Team America: World Police  (2004)

Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Director: Trey Parker

Rating: R

Distributor: Paramount

Release Date: 10.15.04

Review Posted: 10.15.04

Spoilers: None

By Sara M. Fetters

Raunchy "Team America" Offensive – But in a Good Way

The world is at war. It is a war against terrorism. Countries are weak to stop these marauding fiends. Places such as France are only too keen to letting shaggy, turban-wearing fanatics tear apart their blissfully ignorant society. But that’s just not going to happen, not with Team America around, these masochistic fighters for truth and justice willing to lay it on the line and blow everything to pieces to keep freedom alive and democracy ticking. All of this comes virtually for free; the only strings attached the ones moving their arms and legs.

Welcome to “Team America: World Police,” the latest surreal world of the objectionably absurd as crafted by “South Park” mavericks Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Sure to offend just about everyone with half a brain, and near as sure to send everyone else into fits of spit-take chortles, this marionette-driven epic is a satire of the intellectually and sexually ridiculous. With both barrels pointed at American imperialism, Hollywood liberalism and sexual moralization, the duo has crafted a peculiar little satire that simply must be seen to be believed. And yet, at least for me, the laughter only came in fits and starts, “Team America” never able to find a consistent rhythm. Worse, it loses its edge early on, Stone and Parker not going far enough for the attacks to be anything other than purely prurient.

All that said, when I laughed, I really laughed. Hard. By now, everyone’s probably heard rumors about the explicit puppet sex and, let me just tell you, this is got to be the most eye-popping, jaw-dropping, objectionable and downright hilarious piece of film to hit screens this year. The amazingly expressive marionettes crafted by Muppet veteran Norman Tempia (“The Dark Crystal,” “Labyrinth”) and stop-motion puppet masters the Chiodo Bros. (“Elf”) engage in the raunchiest bedroom gymnastics this side of a Jenna Jameson porno. No matter that they’re anatomically incorrect, just the sight of a blonde, big-lipped sexpot bopping up and down on an imaginary penis is so absurd, so out-there, you just can’t help but laugh. Supposedly, it took ten rounds of edits before the MPAA switched an NC-17 to an R for this flick, proving once again how puritanical the ratings board is where it comes to sex over violence. These are puppets, for goodness sake, and all the activity going on is purely implied (with no sex organs how could it be otherwise?) and yet the censor mavens of the MPAA felt no qualms about letting the extremely brutal violence through unchecked.

And wow is that violence extreme. A rotund, grubby Michael Moore becomes an impassionedly Liberal suicide bomber, while movie stars such as Susan Sarandon, Helen Hunt, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon and especially Alec Baldwin are dispatched in the most gorily explicit ways this side of a Lucio Fulci zombie flick. Parker and Stone may kill Kenny day in and day out, but never have they come up with such innovative and original ways to dispatch characters such as they do here. Lampooning movies as diverse as the James Bond and Rambo series, “Kill Bill,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The King and I” and just about anything starring Chuck Norris, the duo has certainly done their homework and leave no stone unturned where it comes to filling the screen with intestinal and cranium fluids.

Where I have a problem with “Team America,” though, is in its distinctly juvenile tone. Parker and Stone set things up for a ripe satire of America’s world-wide policy on global terrorism, and yet they show an egregious timidity to go for the jugular, and don’t let the blood and guts fooling you into thinking otherwise. Instead of pointed barbs directed squarely at the current Republican administration’s policies or toward the Democratic candidate’s muddled and weak-kneed philosophy, all these two can come up with are tired homophobic rants and Hollywood Liberal bashing. It’s a mess of puppet-filled profanity, and much like my main problem with “South Park” the series, Parker and Stone get so consumed with spitting out four-letter witticisms and crass bathroom jokes they forget to pinpoint their satire as directly they could.

Yet, there is still much to love about “Team America,” most notably the musical numbers which dot the film’s red, white and blue landscape, a couple of them almost rising to the heights of Blame Canada from “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.” While most people are going to come out of the theater singing America, F**K Yeah!, my personal favorite is Kim Jong Il’s peon to interpersonal isolation I’m Lonely. Funny, tinged with a regret laced with arsenic, it’s surprisingly touching, and despite my constant chuckling I could almost feel a tear coming on. Still, these songs don’t come close to those from the previous feature, Oscar-nominee Marc Shaiman is sorely missed this time around.

For all my hang-ups with “Team America,” I still recommend seeing it, if only for the sight of two marionettes going at it every which way from Sunday. And, for all my ranting about how Stone and Parker don’t quite go far enough, there is a long monologue towards the end which boils down people – and countries – into three categories: Dicks, pussies and assholes. Once you get past the grotesque nature of the analogy, it’s surprisingly prescient, and I’m almost loathing to admit how accurate it really is (in case you’re all wondering, I’m a dick-leaning pussy).

But what I am really waiting for is the sure-to-happen midnight double feature of Peter Jackson’s bawdy Muppet film “Meet the Feebles” and Parker and Stone’s marionette filled “Team America.” It will be the Muppet/puppet double feature, and despite my reservations with both flicks I’ll still be first in line. After all, if there is anything better than puppet sex, it’s Muppet sex, and if you can see both at the same time how can you not pay the price of admission?

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

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