Movie Info
Movie Name: Team America: World Police
Studio: Scott Rudin Productions
Genre(s): Comedy/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): October 15, 2004
MPAA Rating: R
Attack panthers!!!
When the world is in danger, there is only one group that can save them…Team America! When Team America learns that there might be a massive terrorist assault, Team America must find a way to infiltrate it. The solution is a Broadway actor named Gary Johnson who they hope can act his way into the terrorist cell. Unfortunately, the cell is traced back to North Korea’s Kim Jong-il and he’s got powerful allies in the Film Actors Guild (aka F.A.G.)…and Team America might have its toughest challenge yet!
Written, directed, and produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Team America: World Police was a political and action satire that had to fight to avoid an NC-17 rating. Performed by puppets, the movie was well received by critics and had a strong turnout at the box office. The movie has continued to gain a cult following over the years since its release.
The real power in America…F. A. G.
After the fun of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut and Parker and Stone pushing the limits of taste and style while providing provocative social commentary, I looked forward to Team America: World Police. While I didn’t think it was as good as the South Park movie, I did enjoy it.
Parker and Stone generally produce a tight script. Comedy is tricky for me and though I sometimes enjoy a film like a Naked Gun slapstick, pun loaded story, I generally like plot tor theme driven comedies more. Team America falls into this category. Though there are tons of gross-out humor, there are also some real questions about society like the role of celebrities and how they perceive themselves and if the battle to protect the world is too big of a cost.
There’s something you don’t see every day…
A lot of the movie is based around the visuals of the puppets and can take a lot of its looks from Thunderbirds and Fireball XL5. The movie has a great intro shot which has puppets being operated by a puppet to mock the idea and continues to blur the lines between being a “puppet movie” and an action movie with puppets as the stars. Scenes like the dancing and fighting scenes are smart because they revert to “easy” puppet operation (moving the puppets up and down) but scenes like using black cats as panthers are genius.
…and that is really something you don’t see every day
Like the South Park movie, much of what is remembered from this film is the music. The movie is surprisingly a musical with a number of songs factoring into the plot. The movie gets its jabs at other big action movies through is puppets and songs which even attack Michael Bay outwardly. Plus, who can forget the classic “Team America (F@!# Yeah!)”.
Team America: World Police isn’t for everyone and some of the politics might rub some people the wrong way. I think it is a rather smart movie with a message that isn’t always expressed in movies. I like that you can’t say it is a pro-Republican or pro-Democrat film and that Parker and Stone aren’t afraid to have their own voice…I wouldn’t even mind seeing a sequel to Team America someday…f@!# yeah!
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