Team America: World Police

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the dynamic duo behind “South Park,” released “Team America: World Police” in 2004 with the political satire that was going on at the time. Rob Gonsalves said in his review, “The puppets here, of course, are literal: Thunderbirds-style marionettes manipulated by visible strings. At first, director Parker plays the puppets’ jerky movements for laughs, in much the same spirit as when Eric Cartman, in the previous Parker/Stone feature South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, complained about the crudely animated Terrance and Phillip, and the movie cut to the four crudely animated boys waddling away.” However, it doesn’t take long for audiences to suspend their disbelief, even during the famous lovemaking scene between two Team America members. What are human actors in big-budget action movies but highly-paid puppets anyway, saying lines and movie from one over-the-top scene to another?

“Team America’s” biggest target ends up being not terrorists or even politicians, but actors. One actor mainly, the fast-rising Broadway actor Gary Johnston, voiced by Parker, is recruited by Team America to act like a terrorist an find out when the next attack will be. The team include Joe (Parker), a blonde quarterback type, Lisa (Kristen Miller), who knows how terrorists think, Sarah (Masasa Mayo), a lover who goes around “sensing” how everyone is feeling, and Chris (Matt Stone), a cold martial-arts expert with a tragic backstory about the cast of “Cats.” In charge of everyone is the gray-haired importance Spottswoode, voiced by Daran Norris, who has a strange way of asking proof of loyalty from his team of freedom fighters. They go up against Kim Jong Il, voiced by Parker, who wants to level civilization but also has time to sing I’m So Ronery.

Gonsalves admitted, “The movie is funny, sometimes uproarious, but doesn’t hit the delirious heights of the South Park movie, one of the funniest comedies of the ’90s. It’s closer to the hit-and-miss first feature by Parker, Cannibal: The Musical, and probably comes in behind 1997’s Orgazmo, which began the long-standing feud between Parker and the MPAA (who objected to Team America’s puppet-love scene).” Parker and Stone are all about teasing everyone, and Hollywood liberals (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Michael Moore) get the worst of the pair’s jokes here. They would probably do likewise for Hollywood conservatives who position and explain Republican’s main points, if there were any besides Ron Silver (or Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was more a politician than an actor at the time). Gonsalves said, “I think Parker and Stone just can’t resist tearing down anyone who sounds holier-than-thou; they do have a message here, but, typically, it’s expressed in jock-filth terms that would make Howard Stern blush.”

Gonsalves continued, “Consciously structured like a Jerry Bruckheimer action flick (Pearl Harbor takes some lumps in a ballad called “Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You”), Team America sports some true artistry in the form of the puppetry work by the Chiodo Brothers and the intricate set design by visual consultant David Rockwell.” As usual, heart and soul have been inserted into an area that Parker and Stone want you to think they just made up after getting together and doing who knows what.

Gonsalves admitted, “It amuses me that probably the biggest star to appear in any Parker/Stone film is Ron Jeremy (in Orgazmo); after Team America, which thoroughly trounces the Hollywood elite, the duo shouldn’t expect many actors to chomp at the bit to work with them. Nor, I’m sure, do they care; in South Park and now Team America, Parker and Stone have resolved their disdain for actors by not hiring any. Their movies now play like goofs made by two guys in their basement, financed and released on Paramount’s big dime. Billy Wilder once opined, “Actors: can’t make movies with ’em, can’t make movies without ’em,” and I think he would’ve understood Team America.”

I remember people in my high school talking about this movie a little, mainly with the theme song in the film. I didn’t see it at the time because my parents were very careful on what I watched. Besides, I never watched “South Park,” and seeing how this film was made by the creators of that show, you can see how related it is. Check it out because you will have a lot of laughs at the spoofs in this film, especially with the puppet movements and how the shots of just holding on to a puppets face to resemble what real-life actors would have done is just downright funny.

Happy Independence Day everyone. I hope everyone had an enjoyable day today, especially when going out to see the fireworks. Sorry for the late posting as I had gone out today for a couple of things. See you tomorrow to see what I will review next month.