Team America: World Police

It's not Gone With the Wind, but it is a great movie! Parker & Stone push the envelope again and again in this off the wall comedy that would make Jim Henson stand up and cheer. Any comedy that portrays Kim Jong Il as a lonely, confused and mad dictator deserves an audience. The creators of South Park pock fun at politics, celebrities, terrorism, James Bond, and puppets, while also creating a funny and well done musical soundtrack that is better than the South Park Musical / Comedy. Off the wall for most of the movie, the puppets having sex only is worth accepting this movie into the cinematic hall of fame. The vomit scene, the death of Kim Jong Il, the musical score, the montage parody and the production value are all worth it. A movie for all South Park fans, this blows (literally) Base-ket Ball out of the theater.

As much as I hate to admit it, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are actually quite talented in a sick twisted, strange, little way. After laughing my butt off during South Park Bigger, Longer & Uncut, I couldn't wait to see this movie. I was not disappointed.

This could be by far the funniest film this year. The plot is easy to follow, as it borrows from most action flicks you see these days, but the way in which it is made is incredible. The fact that these are puppets is enough to make you laugh throughout the entire film. The jokes are funny and don't fall flat. As I was watching the opening, I thought it might run out of steam as it went on. My ticket said it went for almost 2 hours, and I wondered how it would sustain the entire time. It flew. The film is a guilty pleasure.

And parents, before you take your kids to see this, then complain it was disgusting, please read the R Rating! Sit back, relax and watch, but not with coke in your mouth. It will get spit everywhere.

I went into Team America expecting to see something along the lines of South Park humor, and I wasn't disappointed.

If you can't stand South Park's humor, you won't enjoy this at all. The use of marionettes was an unusual choice, but thanks to the great puppetry and designs, they work very well.

The story is just really there to serve the increasingly twisted humor of Trey and Matt's vision. And it works perfectly. There are at least three scenes which made the audience (and me) in the theater laugh out very loud - that is something that very few comedies in recent times have been able to accomplish.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Team America; but then I really enjoy South Park. A very entertaining (adult) cinematic excursion for the South Park creators, and an impressive display of puppetry skills (for which the sex scenes will be remembered! :)

A guilty pleasure for sure. The humor is brazenly sophomoric, but this film gets away with it. Seeing marionettes performing the outrageous events in this chaos evoked some of the loudest laughs I've enjoyed in quite some time.

Terrorists, led by Korean dictator Kim Jong Il (sounding a lot like Elmer Fudd with a head cold) who has a routine aspiration to take over the world, are up against the Team America World Police. Peace activists from Hollywood also find their way into this film's psychotic universe. The socio-political mockeries are rampant everywhere, and no one is safe from this movie's vigilante response. Characters are impaled, decapitated, shot up, burned up, drowned, blown to bits etc.

The deliberately hokey puppetry work is priceless. Wires are clearly visible, (but cleverly not visible when the focus joke of a scene would be upstaged by their appearance), and the awkward, jerky movements while walking or dancing are integrated well. Puppets seen bouncing around in vehicles, or sitting stiffly in their chairs make the effect obvious too. My personal favorite action scene is the aerial dogfight while the Team America freedom fighters are discussing their soap opera love entanglements while they blast enemy planes in cheesy special effects explosions.

No mention of this film would be complete without acknowledging the brilliant love ballad, "Pearl Harbor Sucks, and I Miss You." This gag was absolute genius (and I couldn't agree with the sentiment more). Some of the other music score was clever too, fitting the general tone and style of the movie's humor.

There's a lot of language and intimate scenes not appropriate for all audiences. There seems to be a trend lately to show somebody puking, too, and the movie has a grossly protracted scene of this which seems like the film makers felt obligated to include it. Some of the in-your-face gross-out humor is overdone, but the movie is still overall a laugh riot.

Recommended for most audiences, if gross-out humor doesn't bother you.

The most realistic view of today's world and puppet sex. There are few movies that truly capture the essence of American in the post 9-11 world. Matt Damon is amazing as Matt Damon.