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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.
Is there no shame left? These are our children who are watching these sorts of things.
Also, every time our precious children watch a bad movie, a kitten dies. Will someone *please* think of the kittens!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Yeah, the New Deal was such a failure. Things like:
- Establishment of a minimum wage.
- Abolishment of child labor.
- Creation of civil and public works to build up our road systems, national parks, public schools hospitals, dams, runways, etc.
- Establishment of the SEC and rules for publicly traded companies to abide by for the benefit of investors.
- Formation of the FDIC to insure bank deposits, thereby restoring trust in the nations banks.
Social Security may not provide the best investment return you're hoping for, but it has allowed millions of Americans the ability to retire with some sense of stability. And unemployment insurance gives out of work Americans the ability to keep on their feet while they seek new jobs.
Of course there are people who game the system, and the challengs is how to get them to realize that they'll be much better off working for a living rather than just taking in an unemployment check every month. But I think the problem of poor people gaming the system is nothing compared to that of rich people who game the system and don't pay their fair share of taxes.
Without these social benefit programs, the number of people living on the streets would be far, far greater than it is now and our country's status in the world would be far, far lower. I'm more than happy to pay the $500 or so a month to keep that from happening while at the same time ensuring that no matter what happens to my personal investments, I'll still have a nice income waiting for me when I retire.
In a civilized society, the good of the many outweigh the good of the few. It may be overplayed, but it's true.
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
Kenseyan economics (controlling fiscal and monetary policy) as FDR did by increasing the amount of government supplied employment was popular to many people because of the fact that they were able to work for their subsistence and feel some accomplishment to it. It restored dignity to a lot of hard working Americans who simply lost their livelyhood from the excesses of the American wealthy. Remember. This was a time where people were destroying products in order to increase the scarcity of them so they could demand a higher price. Whether there was an alternative to this public works welfare state will never be known. Like today, Americans wanted some financial stability.
Focusing on history, the Civil Rights movement was not a movement of the welfare state. This was the misguided policy of LBJ. He chose to do the politically convenient thing by supplying money on "the dole" instead of supplying less money to political activism in the inner city. This was mostly done in Chicago to help the political machine of the democrats continue uncontested. THis was also a way to help out farmers who would have had to produce less and so fall out of economy of scale. The food stamp program helps more than poor folk. It also helps 'family farms' and other corporations that depend on agricultural subsidys and outright payment.
The government supplied spending is well and alive in the Industrial Military complex which receives hundreds of billions of dollars in govt. contracts each year. Govt. supplied spending can also be seen in purchasing stadiums for sports team owners (which always costs the city and the taxpayers money), tax breaks for companies who move into town on the promise of jobs, take millions of dollars in tax breaks, then move out without fulfilling their end of the agreeement. Medicine and Welfare programs take up a small percentage of American money but people still insist on demonizing everyone on it.
I understand that we can't be expected to think of anyone other than ourselves: I respect that right. But we shouldn't throw up straw men just to defend our selfishness. Welfare recipients are not nor ever have come close to breaking the American bank. Giving up too much power to folks already in power always does. What America needs to guard against is abuse of power and position and not chase after those who don't even have the capacity to defend themselves.
http://cincyboys.blogspot.com/ Everything Cincinnati. Including the word 'Finnih'
- Anonymous Coward
LOL!!
Because its very affective at annoying you're average anal types.
You mean "type's."