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Review of Team America World Police
The movie is essentially a parody of your standard summer blockbuster. In this case we have "Team America", the stereotypical hodge podge band of freedom fighters brought together to kick ass (not surprisingly) for America and for Freedom. It turns out that marionettes are the ideal vehicle for such a film: the summer blockbuster genre has at its very core the super huge special effect. A parody would be hard pressed to convincingly duplicate these effects. But these are puppets. So the effects are supposed to look silly. And this is fortunate: the film takes constant blissful pleasure in the blockbuster tradition of demolishing national monuments, from the Eiffel tower to Mount Rushmore.
Our team of freedom fighters hits all the standard cliche's: we lose a member, find a replacement, who gets jaded and ultimately must come to terms with his feelings about his job while the team comes to accept the new guy.
Of course, there is some sort of a plot as well. In South Park the movie, Parker used Saddam Hussein as his evil joke. This time it's Kim Jong-il. He's really no different than Saddam was last time around. Just a ludicrous bad guy. In this case he's busy masterminding a stupid plot where he unifies the hollywood liberals and various terrorist organization as part of your standard wreck the world plan. It's thin, but no thinner than what it parodies.
I think my general concern going into this movie was the politics. The movie could very easily get mired down in preaching a point. But thankfully it never really does that. It simultaneously makes fun of liberal hollywood actors, and the rah rah 'Go America' right wing stereotype. But the movie isn't really picking sides: it's more about parodying the genre of summer blockbuster then it is about right vs left or war vs peace. Thats a good thing. Parker has proven time and time again that he can make simple points very well. South Park has addressed countless social issues over the years, and the feature film really took issues like censorship and parenting in a very meaningful way. Team America doesn't spend much time trying to seriously address the issues. It's just simple fun.
The other major concern that I harbored was that the marionette jokes would run thin. As I said before, the use of marionettes works great for mocking special effects, but the film easily could have constantly referred back to the fact that we are watching puppets. There are only a few jokes like that. Since they are used so sparingly, they make it all the more amusing when it happens. And there's a lot of hilarity to be derived from puppet sex when the film is pretending to be serious about it.
Like all of Parker's movies, they come out guns blazing, and 30 minutes in, I find myself needing a commercial break. The jokes are constant and funny. Maybe too funny. By the middle of the film you see something funny but are so desensitized that it's tough to muster another laugh. Of course then they turn around and beat you over the head with something new.
It's also worth noting that the facial puppetteering is really cool. Everyone involved should be really proud of themselves for pulling off something so visually unique.
I really enjoyed the film. I went in with high hopes and was pleased to have them all met. Even my wife, who is quite sick of South Park and wasn't looking forward to watching this at all came out absolutely giddy with laughter.
If you're a South Park fan, you'll love this movie. If you're a fan of summer blockbusters, and can tolerate the language, you'll love this movie. If you're a prude, watch something else. As for me, this is the first movie in months that I decided to buy the DVD before it was over.
I wasn't desensitized; I just thought the first half of the movie was funnier than the second half. There were some good moments here and there later in the movie, but the first half had the whole audience laughing hysterically at least once a minute.
(Slight spoiler, I guess...) I think they overestimated the staying power of the "Hollywood stars are actually conniving villains" joke. The incongruity was funny at first, but the film repeated the same basic gag over and over with only slight variations and it got tiresome.
However, I'm glad I stayed till the end of the credits.
Kim Jong-Il's deadly panthers! (oooh, scary!)
The new guy's panic signal.
The stretch Lamborghini!
It's...inebidable.
The opening scene with the marionette's marionettes,
The new guy's terrorist disguise.
The psychic team member. "I sense I'm attracted to him."
The 'love' scene.
Team America's theme song.
Freedom costs a buck-oh-five.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess Parker & Stone are gay, because they sure do seem obsessed by cock.
Watching TechTV on Saturdays got me hooked on The ThunderBirds, and the same reportedly inspired Parker/Stone to make this flick. It looks just as fun, if not more so, than the original.
Can't wait!
... apparently completely incapable of understanding satire, parody, OR irony.
Unless Drudge made that thing up.
This movie almost got an NC-17 for having simulated oral sex between the marionettes.
Feel free to read my thoughts and pseudo-legal analysis on the subject.
I actually ended up endorsing a different position than I expected going in. However, my argument would be different if I viewed "as indirect censorship the government's long standing threat of the forced general labeling of movies absent industry self-regulation" (to quote myself).
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
a movie based on politics that really doesn't have a bias or an op-ed piece, and just around Election Day.
Yeah, we were in serious danger of holding our elected government officials responsible for their actions!
This should pull us off the trail, though. Whew!
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
Your whole review is spent incensing the movie. As much as I like South Park, I'm skeptical, The reviews over at Rottentomatoes.com paint a differente picture...
I think CmdrTaco's wifes website got slashdotted. Or at least I'm not getting to it. On another note, when will slashdot every get lampooned? I wonder, if we trash talked Parker and Stone enough if they'd make fun of us one day...
Oops, how did this get here?
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You know what is funny? I point out, in a discussion of kerry's tax plan, that he pays less than 13% in federal taxes and I get modded down to -1 in about 5 minutes.
I post this, which has no redeaming value, and it hasn't been moded down yet. Why is it so hard for people to mod like they should? The names of those that mod a message should show up so we can see who is doing it.
skewing the tax code to favour the welathy and bankrupt the treasury is not excusable.
It's impossible to bankrupt the treasury. If, to pick a wild example, we elected a bunch of debt-hating communists, the federal government could simply print money to fulfill literal-value of past debt and then change the currency to a new standard.
Sure, it'd wreck the economy of the entire world--but the US Gov't could do it relatively easily.
I saw this at a sneak preview Saturday night. It was by far one of the funniest movies I've seen in years. My friend and I laughed through most of it -- as did the rest of the theater. I should warn that it is horribly offensive and crude. It makes fun of pretty much everyone. Therefore: If you can't take a joke and laugh at yourself don't see it. If you can take a hit of satire and laugh at just how absurd the world is then this is perfect.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The review keeps talking abot Parker as responsible for the film. Aren't Parker and Stone equal partners? Does CmdrTaco know something I don't??
and actually have wait times for most procedures within a statistically insignificant margin of Canada and much of western Europe.
I guess you haven't seen this report. And it's also interesting that how you bash the "free market" running the health care, yet fail to mention the malpractice suit crisis here in the U.S.
Whatever might have been good about the US health care system, say 20 years ago, has faded in the stupid experiment of a "free market" running health care.
As far as I remember, whenever I needed to see my doctor, I can usually see him on the same or next day. I'm satisfied with my doctor, and if I'm not, there are host of other doctors that I can switch to. And when my wife's slutty friend got knocked up, she didn't have any problems getting medical care and Medicaid even picked up the whole tab.
And as for your 43% gains this year, lucky you. Just glad you weren't retiring in a period that saw persistent declines in stock values, let alone right after a massive drop like '87 or the tech bubble blowout.
If you put all your retirment funds into tech stocks, you got what you deserved. And there is a reason why many financial experts recommend that you should put 30% of your funds into bonds, with that perchange increasing as you get near retirment, as bonds usually go up when the stocks go down, thus providing a "buffer" for your investment account.
I conclusion, it doesn't make sense that everyone needs to suffer because you have a shitty doctor or due to your lack of investment knowledge.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
It's also worth noting that the facial puppetteering is really cool. Everyone involved should be really proud of themselves for pulling off something so visually unique.
It strikes me it pays much homage to the work of Gerry Anderson from Stingray , through Thunderbirds, to Terrahawks.
In fact Team America is more of a homage to Gerry Anderson than the US live action remake of Thunderbirds.
Oh, and moderators, to make this post on-topic, I ask for links to a cross-platform-viewable trailer to this movie.
Lemon curry???
A basic spectrum goes (left to right): Socialist, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian.
This is flatly incorrect. Political ideologies do not exist across a linear spectrum, but can be placed on a grid.
More information on the Nolan Chart.
10-question, 2-minute quiz to chart your political leanings on the grid.
Software Wars
Which sadly translates into extreme-right poltics, kids loving things like "the ownership society," failing or refusing to understand what FDR did, etc.
Failing to understand what FDR did? What are you referring to?
Slowing down the recovery from the Great Depression?
Removing our right to plan our own retirement by saddling us with a vicious ponzi scheme masquerading as a "retirement plan"?
Bullying and threatening the Supreme Court to get his schemes declared constitutional?
Inflicting more than 100 new bureaucracies on the American people?
Using the FCC to silence his opposition?
Arresting and imprisoning people for owning gold?
Or doing everything in his power to get us involved in a war to distract the people from his failed policies?
i saw them on television doing an interview, they said "we're sending sean penn a bottle of champagne. he got us $20/mil worth of plublicity days before the movie came out".
you can't have everything, where would you put it?