Review of Team America: World Police (2004) by Stefan G — 17 Sep 2015

Although the past decade has rendered its subject matter somewhat outdated, it's still an outrageously hilarious and innovative comedy film. The film itself is mostly famous for what I called the whole "South Park meets Thunderbirds on drugs" approach, wherein all characters and celebrities are played by square-jawed marionettes, and it's funnier than most of the newer South Park episodes that were being produced.

Perhaps the film's director invested more time and energy into one project rather than the other, but that's beside the point. The plot is a little thin, but to fair, that's not supposed to be the film's strength to begin with.

The same could be said about the characters, but the script is really good. The characters work very well primarily because they're blatant caricatures. They're essentially the tools for unflinching satire of both serious world events (as they were over a decade ago) and ridiculous action film clichés.

In fact, it's this absurd silliness and gleeful action, however crude it may seem, that manages to erase the film's weaknesses. Without it, Team America simply wouldn't have worked.