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  Team America: World Police The F In Freedom
Year: 2004
Director: Trey Parker
Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daran Norris, Maurice LaMarche
Genre: ComedyBuy from Amazon
Rating:  7 (from 4 votes)
Review: Paris, France and it seems like just another ordinary day in the capital until a group of Islamic terrorists emerge from their cover, the leader carrying a suitcase containing a dreaded weapon of mass destruction. But before the evildoers seize their chance to destroy any Parisians, their nemeses arrive from the air: Team America, the World Police, and a gunfight commences with bullets flying everywhere. The terrorists are mown down one by one, and although the Eiffel Tower is hit by one of Team America's stray missiles and the Louvre is destroyed in blowing up the last would-be killer, the world police are satisfied with a job well done. However, just as member Carson asks fellow member Lisa to marry him, he is shot in the back by a terrorist who wasn't quite dead...

The creators of South Park brought us this scattered satire on not only brainless Hollywood action movies, but the political climate of the 2000s in a post September the 11th, 2001 world. Written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady, it takes the template of the kind of action movie that we were subjected to in the eighties and sends it up mercilessly, with the novelty of using puppets to perform its heroics instead of actors. The film makers are deeply suspicious of actors, or so it would appear from the latter half of the story, but before we reach that revelation there are some potshots to be taken at the United States foreign policy of blowing things up in the name of freedom. All this resembles a demented Thunderbirds episode, and if you were disappointed in the live action Thunderbirds movie, this effort might satisfy you if you don't mind the crass humour.

There is a major terrorist attack being planned, and Team America must foil it at all costs, first needing to recruit another member. Their candidate is Gary Johnston, a successful actor in the Broadway production of the musical Lease (geddit?), and as he is leaving the stage door one night after another scintillating performance (the climax of the show being the number, "Everyone has AIDS"), he is met by a mysterious older man. Worried that he is from Holllywood scouting for talent, Gary is reluctant to enter the man's limousine because he doesn't wish to perform any sexual favours for him, but his fears are dispelled when the man reveals himself as Spotswood, the leader of Team America.

Spotswood is scouting for talent after all, and believes that Gary is just the actor they need for their next project to place a disguised spy in the heart of the terrorists' lair. At first Gary refuses, but he is persuaded by Lisa to give the organisation, which has its headquarters inside Mount Rushmore, a chance, even though he has reservations. Every Team America member has to suffer a banal relationship problem, whether it stems from a grudging admittance of a terrible incident in their pasts, or a case of unrequited love, just like in a real action movie. The attention to detail is marvellous, whether it's the script or the miniatures, and they never hide the ridiculous nature of the puppets, with their jerky walking or inexpressive faces - we even get an awkward puppet sex scene. Mix this with a ludicrously jingoistic outlook, which you worry may be unerringly acurrate, and the jokes are as expertly staged as the marionettes.

By choosing their targets from either end of the political spectrum, this means the left get lampooned as much as the right, here in the form of the Hollywood actors who are always more than happy to let their liberal views be known. A disclaimer at the end tells us that the likes of Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon didn't endorse the use of their likenesses, which seems superfluous considering the way they're treated. They make up the Alec Baldwin-led Film Actors' Guild, a.k.a. F.A.G. (the wit cheerfully falters many times), and are stooges of the man behind the terrorists, North Korean president Kim Jong Il, complete with Benny Hill "bruddy iriot" accent. I guess Saddam Hussein is old news now. In bad taste and consistently amusing (listen to the songs, from ghastly, patriotic Country and Western to one about how bad blockbuster Pearl Harbor was), but there's a sense of being too clever for its own good and only occasionally laugh out loud funny. Nobody likes a smartarse, after all.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

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