Director: Trey Parker
Starring, the voices of: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daren Norris, Phil Hendrie

- Reviewed by Vickie

As any regular visitor to The ‘Pie knows, marionettes scare the bejesus out of me (see Thunderbirds), so seeing this film was something of an exercise in aversion therapy for me. I’m happy to report that the puppets in question this time weren’t nearly as creepy as I’d feared and at no point during the screening was I curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth.

That said, I’m pretty sure Team America: World Police is going to be one of those films that people either love or hate. Oddly enough, I can’t decide to which camp I belong. See, there were parts of the movie that I enjoyed, but those were relatively few and far between and, more than anything else, I found myself bored by the not-as-outrageous-as-I-expected proceedings. Don’t get me wrong, seeing Hollywood actors exploding in puppet effigy was often grotesquely over-the-top and outrageous... but I digress.

Written and directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame, Team America takes aim at numerous targets—including, but not limited to, the war on terror, terrorists, political celebrities, Democrats, Republicans, big-budget but hollow Hollywood action films and the foibles of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. The story centers on Gary, a chiseled Broadway actor who’s enlisted by Team America to help them infiltrate terrorist cells using his “craft.” Their mission, aside from blowing up everything in their path, is to stop the trade of WMDs and thwart the efforts of would-be terrorists around the globe. At the other end of the war movement is the Film Actors’ Guild (F.A.G.), led by Alec Baldwin and featuring a horde of celebrity crusaders. They want peace. They want Team America to back off. And, in the world of Stone and Parker, their approach is just as single-mindedly lame as that of the gun-toting, shoot-‘em-up, freedom-loving Team.

Like South Park, Team America smartly skewers politics and pop culture with abandon, and the film is pretty much guaranteed to offend most audiences in some way. Parker and Stone wisely opt to be critical of everyone, though, so that their mockery is supremely well-balanced. No one is immune to their derision, regardless of sex, race, religion or affiliation. Some of the humor is groan-inducing, some is laugh-out-loud funny and some of it falls flat completely. But, for me, there wasn’t enough of it. There were sections of the film where it felt like I was watching filler. Nothing was happening and scenes dragged on too long. Even the much-ballyhooed puppets-having-sex scene felt like it was beating the visual joke into the ground after a while.

There are several songs featured in the film, and I expect those will be the most popular aspect of Team America. The rock anthem, “America! F**k, Yeah!” is bound to be a classic along the lines of “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”, and the musical tirade against director Michael Bay was delightfully perfect. Nonetheless, the movie didn’t leave me feeling giddy or satisfied.

I can’t explain it, but I just wanted it to be tighter, shorter perhaps, and, I dunno, better somehow.

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