Trey Parker and Matt Stone, at least for what they know as comedians and filmmakers, do their jobs well for their intended audience. The people who will want to see this are likely already fans via South Park, or perhaps by way of Cannibal: the Musical! or BASEketball. And like their past projects, they incorporate everything they can work with (i.e. the most extreme exaggerations imaginable by way of influences of Monty Python, Broadway musicals, Troma, and the presence of celebrities in the media) and take it a step further. By looking at just the idea of having a film where every single speaking or non-speaking role are made by puppets on strings (first parody being Thunderbirds, which luckily doesn't wear off as a novelty but stays fresh through numerous visual gags) brings to question if they're trying to make a big social point about the state of the world, or if they just want to try something new, challenging, and wacky. The latter might be the more rightful argument.
I could go into the plot, however there is nothing crucial to divulge. Chiefly, the film takes on the story conventions ingrained in the kinds of summer blockbusters Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer produce (there's even a reference somewhere about Pearl Harbor), involving a team of elite fighters who stop terrorists with WMD's all around the world. But with the emergence of Kim Jong Il the brutal, Elvis-hair dictator, and the Film Actor's Guild (or F.A.G.), they plan to stop the team. While America's now current President and his opponent are left out of the fun, most of what has been up for grabs satirically is in this film. What ensues from start to finish are a string (no pun intended) of gags involving anything and everything to get a laugh out of the obvious, the subtle, the obscene, and the stupid.
Parker, Stone, and co-writer Pam Brady, are ambitious with this film, and aside from the sometimes ludicrous nature of the punch lines, the point of the film (while appropriately convoluted by way of the blockbuster genre) isn't lost on me. Is America bad, good, or neutral in its actions as world police officers? The point might be lost on some, though, and some of the gags don't work as well as the best ones. But when the film delivers, it's on par with the boys' best work. The sheer audacity of the production is one that's so original and outrageous that you sometimes might laugh at yourself for laughing. By the time the climax of the film hits in the heart of North Korea, all bets are off. Team America: World Police doesn't try for the kind of dead-pan satire of say Dr. Strangelove. It's more akin to Airplane! That is if it were made by a couple of unhinged, often smart-ass couple of guys as if let loose in the film studio to run rampant. Some jokes may just fly over your head, which is perhaps all the better- it's the kind of film I'll want to see again with a bunch of friends.
So, "terrorists, TERRORIZE THIS!"
I could go into the plot, however there is nothing crucial to divulge. Chiefly, the film takes on the story conventions ingrained in the kinds of summer blockbusters Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer produce (there's even a reference somewhere about Pearl Harbor), involving a team of elite fighters who stop terrorists with WMD's all around the world. But with the emergence of Kim Jong Il the brutal, Elvis-hair dictator, and the Film Actor's Guild (or F.A.G.), they plan to stop the team. While America's now current President and his opponent are left out of the fun, most of what has been up for grabs satirically is in this film. What ensues from start to finish are a string (no pun intended) of gags involving anything and everything to get a laugh out of the obvious, the subtle, the obscene, and the stupid.
Parker, Stone, and co-writer Pam Brady, are ambitious with this film, and aside from the sometimes ludicrous nature of the punch lines, the point of the film (while appropriately convoluted by way of the blockbuster genre) isn't lost on me. Is America bad, good, or neutral in its actions as world police officers? The point might be lost on some, though, and some of the gags don't work as well as the best ones. But when the film delivers, it's on par with the boys' best work. The sheer audacity of the production is one that's so original and outrageous that you sometimes might laugh at yourself for laughing. By the time the climax of the film hits in the heart of North Korea, all bets are off. Team America: World Police doesn't try for the kind of dead-pan satire of say Dr. Strangelove. It's more akin to Airplane! That is if it were made by a couple of unhinged, often smart-ass couple of guys as if let loose in the film studio to run rampant. Some jokes may just fly over your head, which is perhaps all the better- it's the kind of film I'll want to see again with a bunch of friends.
So, "terrorists, TERRORIZE THIS!"