Team America: World Police
Review
by : Trey Stone
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You know, it’s
in times like these that one is grateful for sly humor that
pokes fun at the foibles and follies of current events. When
you see supposedly grown adults running around our planet
like effing animals, proceeding to do their damndest to destroy
civilization in the name of saving it, it’s nice to
have defiant comedic voices that dare to stand up, cry out
loud, and declare, “PEOPLE! THIS IS NOT WHAT WE ELECTED
YOU FOR! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? WE, THE PEOPLE,
ARE PERPLEXED!”
Yeah, I’m
a very big fan of Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show”.
It was the ONLY show, a COMEDY show about the news, that instead
of being a cheerleader for the Bush Admin when they went to
war with Iraq unprovoked, that asked anything resembling hard
questions. Jon Stewart and the crew crack me up.
But this is about
the latest cinematic effort by South Park creators, Trey Parker
and Matt Stone. Now, South Park, I enjoy. Not enough to pick
up the DVDs, but I’ll tune in and often laugh, if I
catch it. The pluses, many sharp observations about silly
stuff in contemporary pop culture and current events. The
negative? Mainly, vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake. I’m
no prude, but unless you have a point, that stopped being
funny some time after elementary school. But that’s
me.
When South Park:
Bigger, Longer, Uncut came out, I saw it in the theater, and
it KILLED me. It was funny, probably the most astute story
the Trey/Stone unit ever produced with those characters. But
you know what made that film, and was the funniest part? The
tunes. I don’t plan on getting the DVD, but I WILL get
that soundtrack. Funny stuff.
What does all that
have to do with Team America? Well, Team America takes the
South Park approach to the War on Terror, and all that implies.
Instead of animated cardboard characters, you have well done
marionettes, Thunderbirds style. No computer graphics, all
models and puppets. It gets a little jarring on the eyes after
a bit, though, and the guys seem to know this. So they don’t
skimp on the writing and the jokes, though they are quite
conscious their characters are puppets, and aren’t afraid
to make fun of that, too.
And yes, the jokes
come nonstop, and nothing is sacred. From the Hollywood liberals
sympathizing with the enemy, to Team America, charging into
battle with vehicles and uniforms done up in the Stars and
Stripes, blowing up national monuments, then shrugging their
shoulders and saying, “Well, at least we got the terrorists,”
and wondering why the surviving spectators aren’t falling
over themselves in gratitude.
Yes, that’s
funny. And poignant. But I think the Daily Show approach works
for me because there’s that ever present sense of “WHAT
IS GOING ON HERE?” feeling. In Team America, it’s
just an arena for jokes. And with current events being in
many ways raw and even painful for me, that approach falls
flat.
Again, tho, like the South Park film, the best part about
the movie is the songs. From the Team America anthem (America!
F$CK YEAH!), to a jingoistic uber patriotic country song,
to a love song that describes the feeling of missing a girl,
saying she is missed on the level that Pearl Harbor sucked.
And yes, that was
a shot at Michael Bay. Big, empty Hollywood action movies
were probably the biggest target of this film. Deservedly
so. I hate them. They are as pointless as porno, but not nearly
as interesting. Few to no boobs.
Nice try, guys,
and I admire your willingness to experiment. But it didn’t
do it for me.
Team America the
movie, two bananas, the soundtrack, four bananas.
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