Team America: World Police

Trey Parker
2004

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are hands down the most frustrating team in Hollywood today. While half of their output is genius the other half is of an immature sixth grade jackass caliber, and unfortunately the sixth grader seems to win out. 'Team America's' puppets and setpieces are so visually creative, quirky, and technically brilliant that they are nothing short of jaw dropping. The action film parody is very clever and thoughtfully done at parts, but is cheapened significantly by focusing too closely on the war on terror. It comes off as overly topical, and therefore easily forgettable a few years down the road.

Once the great puppets and solid parody are comfortably in place Parker/Stone then do their very best to fuck it up royally by making it an immature farce of any quality the picture had. Take for example the obligatory puppet sex scene, a stupid attempt at cheap laughs that ruins the achievement and illusion created by the marionettes. "Ha ha, when your actors are genitalia-less puppets you can get away with ludicrous sex positions and practices that you would not work with live actors, that's rich." The same applies to the drunk vomiting scene...

Let's also keep in mind Parker/Stone's rampant right wing leanings. To say that "Team America" is a highly ironic denouncement of post 9/11 policies is a lame duck of a crutch. Parker/Stone have been hiding under these mamma's skirts for too long to be credible anymore. It is also glaringly apparent that while Parker/Stone take great relish in slamming real life liberal actors and public figures, there is a complete absence of lampooned conservatives of any kind.

Politics aside, the real failure of 'Team America' is its relentlessly base sense of humor. I'm all for crudity and lowbrow, but this is really more like the may an elementary school kid would joke, repeatedly saying "poop" or Andy Milonakis' rendition of 'The Superbowl is Gay.' The introduction of the musical "lease" is genuinely hilarious until the relentless repetition of the word AIDS, becomes boring and tiresome.

Matt Stone himself played a prominent role in Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine" with his feeble 'cooler than thou' pose and shitty animated sequence. Why then would he go out of his way to trash Moore in the most preposterous manner possible? From what I've been told Hollywood protects its own. I really wish there was a schoolyard bully who could step up and thrash the living bejesus out of that snot-nosed little sixth grader so that Parker/Stone's better qualities could flourish in a more fruitful and fully realized manner.

Review By Brett A. Scieszka