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 I
suppose it was only a matter of time before a movie came along
to kick the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 where it hurts,
but I never expected it to be a silly comedy featuring a bunch
of foul-mouthed marionettes! Don’t get me wrong, I admired Michael
Moore’s scathing attack on the Bush Administration as much as
the next liberal, but how else would you describe an outrageous
satire that quite literally guns down every outspoken left-winger
in the book?
Then again,
anything’s an open target for Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the
twisted minds behind TV’s long-running animated hit South
Park. In Team America: World Police, Stone and Parker
reach further into their pop-cultural bag of tricks by spoofing
the war on terrorism, gung-ho patriotism and over-used action
movie cliches, but the results are a little on the uneven side.
Sure, it has its moments, but it’s not nearly as sharp as their
better-than-expected 1999 feature South Park: Bigger, Longer
and Uncut, and the whole marionette gimmick just isn’t (dare
I say it) fleshed out enough to sustain an entire movie.
When a power hungry
dictator holds the world hostage with weapons of mass destruction,
it’s up to Team America -- an international police force dedicated
to maintaining global stability -- to save the day. In order for
the freedom fighters to infiltrate the terrorist network, they
need the acting talents of Gary Johnston, a stage performer who
is reluctant to sacrifice his promising career. Gary finally gives
in, but it’s only a matter of time before he calls upon his fellow
team members in his efforts to save the world.
If nothing
else, Team America: World Police is the movie that last
summer’s Thunderbirds should have been. Where that box
office bomb jettisoned Gerry Anderson’s classic marionettes and
went the live-action route, Team America sticks to the
puppets and wisely milks the scenario in all its R-rated glory.
For much of the time, it doesn’t matter if you’re a fan -- you’ll
still bust a gut when you see them in all sorts of sexual positions,
barfing their guts out, swearing up a storm or singing a profanity-laced
theme song that will stay with you for days.
But beyond
all the sight gags, Team America features some missed
opportunities. It should have been a blast watching marionettes
that resemble activist actors like Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and
especially Alec Baldwin get their heads blown off, but some of
the jokes fall flat. Puns made at the expense of Michael Moore
also should have been ripe for the picking, but they merely seem
thrown in at the last minute in an effort to cash in on his popularity.
Regardless
of whether Team America tickles your funny bone or not,
it’s still safe to say that there’s nothing out there quite like
it. Only the guys behind South Park could get away with
making jokes about 9/11, terrorism and the war on Iraq, but it’s
still too bad that the satire wasn’t sharp enough to be more effective.
Then again, we are talking about marionettes here, and if nothing
else, it’ll make a great double feature with Fahrenheit 9/11!
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