Team America: World Police Review
by Bob Bloom (bob AT bloomink DOT com)October 20th, 2004
TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE (2004): 3 1/2 stars. Written by Trey Parker & Matt Stone & Pam Brady. Directed by Trey Parker. Rated R. Running time: Approx. 100
mins.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are equal opportunity offenders: liberals, conservatives,
actors, Koreans, pretentious Broadway musicals, fellow filmmakers, Muslims, it makes
not a whit of difference to them.
Anyone and everyone is fair game for their satirical savagery.
So, if you're easily offended and a card-carrying member of the Political Correctness police, I suggest you give Team America World Police a wide berth.
However, if like myself, you enjoy a hearty laugh at other people's expense and get a
charge out of over-the-top tasteless lampooning, then rush to the theater because
Team America is outlandishly hilarious.
Irreverent as hell, Team America doesn't take potshots, it uses a howitzer to
obliterate its targets.
The funniest conceit is that it's all done with puppets. Pull their strings and they'll
do anything — and I do mean anything.
Team America is rated a hard R for strong language (the "F" word is bandied about
more times than a David Mamet play) and, to quote the press kit, "graphic, crude
and sexual humor." In other words, don't bring the kids, it isn't the Muppets.
The storyline for Team America is simple enough: a special anti-terror group that
polices the world and destroys terrorists wherever they are found.
And what difference does it make if, in the process, half of Paris, including the
Lourve and Eiffel Tower are destroyed, of if the Pyramids of Egypt are crumbled to
dust. It's all in a good cause: To preserve the American way of life and freedom.
To further that cause, Team America's leader, Mr. Spottswoode, recruits an actor,
Gary Johnstone, currently starring in the hit Broadway production of Lease, to use
his thespian abilities to infiltrate a den of terrorists and discover their nefarious
plans.
The organizer of the terrorist cabal is none other than North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il, who sounds very much like South Park's Cartman.
Kim wants to destroy the world because he is friendless and 'ronery.' To abet his
plan, he dupes members of the Film Actors Guild to help him promote a peace conference.
It is upon the members of F.A.G. that Parker and Stone aim their most satiric spears.
Puppets of Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Helen Hunt, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Samuel L. Jackson, Matt Damon and Liv Tyler, among others, spout inanities about
peace and harmony. Even Michael Moore comes in for a harsh roasting.
And while these performers most likely won't invite Parker and Stone to any parties
in the near future, the rest of us can chortle at the send-ups.
You really have to see Team America to appreciate just how hilariously offensive it
is. From puppets having sex to getting drunk and spewing all over an alley to decapitations and disembowments, nothing is off limits.
In any other movie such violence would be sickening, but because of the use of
puppets it is so cartoonish and so broad that your only defense is to howl.
Team America is a poke in the nose, a kick in the pants to namby-pamby types afraid of offending anyone. It's rather liberating, which, is what Team America is all
about.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be
reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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