Review of Team America: World Police (2004) by Shane S — 22 Dec 2014

A surprisingly kind-of-liberal-but-not-really take on world politics, Team America: World Police sends up the uppity holier-than-thou celebrity opinion as well as the undying support for attempting to police the entire world because you don't agree with them. While it does argue the usage of black and grey morality as a reason to judge why America tends to be rather gung-ho about taking down people we don't agree with, it also admits that the other side makes points that we should listen to: that not every situation needs to be solved with ultraviolence. However, if it is something like known terrorism and totalitarianism nobody can sufficiently defend, something like Team America is needed so that everybody can happily live. Take for example the Bin Laden compound raid - Bin Laden went above and beyond being a "dick" (using the film's analogy) and became a total "asshole" by admitting his involvement with 9/11. Granted that he was reacting to American imperialism, killing Americans is not the way to go. Of course SEAL Team 06 was needed. Who else could stop Bin Laden? We don't have a team of supermarionettes who know kung fu and have excellent skills with weaponry.

But you know, as far as its humor quality is concerned, the jokes tend to be on the toilet humor side of things. While there are great meta jokes - the lampooning of Rent's one-dimensional take on the HIV/AIDS crisis in the late '80s; Gary's use of critique to make himself feel good ("Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you"); the idea of the actor as somebody who forces their opinion through coercion (pretty much the entire film); the medium itself (come on! puppets doing adult things? it's like Thunderbirds but with huevos!) - a lot of the jokes tend to be like this:

- ha ha, the puppets are having sex. is funny.

- ha ha, Gary vomits a lot of paint. is funny.

- ha ha, the violence is over-the-top. is funny.

- ha ha, Gary blows Spotswoode to prove his devotion to the team. funny.

You know, South Park jokes but without the added dimension of kids making these jokes. Hearing that the original draft of the film was a lot less toilet humor-filled and had a lot of political satire and the "we hate everybody" positions of Trey and Matt (the reason why I'm a South Park Republican in the first place), I really wish they stuck to that. Sadly, I have a film whose centerpiece is a scene where two puppet characters have sex because Trey and Matt wanted to distract the MPAA from the ultraviolence.

But hey, if Tim Robbins and Matt "Matt Damon" Damon loved it, it's useful.