Team America: World Police is definitely worth your patronage. It is certainly the best profane puppet political satire of its generation. I would go so far as to characterize it as brilliant, were it not for the fact that it scores slightly lower than South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, by mostly the same creative team.
The basic premise of Team America is simple. A hotshot Jerry Bruckheimer-esque team of special American agents protect the world against terrorists, while pissing it off with their carelessness. Team America's newest recruit is called into service to help stop a massive terrorist plot by Kim Jong Il, using the Film Actors Guild (with its childish acronym) as his pawns.
Given its masterminds, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comparisons of Team America to South Park are both inevitable and appropriate. Like its predecessor, their new film is delightfully profane, politically minded, and musically proficient as well as not live-action. In fact, the choice to use animation or, in this case, marionettes instead of actors is a deep and purposeful act of abstraction that removes the film from reality, allowing it far greater latitude in expressing its ideas than a human cast would have granted.
Plus, it's fucking hilarious. You haven't seen filmmaking till you've seen a stubbly-faced puppet face down in an eight foot long pool of its own vomit. Or, indeed, in necessary reference to the struggle to get the film away from the NC-17 rating, you haven't seen filmmaking till you've seen two puppets in the reverse cowgirl position.
Continuing the theme of "It's just like South Park, only with puppets", the film is a musical, and the music is integral to the movie, providing both emotional context and gags. I won't tell you about the music; one can't without exposing the gags. I will say, however, that the music is less well developed here; the songs are shorter and faster and, in keeping with the big action films this movie is satirizing in form, mostly occur as pop music overplays rather than being integrated into the story action.
The film has a definite point of view and a particular theme, stated twice, irritatingly, in identical language, that you could not repeat to your grandma. See, there are these three types of people....
Posted by Greg at October 18, 2004 9:18 AM
This one was in some ways better than SP:BL&U. It had a more coherent plot. It had (surprisingly) some more subtle humor. The theme being stated twice in identical language, for instance, was a necessary part TA:WP's parody of the eighties action movie. Just before the hero started that speech the second time, I said to Alla: now he must reiterate the "cocks, pussies, and assholes" speech from before.
And here is an anti-spoiler to make up for the tiny little spoiler of revealing exactly which bad language was in the big speech: gentle viewer, be sure to stay through the entire credits. At the very end of the credits, there's an additional song containing a huge mass of exposition that explains what was actually going on in the movie.
Which song? I stayed through the end of the credits, and while most of the songs got reprised, I don't recall any particular one being notable different, nor explaining anything extra.
Also, TA may have had a more coherent plot (which may or may not be worth debating), SP definitely had better characters. TA's characters existed only in thrall to the plot, to fulfill the plot's required roles. SP's characters existed on their own right, and the plot fit in around them. The latter is usually better.
Which song? I stayed through the end of the credits, and while most of the songs got reprised, I don't recall any particular one being notable different, nor explaining anything extra.
Then you missed Kim Jong-Il's origin song.
The guy in the office down the hall, he doesn't remember hearing the Kim Jong Il origin song, either.
So, anyway, it turns out that Angelo, the guy I saw TA with, he remembers the song.
So probably I was drifting in a haze of exhaust fumes and lead poisoning or something and missed it.