Posted on 10/13/2004 4:11:59 PM PDT by Renfield
Edited on 10/13/2004 4:36:12 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Don't flip out, no spoilers. Just got back from Paramount Studios' first media screening of Team America: World Police, the new film by "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. It's a nihilistic sendup of bloated, Bruckheimer-style action epics -- cast entirely with marionettes.
The titular flag-waving force battles terrorism so ham-fistedly, they often end up destroying more of the world than the bad guys they're out to neutralize. As the film opens, five freedom fighters on strings swoop down on Paris to foil an imminent terrorist strike. One blunder after another sets off a series of impossible chain reactions a la "Keystone Cops." The evildoers get bloody justice, but the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and a fair number of Parisians become collateral damage in the process.
Shortly after another f'up leads to tragedy within the team itself, the film's heroes discover that Kim Jong-Il (eeeven more eeeevil than Saddam and Osama combined) is doling out weapons of mass destruction to a far-flung network of terrorists. Why? Part of a complicated plot for world domination, natch.
The Team persuades a rising Broadway star to lend his unstoppable acting technique to the cause. Their plan: penetrate the terrorists' network, uncover the WMDs, let freedom ring, drink celebratory beers. But blunders ensue again, and the global cops must now race against time to defend humanity.
In an item I filed for the current issue of Wired Magazine about the production's tech underpinnings (Link), filmmakers Stone and Parker describe Team America's aesthetic as "suppercrappynation." They borrow the "supermarionation" puppet animation method from Gerry Anderson's '60s TV series "Thunderbirds," but crap it up. The feel becomes messier; kitschily self-aware.
Marionettes playing AK47-toting homeland defenders don't have to do much to be funny. There's a specific kind of physical humor here only possible with puppets: suspended on visible strings, they amble as if they're drunk in zero-g. During a poignant exchange, one tries to point tenderly to another's heart, underscoring a dramatic line about "feelings." Her clumsy, string-guided hand misses the mark, to great comic effect. And like "Mister Bill," the characters are at their funniest when they're suffering -- tortured, murdered, or spontaneously impaled like sentient little olives on toothpicks.
There are many moments of blow-soda-through-your-nose comedic brilliance. North Korea's megalomaniac dictator sings a reflective, autobiographical ballad. Housecats posing as rabid panthers maul celebrity peaceniks. Matt Damon's puppet doppelganger cameos as a "Timmy"-esque halfwit whose vocabulary consists entirely of his own name. A computer intelligence network touted as the world's most sophisticated -- and appropriately named I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E -- speaks in a stoned surfer drawl. If Oscars were awarded for moments of cinematic vomit excellence, The Exorcist would have won 30 years ago; one scene in Team America would make it a shoo-in today. And a marionette sex scene manages to cram in such a dizzying array of positions -- from reverse cowgirl to rimming -- you'll need a copy of the Puppet Sutra just to keep up.
Willfull crappiness aside, the film isn't without flaws. The poo/genital/fellatio humor drags as the story approaches its climax. But everything that works really works, and the film seems destined to appeal to broader audiences than Stone and Parker's previous feature-length efforts. In short: it may be the single best crappy movie you'll see all year.
Before tonight's preview began, co-director Stone explained that the cut we were about to see was far from final, and that this was the first screening beyond a small circle of friends and crew. Shooting only finished two weeks ago; scoring, mixing, and post-production were all continuing this weekend, with a completed version due Wednesday. Stone added that in an unexpected dose of real-world irony, the score for Team America -- which parodies every CGI behemoth that famed composer Hans Zimmer ever scored -- was in fact being mixed this very moment at Mr. Zimmer's studio facility in Santa Monica. The finished product is due for a one-day-only release in 800 US theaters on October 9, followed by wide release on October 15.
My prediction: Team America is going to help us win the election ! Mark my words....
From Opinion Journal:
Team America: World Police," the new movie by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, opens Friday, and the In DC Journal blog has compiled a list of comments from folks on the Angry Left site Democratic Underground, some of whom have seen advance screenings (quoting verbatim):
"I can't wait for everyone to get pissed off at US... When its seen around the world"
"Okay, I laughed in some of it but overall this is a Freepers wet dream. They poke fun at liberals BIG TIME!!!Nothing against ANY rightwingers, ONLY LIBERALS!!! Liberals are the butt of the joke & are even the villians in this.Oh, & all the liberals Die a horrific death in this. TOTALLY bias! I mean, c'mon. How can they NOT have Bush puppet? I mean, he so much a charachter that needs to be mocked. This film was very mean spirited IMO. My firned said I didn't get it. That it was an extreme right wing edge to it & that was the joke. Well, I didn't get that when I saw it. TRUST ME, Freepers will call this film their own & Trey Parker & Matt Stone have sold out BIG TIME!"
"those guys lost me years ago, when they trashed rain forest preservation & biodiversity. Call me touchy and humorless but I can't get any chuckles out of human caused mass extinction."
"Alec Baldwin is shot by Kim Jong-Il, for being an ineffective terror supporter. Hans Blix is also killed by Kim. Eaten alive by sharks. Michael Moore is portrayed as a fat socialist double-fisting some hot dogs, with ketchup and mustard running down his face. Of course, he dies. Suicide bomber."
Sounds awesome, doesn't it?
hmmmm, virtually nothing about the right wing viewpoint of it....hmmmm....brilliant....
Saw it on the 9th. Simply amazing. The libertarian answer to Michael Moore's bilge.
UNAMERICAN PUNKS!
My hubby and I saw it on Monday at an advance screening in San Diego and were laughing so hard in spots that I literally couldn't breathe! It's absolutely hysterical, but extremely graphic in language and sexual references. Anyone not familiar with South Park's propensity to not just step over the line, but pole-vault over it again and again, might find it way too much. If you're a fan of Matt and Trey, or a foe of the liberal hollywood leftists, you'll LOVE it!
I'm there.
I'm going to have to see it, too. I don't believe in real violence against any liberal, but puppet violence? Sure! :-)
This flick seems to be really pissing off the Libs. Wouldn't it be great if it had a record opening? I would love to see its opening day crush Moore's 911. I may even buy an extra ticket or two on opening day, just because.
Old Cracker, on the side of DU!
As Charlie Murphy would say, they are habitual line steppers.
"This film was very mean spirited." If a liberal says that, then I want to see it.
I'm going to see it Friday. Sounds like it is something I might enjoy.
If a DU-type complains... Sounds good to me!
>>Okay, I laughed in some of it but overall this is a Freepers wet dream.<<
Hehehehehe!
I may get a sitter to see this one!
The reviews have been a little less enthusiastic than I hoped, but seeing Kim sing "I'm Ronry" has to be worth the price of admission alone.
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