Saturday, September 28, 2013

Team America World Police



You won't be "so ronery"
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have a unique ability to blend the nuanced with the obvious, to mix cerebral humor with cheap sight gags and fart jokes. If this appeals to you (watch an episode of "South Park" if you are unsure), and you don't mind having your sacred cows slaughtered and made into taco fillings, this film is a must-see --for repeated viewings.

Mad dictator Kim Jong Il plans to subvert Hollywood and become the megaproliferant of the stars. Who can stop him? Only Team America, a gang of ultra-right wing marionettes who think Rush Limbaugh is suspiciously liberal. But don't fret, conservatives: Hollywood pinkos and Michael Moore take a beating, too. Nothing is sacred to Parker and Stone.

Puppets were a mad choice for a medium, but they are done hysterically. I don't know what had me laughing more, the whiskey glass soldered to the team leader's hand, or the thought of the splinters and friction fire from marionette sex!

The sound track...

screamingly funny
[...]

After I had dried my eyes from the tears of laughter; after the 'theme song' with its catchy headline ("America, f... yeah, got to save the m.....f...... world") had finally stopped bouncing around in my head; after I managed to stop chuckling quietly, or not-so-quietly, occasioning my wife and daughters to look at me oddly and shaking their heads; after sleeping over it for a night...I finally asked myself whether it was really necessary to be quite as vulgar to get a point across: whatever that point may have been.

The answer, I decided, was 'yes', for, in its contrast with the piss-takes on the universe of Hollyweird movies and the merciless and welcome satire on the theme of actors-and-other-insignificants-turned activists, it makes a serious statement, more profound than any learned discussion is ever likely to produce (or me, writing this!). Tray Parker made it explicit it in an interview with 60 Minutes: "Society is our only hope".

Indeed...

Without doubt, one of the most hysterical parodies ever!
"Without doubt, one of the most hysterical parodies ever!"

Given the current world political climate, Trey Parker and Matt Stone hit the ball right out of the park with this film. I haven't laughed so hard so frequently in a theater in years! This was simply amazing.

The sheer goofy look and movement of the deliberately low-tech puppet bodies, combined with their high-tech heads and incredibly elaborate sets, makes for some truly classic moments. When the World Police thoughtfully swoop down to take out a handful of terrorist, while simultaneously destroying much of the surrounding city in the process, you can't help but laugh at the irony. Can you say "collateral damage"?

And the overly extended scene of the two lead puppets engaging in the obligatory sex scene had me laughing so uncontrollably that I thought they'd have to take me out of the theater on a stretcher. Oh my Lord was that funny. It was one of those rare movie moment that had me...

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