1/12/2006: Views: Team America, World Police
Team America, World Police 2004, dir. Trey Parker
Those "South Park" guys have done it again: Team America: World Police is a masterpiece. Story-wise it's nothing less than you'd expect from Trey Parker & Matt Stone - biting political commentary, subtle parody intertwined with bathroom humor, and lots of poking at the entertainment industry - but this time it's all presented in a glorious big budget, live action adventure movie.
Well, live action might be misleading.. it is live, with 3-D sets and real explosions, but it's with puppets. Marionettes to be specific.
The story is pretty good: Team America rushes around the world fighting terrorists, usually destroying the area they went to protect in the process.. oops. They draft a Broadway actor who's reluctant to join the team, but he turns out to be an excellent addition, able to act his way into any terrorist stronghold. Along the way we go to Paris, New York, Washington DC, Cairo, the Panama Canal, and Mt. Rushmore, running into a dozen or so misguided political movie stars plus Matt Damon. The real star of the film is North Korea's Kim Jong Il who's as tragic an anti-hero as we've ever seen, and we're treated to quite a few songs that are as good as any of Parker's musical efforts to date.
Parker does a great job directing the action, thanks in large part to Bill Pope's cinematography (the Matrix movies), the sets & costume crews, and the Chiodo brothers' puppetry. These aren't your childhood toy puppets: they have fully animatronic faces, amazingly detailed costumes, and a range of movement that will surprise you, even though they never stop looking or moving like puppets. They're really quite sophisticated, lengthy puppet sex and puking scenes notwithstanding.
Parker says in the DVD extras that he wanted to do a Jerry Bruckheimer action movie "but with puppets" and that's just what he's done. Along with his brilliant sense of satire (offending just about everyone, as usual), he's made an incredibly lush movie, intricately detailed and visually beautiful, with a lot of laughs and cool explosions.
