By Richard James
Leave it to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the raunchy cartoon “South Park,” to outdo themselves, once again, with Team America: World Police. It is difficult to think of any filmmakers who created a film that managed to offend just about everyone. Granted, people might call Michael Moore’s Bush-trashing documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” a one-sided slanderous centerpiece on right-wing conformists, but Team America is another kind of hateful bomb. In fact, Moore makes an appearance here as a sort of fascist nincompoop. Whether you are a part of any political affiliation, ethnicity, race or sexual orientation, there is no person or stone unturned.
The other thing that makes this satire more distinctive from the rest is there is no red-blooded human actor present. Instead, the characters are portrayed by puppets; sort of the anti-Muppets. These marionettes are not for the “Sesame Street” set.
The movie starts as a simple retread of an action movie; the basic calm before the storm. The setup takes place in Paris. A meeting takes place between obvious Middle-Eastern caricatures, trading between each other a mysterious looking suitcase. It is later discovered that the item contains possible weapons of mass destruction. The world police, who look like a cross between bad James Bond spies and Charlie’s Angels, spring into action to foil the Arabians deadly plans. Unfortunately, the plans go awry and everything changes from there.
The plot follows to New York where we are treated to a vulgar but humorous send-up of the Broadway show “Rent.” The show in the movie is called “Lease: The Musical.” There we meet the main star of the show Gary, who does an inspirational, if not hilarious song called “Everybody has AIDS.” After the show ends, we meet an enigmatic older guy named Spottswoode, who offers Gary the biggest role of a lifetime: to join his world police team, act like a terrorist and uncover the plot of the destruction of the world.
Gary is hesitant at first but decides to join the team, even though he has no idea what he is doing, or even, much less, how to act.
To talk anymore of the mostly linear plot would take the fun out of the surprises the movie offers, including real-life actors who make “cameo” roles as puppets. The best part of the movie is how it represents Hong Kong dictator Kim Jong IL, who is foul-mouth maniacal psychopath wanting to blow up the world.
Critics will definitely think of this as an obnoxious piece of trash that just wants to offend everything in plain sight with out having a beating heart to it. But people who know Parker and Stone know that’s what they do best.
No matter what you may think of them, the message is pretty clear: the bloated action Hollywood movies take themselves to seriously, while the political climate seems to have strong hold on the American life.
In some twisted way, “Team America” is a very auspicious ironic study on what’s going on in today’s media. The very idea of why the governmental hold on censorship has turned art into nothing but commerce. The movie isn’t really that much of a classic “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” was, but it is art. Smart, good, trashy art.
Final Grade: A –