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Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
One
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Deleted/extended scenes and outtakes.
Animated storyboards. 2 theatrical trailers. 9 featurettes including:
Team America An Introduction, Building The World, Crafting The
Puppets / Pulling The Strings, Capturing The Action, Miniature
Pyrotechnics, Up Close With King Jong Il, Dressing Room Test.
Puppet Tests.
TERRORISM, world politics and Jerry Bruckheimer-style action
pictures get the South Park treatment in Team America: World Police,
a biting and frequently hilarious satire which, sadly, doesn't
know when to call it a day.
Written and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the film
emerges as a lively and frequently incisive romp during its opening
45 minutes, only to become overly repetitive and heavy-handed
during the overblown finale.
Rather like one of the excessive Hollywood blockbusters it is
seeking to deride, Team America feels over-bloated to the point
of being sickening, thereby threatening to undo much of the good
work that has come before.
The World Police in question are a Thunderbirds-style group of
marionettes, whose sole aim is to save the world from the clutches
of terrorism no matter what cost to themselves or the people around
them.
The film begins with an Osama bin Laden-style marionette picking
up a briefcase containing a weapon of mass destruction in the
centre of Paris, only to find himself surrounded by Team America's
gung-ho heroes.
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In the ensuing gun battle, The Eiffel
Tower, Arc de Triomphe and The Louvre are destroyed, although
no one seems to care given that American firepower has prevailed.
Yet the team is quickly called back into action after uncovering
a plan to destroy the world by North Korean leader, Kim Jong II,
who has also enlisted the unwitting help of the cream of Hollywood's
outspoken actors (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Susan Sarandon
and co) to help turn public opinion against the world police.
Needless to say, Team America has already antagonised the censors,
who insisted on several cuts before passing the film for American
audiences, while dividing viewers into those who got the joke
and those who dismissed it as merely offensive. It will, no doubt,
similarly split audiences in the UK.
Hence, those of a nervous disposition ought to steer well clear,
while anyone who thinks the subject matter is too sensitive to
be satirised will doubtless label it a vile creation.
In truth, it's not that bad, especially if you take it the right
way, and given the high level of infantile fun that's contained
within the film's opening section.
Several of the foul-mouthed songs are hilarious, while the much-debated
marionette sex scene is a blast, serving as the movie's hysterical
climax.
But it's pretty much downhill from there, as proceedings become
drowned amid a tidal wave of bad taste and over-familiarity that
pretty much makes Team America as bad as the films it is trying
to parody.
Still, if the idea of seeing countless world momuments being
blown up, or A-list actors being mercilessly shot, appeals to
your sense of humour, then Team America pulls all the right strings.
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