted by JAY C on October 21st, 2004Well I am going on pretty old memories of the show here. Still, from what I remember that was a classic show.
Posted by Sean on October 21st, 2004Sean, you beat me to the punch… I was in the middle of writing my own review, heres what I had thus far:
Team America is inherently funny for about a half an hour. The puppets are awkward and funny, its fast paced, quirky, colorful and you hear the Team America theme (the movies biggest laugh) for the first time.
…but it wears thin quickly. Eventually Team America becomes a rehash of themes and even direct items stolen from Parker and Stones’ own show, South Park. Whether its the Kim Jong-Il crossbreed of Cartman and the City Wok guy, the Montage song, the mock of country music exploiting 9/11, the ‘d*cks/p*ssies’ paraphrase from the end of South Parks “I’m a little bit country”, its rehash.
There are many things Parker and Stone could have done to make this movie better. for one, hiring actual VOICE ACTORS and differentiating this much much more from South Park. Think of their tv show “thats my bush”. The show wasnt so great but imagine if all the actors had been voiced by Parker/Stone instead. It was the sitcom setup with real actors and NEW voices that made it better than it might have been otherwise.
Second, make the political satire way more sharp. Parker/Stone dont know much about politics. The actor characters arent given any individula personality to make the barbs poked at them funny at all. Eg, the only joke about Michael Moore is that he’s fat. come on, theres way more to go with. The whole actor satire is a complete failure. And since it wasnt funny, it gave me time to think past the movie into what hypcrites Parker/Stone are for saying what they’re saying about Hollywood. As much as Hollywood actors can annoy me as well, face it, Parker/Stone wade into politics just as much if not more than many other actors. I’ve never even heard Ethan Hawke or Sam Jackson (two targets in TA:WP) get political, but Parker/Stone put their views into their work, and in their interviews as well, all the fricking time. Many newspaper articles have been written about their views. As much as Parker/Stone hate Hollywood, they are celebrities, and are as guilty as the targets they hit in TA:WP. Maybe they should have inserted themselves somewhere in there as a cameo. I’d have made them a Beavis/Butthead type figures, laughing at everyoen from the sidelines, eventually getting killed by TA or the actors… or both.
The movie is also way too long. And repetitive. A few of the best jokes in the movie get worn WAYYYYY into the ground. Theres a marionette fight scene at the beginning of the film where it doesnt look right. Its a funny scene, but its a metaphor for the entire movie. The puppets eventually become boring, they dnot have much character to them and Parker/Stone havent put much life into their personalities themselves. It gets REALLY boring. and since as an action movie satire its so close, without the humor or character its just as boring as any Michael Bay movie they parody.
And thats the biggest crime. For this, despite a great first 1/2 hour, I cant recommend this movie. Its a 4/10, and the biggest disappointment in years.
Posted by Goon on October 21st, 2004ah well, I posted it on IMDB instead.
Posted by Goon on October 21st, 2004the other thing I was gonna write but didnt finish was about the shock value & the attack of ‘both sides’
this movie doesnt piss off both sides so much as it makes it watchable for both sides, so people of opposing views (both of which watch South Park) can watch it, see their side get poked and say “well at least they got the other side just as much”
To me, this makes Parker/Stone PUSSIES. They do this all the time on South Park. If its a majorly divisive issue like abortion, immigration, the 2000 election, racism, etc. they write about it, but completely straddle the line and play both sides even. I HATE it, and those episodes always turn out lame. And they did this here in the movie, the ‘lesson i’ve learned’ speech at the end is the same South Park format thing to do as well. Every other time Parker/Stone waded into movies (except for the South Park movie) they did NOT copy the typical South Park storyline format. They did here, from beginning to end.
South Park is at its best when either the show is being absurd like the You Got Served episode, OR if they get political, when they actually take one side and make their case through the story: about hate crimes, psychics, anti-smoking groups, corporations, frivolous lawsuits, etc.
everyone talks about this movie about being a middle finger to everyone. As someone who knows Parker/Stones work very well, I can honestly say: no. its not. they were lazy and uncreative.
Posted by Goon on October 21st, 2004Well maybe this is best described as a movie from the South Park creators made for non-South Park fans. All of the jokes were new to me, and I thought most of them were great.
I hear what you’re saying about the voice actor thing… I assume they were trying to keep it as low budget and DIY as possible. Still, Spottswoode was not done by Parker and Stone and he is one of the best voices. Plus all the female main characters are not Parker or Stone either.
As for the politics, I didn’t think they were on the fence or failing to take a stance… I just thought they were showing how overblown the whole terrorism issue has become.
Posted by Sean on October 22nd, 2004I guess i wasn’t dissapointed because i wasn’t looking forward to this movie at all.
Posted by JAY C on October 22nd, 2004goon, you are silly.
you are criticising the south park guys as political satirists when they parodied the stereotypical american so well (ie, giving every location’s position relative to america, and the line ‘2207 miles south of the real america’ to describe central america)
although, i do admit that they did fail in their satire of Michael Moore – assuming they were trying to satire him. its possible that they let him off with just a fat joke because they agree with him, and can not find anything to criticise about him
sean, nice review
Posted by scott on December 14th, 2004there was a few good things, that 2207 from America thing was funny… but they, like everything else good in the movie (like the theme song) repeated it to DEATH
seen the last few episodes of South Park? Half of them are amazing, the other half are, like Team America, ripping off their old material, half assed and repetitive…
Posted by Goon on December 22nd, 2004Leave a Reply