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America!
Fuck Yeah!
Team
America:
World Police
(Paramount)
Directed by Trey Parker
Reviewed by Joe O'Brien
South Park co-creators
Trey Parker and Matt Stone wanted to make it clear to the
audience at the premiere of their new movie Team
America: World Police that
the motive behind the film's production wasn't to kick anyone
out of public office. Whatever happens on Election Day,
Parker said, "there's gonna be a shithead in the White
House." They just thought it would be hysterical to
see Thunderbirds-
inspired marionettes act out a Bruckheimer-inspired blockbuster
(wooden dialogue, hackneyed plot lines, hokey score, at
least one major world landmark blown up per reel), and that
it would be even more hysterical with a pantload of dick
humor, naturally. And naturally, they were right.
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Go Team America: Fight Those Terrorists |
The film revolves around
an elite military squad, Team America, who police the globe
with the best of intentions but are often insensitive to the
severe collateral damage they cause. And that's about the
sharpest stab that Parker and Stone swipe at America's "dickish"
foreign policy. Much more of their ire is saved for "asshole"
terrorists, and the "pussy" celebrities who heap
nothing but scorn and blame upon Team America.*** (What a
year it is when, amid the sounds of American hysteria, one
of the most level-headed social commentaries comes from a
movie where the central theme is a metaphor about the relationship
between dicks, assholes and pussies.) |
| Parker and Stone's satire is,
as usual, the razor's edge against America's cultural scroat,
but their genius has always lied in how they make thought-provoking
comedy so of its time without trapping it in a capsule. Not
just timley, but timeless, Team
America takes aim at Sean
Penn's peacenik activism as well as "celebrity,"
Kim Jong Il's madman reputation as well as "politics,"
and asks "Why is it so confusing to be an American after
9/11?" as well as "Why is it so funny to watch marionettes
simulate hot sex in a dozen different positions?" Just
as South Park: Bigger, Longer
& Uncut's censorship
skewering is pure 1999 yet still hilarious today, it's beside
the point whether or not future Team
America audiences will know
who Janeane Garofalo is and why she's a target; the point
is, they'll bust a gut when they see the look on her puppet's
face as half its head gets blown off. |
You
Dig? You'll Dig...
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M*A*S*H*
-
dir. Robert Altman |
Hot
Shots! -
dir. Jim Abrahams |
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Top
Secret! - dir. David Zucker
& Jerry Zucker |
Meet
the Feebles -
dir. Peter Jackson |
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*** Interestingly
enough, one of the "pussies" is an unflattering
representation of Michael Moore, who Matt Stone refers to
as a deceitful manipulator. He was a little bummed when Moore
included an animated short in Bowling
For Columbine which loosely
resembled the style of South Park
and followed Stone's interview segment
in the film. Because Stone considered the cartoon grossly
anti-American, and because many viewers mistook the cartoon
for a Parker & Stone creation, he was understandably bummed,
and therefore made Moore's Team
America counterpart a pizza-scarfing
suicide bomber. |
What Would Brian Boitano Do? - The Trey
Parker/Matt Stone Filmography
Cannibal! The Musical (1996)
South Park (TV: 1997 - Present)
Baseketball (1998)* Staring Trey Parker/Matt Stone
Orgazmo (1998)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Thats My Bush (TV 2001)
Click Above To Enter The Official Movie Site!
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