Midweek DVD - Team America: World Police
Filed under: Midweek Movie — Malcolm Owen @ 4:40 pm
There are very few films out there that can not only be viewed without thinking too hard about the content, but also be hugely entertaining by making you think. Yes, it’s a weird combination of thoughts, but that’s what sums up my view on Team America: World Police.
On the surface, it’s a Trey Parker and Matt Stone film, full of the usual things you would expect from the creators of South Park and Baseketball. Except this time, it’s neither live action, nor high quality animation. It’s puppets. Like watching Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet, but on cocaine. (”Drugs are bad, mmkay”)
For the non-thinking section, it’s a laugh-out-loud film taking shots at Kim Jong-Il, Michael Moore, tons of actors (including Matt Damon) among others, telling the story of an actor from a Broadway musical being chosen as the new recruit for Team America. Not too long after joining, he’s thrust into action as an undercover terrorist, and after certain events happen, Team America gets all but destroyed, leaving it up to Gary to take on the Film Actor’s Guild and North Korea’s armed forces.
This on it’s own is funny, but various things build up on that, such as the many parodies and hidden bits that you have to rewatch to catch, and the puppet sex scenes. (Really! The warning on the UK DVD cover actually says “Contains strong language, violence and sex all involving puppets”).
As for the thinking bit, you have to question if any of this could happen in real life. To me, the stereotyping, the mass protesting, the fact that some celebrities try to dictate to the rest of the world what should or should not happen, all really do exist in the world. It happens all the time. Team America is just showing it in a bigger, more obvious way, and we really should see if some parts of our culture can adapt to make these things less… um… err…
…Sorry, my train of thought left me. Damn puppet sex scene…
“Team America - World Police (Special Collector’s Widescreen Edition)” (Paramount)
