Team America: World Police Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)October 15th, 2004
Team America: World Police
Matinee
For my readers out there who have no interest in seeing any film by the South Park creators, much less one that was almost rated NC 17 for puppet sexuality, then this review is not the review you need to read in order to decide what to do with your weekend.
For the rest of you, the ones who have been panting for this feature-length marionette fiesta of parodic jingoism, sexual hijinks, and mockery of everything and everyone, well, settle in. I have to say off the bat that, while I laughed a lot and enjoyed myself, and want to see certain scenes again so I can laugh at them with new people, the reason this film did not get the highest marks from me is because I walked out feeling a little unfulfilled somewhere. Oh, I got blowing up of stuff, potty mouthed sex crazies, and a good spray from the offensiveness gun, just like I wanted, and all performed with great puppets in amazing sets. But somewhere, I wonder if Trey Parker got lost in his own sense of the movie, because it kind of trails off Hilarious Town into Masturbatory Village midway through (enter Spitting Image).
Although I had read ahead of time that Marc Shaiman (South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Down with Love) was doing the music for this movie, when I read the credits, it seemed like just about every single thing was done by Trey Parker. Not so much Matt Stone, really mostly Trey. I wonder if Trey got caught up in the madness of the puppets (and I have no doubt that the experience of making this film was both maddening and hilarious) and forgot where he was going with this great idea. He's not quite as good a songwriter as Shaiman, and so there is no musical epiphany to rival SP:BL&U's "Uncle F**ka."
Team America is a dead-on parody of ridiculous American action movies, as well as a comment on the overblown "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" aggressiveness that causes so many fights at pro football games and insane diatribes following a presidential debate. The movie is far more an action movie parody than a comment on any kind of politics or ideological absurdity. Given the sublime satire that South Park has amused us with for 8 years plus, I was disappointed that the fertile ground of promise that this movie offered yielded such easy fruit. The South Park movie was an incredibly offensive and hilarious movie which also tackled some fantastic issues in the trademark style of the South Park kids. Here, the shrewdness is gone and replaced by jokes about montages, action, bad dialogue, and stupidity (jokes about stupidity, I mean, not stupid jokes).
Not that the filmmaking was easy! The entire technical aspect of the film is simply awesome, great puppets, great props, sets, costumes, everything. In my notes I wrote, "Like a real movie," because they managed the difficulties of outdoor lighting and scale beautifully. I could see the storyboards for this movie being shot with live actors with no changes (well, except one section I am sure you will figure out). It's an impressive display of artistic cooperation and design and execution and I applaud it! And boy, does it earn its R rating. Parents, be advised.
However, being the first feature length marionette movie also means you tweak the noses of the audience a bit, and I thought more than a few jokes were meant to be funny solely because it was puppets doing it, and not because the joke itself was funny. This is a pet peeve of mine, I guess, since it's the same thing that irritates me about Mike Myers. So, the test is: is it funny if it were people? A great deal of the time, the answer is yes, and that is why you should see the movie. A few times (I can't give it away, but my favorite involves a glass wall enclosing our heroes) the fact that they are puppets does make the joke, but it makes it better than if it were real people.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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