TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE (2004)--Directed by Trey Parker. Stars Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Daran Norris, Kristen Miller. The creators of Comedy Central's SOUTH PARK spoof both the U.S. war in Iraq and the action oeuvre of Jerry Bruckheimer in this profane comedy. And, oh yeah, it stars puppets instead of human actors. Reportedly inspired by the British TV series THUNDERBIRDS and originally conceived as an exact remake of THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW using marionettes, this raucous slap in the face of left-wing Hollywood celebrities reaches a bit for laughs, often forgetting to be making fun of bad action movies and actually becomes one.

TEAM AMERICA's number-one problem, besides occasionally forgetting to be funny and wallowing in the same cliches that it accuses Michael Bay of doing, is the hypocrisy of its politics. The concept of Hollywood filmmakers producing a poltically tinged film that charges that Hollywood filmmakers are too stupid or naive to have intelligent, well-informed opinions about politics doesn't sit well with me. That Parker and Stone are intelligent political satirists makes the film's anti-celebrity viewpoint even more perplexing. Granted, the political humor in SOUTH PARK bounces all over the map so much that it's difficult to get a fix on their personal politics, but TEAM AMERICA's attitude is decidedly to the right. And there's nothing wrong with that, only that the inconsistency of their viewpoint is a distraction.

Only Broadway actor Gary Johnston (voiced by director/co-writer/co-producer/songwriter Parker) can save the day when North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il (Parker) begins stockpiling weapons of mass destruction in an attempt to conquer the free world. Team America, a U.S.-based police force dedicated to wiping out international terrorism, is short a member after a mission in Paris, and recruits Gary to impersonate an Iraqi terrorist and learn the master plan. Turns out the plot is already underway, and involves the cooperation of Hollywood's most vocal liberals, including Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon and many others, none of whom, it should be pointed out, contributed their own voices to Parker's acidy depictions.

Technically, TEAM AMERICA is a wonder, filling the screen with splashy miniatures and marvelously detailed sets. Best of all, like the brilliant SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT, TEAM AMERICA is a musical with the songs providing the film's most reliable source of laughs, whether the lyrics are ripping on Ben Affleck's shortcomings as an actor or providing Team America's hilariously jingoistic battle cry: "America! Fuck yeah!" TEAM AMERICA has a lot of laughs, especially its fiendish punishment of Hans Blix and the petulant portrayal of Kim Jong Il, so I do recommend the film. Just try not to let its befuddled politics confuse you.

Harry Gregson-Williams, who has written several generic action scores, contributes another one, although that's really the point, and cinematographer Bill Pope (SPIDER-MAN) coats his wooden stars with a sheen that would make human movie stars envious. Several seconds of a sex scene--involving puppets--had to be cut to avoid an NC-17 rating.

The to-the-right-politics seems to me fundamentally 'apolitical' (or pure 'style politics'), more based on which side struck them as more FAG-gy (movie joke, not my slur) at the moment the short attention span moviemakers made up their gags, and inadvertently allowed the spirit of Michael Bay to pump through their own slight-as-marionette frames while cooking up the mock inspirational numbers.

Homer Simpson endearingly straightforward stupid always wins in these campaigns over affectedly, nuancendly, continental, multilateral stupid. (Personally, I think, on the other hand that...muzzle, muzzle,mmpph,, okay, not here, now ;-) )

Put another way, they got carried away on the same braindead inspirational wave of movie B.O Michael Bay opening week stumpspeeching morphing into postmodern campaigning they may have set out to make fun of in the first place, simply by letting it out of its box and work its mesmerizing strike-you-dumb-and-stupid-magic on them.

That's my private theory. In short, don't look for satire of any depth satisfying anyone on dialectical critique points as determining factor (I'm sure that a week or two from now that wolves-commercial doing its number on American minds will get as honest a SOUTH PARK skewering on puffed up fakery lines as the Hollywood actors receive here). What you will find is a mild ribbing all around (the 'we're all fools, but the patriotic ones are our fools and we're going to kick some ass' noncontroversial one), the same scattershot of funny to dud gags as a Zucker movie, and that amazing puppeteering and related trains of cinematic fancy, reason enough to earn this its momentary pull-its-punches commercial niche ( How is it doing?), and whatever lasting value it will have.

MILD SPOILER






Yeah, it is what it is -- "South Park" done with puppets. If you like the sound of that, you'll like this. Enthusiasm in conservative circles or the occasional outrage I've seen from some liberal movie reviewers (Ebert) spectacularly misses the point. (I do think it's fair to say in the end these guys tilt a bit right, though.)

So it's a slumgullion of extremely funny bits (I especially cracked up during the revelation of the big secrets -- why does the hero fear acting? And why does the sidekick hate actors?) and some dud one and some dud over the top ones. The idea of a puppet puking three times his body weight sounds a lot funnier than it really looks, I'm afraid.

I liked it a lot, myself, though, all in all. In fact, it'll probably make my top ten list, if only because I think it'll be endlessly rewatchable. Kim Jung Il is my favorite bad guy in movies this year -- a lock for the MTV movie award!

The idea that a puppet sex scene almost got this movie a NC-17 boggles the mind, incidentally.

doug

Parker is a Libertarian; not sure about Stone...

(more SPOILERS)

Barring perhaps GARFIELD, I can't honestly say I laughed harder or longer (and had to be shushed) all year in a movie theater, than the TEAM AMERICA scene seemingly built to show off how much fake vomit can be piped through a puppet. I really do think the film works as a summer action movie parody. As entertainment and pop culture critics, Parker and Stone are peerless. As political satirists they're full of puppet vomit.

In both TEAM AMERICA and the vast portion of "South Park" the bratty anarchic spirit is admirable, but they frequently don't seem to grasp the politics or situations to which they're supposedly Sticking It. TEAM AMERICA is at its worst nearly nonsensical when attacking Hollywood liberals. For hypocritical starters, Parker and Stone are using their position as entertainers to discuss their political views via TEAM AMERICA, but those views are entirely that entertainers shouldn't be allowed to use their public voices for discussing their opinions. Not to violate board policy, but the only thing Parker can think of to throw at Michael Moore is that he is overweight... and that he is a suicide bomber? Wait, hold up, is Michael Moore a suicide bomber? How does one claw up the slippery slope till dedicated, intelligent peacenik Tim Robbins is holding hostages with a machine gun? Does Parker really think he's smarter than Tim Robbins (I mean, at least Robbins' political films actually make sense)? Does the public widely associate Samuel L. Jackson with spouting mis-informed political views? Huh? It's a very funny visual and non sequitur gag, but is showing someone's head being ripped off, or puppet skeletons burning really much of a critique of their politics? I'd wager none of the celebs implicated are the slightest bit hurt, since the puppet politics barely mirror their real-life counterparts.

I keep flashing back to the BIGGER, LONGER, UNCUT gag about Winona Ryder (happy birthday, Noni!), who is apparently being skewered in the film for being an "indie film darling" and public exhibitionism... but she is renowned for neither. And still, the dirty joke isn't ruined.

Roger Ebert says the White House gets a "free pass" in the film, by not even being represented. This is true to a point (why should Susan Sarandon take personalized ridicule, but not actual war-mongers?), but still I think he's missing the larger idea, that the administration is being represented by Team America themselves, with no higher power to stop them. I don't really blame Ebert, though, because the filmmakers themselves don't make clear even these more salient points.