Posted on 10/09/2004 8:19:10 PM PDT by Snake65
Just got back from Team America: World Police.
Raunchy and utterly irreverent but incredibly funny. While they're drawing on Thunderbirds, the 60s era puppet scifi show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South Park fame) aim their scattergun humor more at Bruckheimer/Bay style filmmaking and the American cult of celebrity than the earnest old pilots of International Rescue.
Are the filmmakers a couple of racist, gay-bashing, jingoists? No. They demolish PC mores with the same giggly delight that they blow up the Louvre.
The story revolves around a "top gun" actor named Gary brought into the tight-knit Team America led by Spotswood, a highball-swilling Oscar Goldman type. Team America spends its time hunting terrorists, mistakenly demolishing monuments and causing chaos worldwide (measured in miles from America, that is). After a thrilling initial adventure (unless you're a Cairo resident) Gary inevitably has doubts about his calling and quits the team. Things go south park fast for the rest of the team during a combination dogfight/relationship discussion and the team ends up captured by the evil, Elmer Fudd-with-an-Asian-accent Kim Jong-Il, and Gary must ultimately decide whether to be a dick, a pu__y, or an a__hole.
Yes, there is puppet sex. Oh boy is there puppet sex.
There's a good deal of music too. I'm not sure that any of the songs reach the zany genius of What Would Brian Boitano Do? from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, but they're pretty funny. There's the obligatory sad lost-love song (Pearl Harbor Sucked...and I Miss You) and the catchy Team America Theme (America, F_ck Yeah!) which I and a number of other previewers walked out of the cinema singing. And a surprise appearance of one of the better South Park series songs.
Just watching the puppets move was funny. Seeing them do martial arts, chase each other in cars, drink, dance, and think about their romantic options is even better.
I thought that Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn et. al. were going to be minor cameos, but the politically active actors (who belong to the Film Actor's Guild) take a far more pivotal--or should I say suspenseful?--role in the movie than I thought. All come to a series of spectacularly ugly ends (to enthusiastic audience applause).
Alec Baldwin - gunned down
Sean Penn - eaten by "panther"
Jeanne Garafalo - head blown off
Susan Sarandon - thrown off of tower
Michael "Socialist Weasel" Moore - explosive, mustard-stained suicide vest
Danny Glover - eaten by "panther"
Helen Hunt - bisected by samurai sword
Samuel L Jackson - head blown off
Liv Tyler - shot
Tim Robbins - burned alive
Matt Damon - snapped neck
Oh, and Hans Blix gets eaten by sharks after threatening KJ-I with the possibility of an angry letter from the UN.
The movie ends with Trey and Matt making a case for Team America in what's certainly the most raunchy peroration ever put on film.
I'll be buying the soundtrack and the DVD. I can't imagine the puppet sex that was excised to earn it an "R" rating, considering what was left in.
Not for kids or sensitive viewers who might be offended by totally over the top language, sex, and violence of the puppet variety.
Ping.
several trailers at themoviebox.net...the kim jong il song " rearry ronree" is pretty funny.
OHH I ready seen that preview LOLOLOL!
You know what I hear from MTV when they have preview they made up Kim Jong 11 as MTV Gangstra with Israeli build desert eagle gun
I want see that LOLOL!
Little Kim is nowww Little Jon
Yay, there's a contest!
Fill out your information below to be entered into the Team America: World Police Sweepstakes. You can win one of 4 Kim Jong Il portraits from the actual movie autographed by Matt and Trey! Plus, prove you're one of the good guys by reading the official rules.
http://www.comedycentral.com/teamamerica/enter.jhtml
I haven't laughed that hard in a theater since I first saw "Porky's"!
Half the reason I wanted to see it were the songs - Trey Parker never disappoints in that area. (Ever seen their first movie, "Cannibal: The Musical"? "Let's build a snowman...")
Favorite parts:
The "AMERICA - F**K YEAH!" theme
Kim singing "I'm So Ronery"
The attack of the "panthers"
The drunken barf scene
Bloated, hotdog-wielding, mustard-stained Michael Moore (AKA Fat, Socialist Weasel)
"Durka-durka-durka-jihad-durka-durka!"
Janeanne Garafolo: "We read the newspaper and spit out what it says so we look like we have opinions!"
"You know, I learned something today. We're D*CKS. You all are P*SSIES, and he's an A**HOLE."
Kim Jong-Il revealed as a singing space-insect.
It's not for everyone. But then again, what is?
Alec Baldwin - gunned down. Shoulda been Alec Baldwin - stoned to death and his family too!
Like Stan said at the end of the hilarious 9/11 South Park episode, "If you're not going to root for the home team, then get the hell out of the stadium! Go America!"
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