Team America: World Police (15)

The Team America: World Police movie is old school. It is made by the people who make South Park. They replaced their paper people and put in puppets. They choose puppets because "we hate actors." They thought it was going to be easier, but they were wrong! The adult scenes proved to be the hardest of all to get to the directors liking. All of this information I got from the special features on the DVD.

It is about Americans trying to stop a terrorist plot by kim-jon-ill. They make fun of how Americans use too much force and racism around the world, as well as countless other things, that would take too long to mention.

This movie is a double edged sword though. People like it for the same reasons others dislike it. It will appeal to South Park fans, but they are usually in a class of their own.

Team America: World Police is funny in its own right. I only watched it because my boyfriend wanted to watch it. It's not my kind of film but will appeal to a lot of people so if you like funny puppet films then this is the one for you.

Team America world police is pretty much Thunderbirds with a large injection of a Class A substance. The humour is pretty similaur to South Park, so if you enjoyed that you will love this, if not you'll probably want to give this a miss. I understand watching puppets repeatedly projectile vomit or try the majority of positions listed in the Karam Sutra isn't everyones cup of tea. The plot isn't a masterpiece, it's as chessy as they could make it, jamming in more cliches than a footballer's post match interview. The plot follows an actor recruited into a unique team to help fight world terror, which happens to be incidentally supported by a group of Hollywood actors who all come in for serious stick. The film is quite topical and does make a good point. The humour covers the whole spectrum from clever political satire, to cheap personal digs, and pastices of films and genres of films right down to toilet humour and smut. As a fan of all of these I really enjoyed the film.

From the opening shot, Team America World Police is a vastly successful satire, pulling together the various travesties of the modern world's obsession with war and stamping it with the unmistakable and blissfully frivolous brand of South Park humour. What emerges is a film that indicts not only the insanity of the terrorists themselves, but also the madness of peace keeping activists like Michael Moore and various Hollywood elite.

Team America are a vastly stupid organisation that track down terrorists and destroy them. If a great wonder of the world or five happen to get in the way of a stray missile, then so be it, as the protection of freedom is central to the survival of Team America itself, whose inner relationship inequities often stray across into their work, lovers raging at one another whilst terrorist forces attack.

Here, the satire of the Jerry Bruckheimer action blockbuster begins to pervade. The characters of the puppets are all drawn from action movie stereotypes and rarely step outside of these parameters. This forces the audience to engage with what are actually two dimensional characters, reminding us that we often accept far too little in quality from most of the films Hollywood throws at us.

The songs of the film, although mostly sung by Trey Parker, a man whose voice will grate on some viewer's ears, are wonderfully well written, matching the tone of the moment whilst delivering some of the film's best humour. The Michael Bay and Ben Affleck onslaught is particularly irresistible.

The puppetry is self deprecating at times, never taking itself too seriously the way Thunderbirds always used to. Nevertheless, the puppets and set design are a joy to behold, the puppets doing things that we would never have been able to see on a cinema screen without the influence of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Of course, not everyone likes South Park. And Team America will most definitely not tickle their interest if projectile puppet vomiting and acrobatic puppet sex are not what they are likely to be entertained by. The pointless and gratuitous use of profanity is exactly what I expected from the script, and if I hadn't received it, I most likely would have been disappointed, so its presence here makes you feel like you are among old friends, in the familiar and charming atmosphere of South Park.

Team America stomps Fahrenheit 451 into the ground, wisely choosing not to focus on the already boring Bushwhacking that taints most lines of political argument today, and instead focusing its attention on the whole attitude of American foreign policy and its own peoples reactions to it. This film feels as if two childish boys have come up with the concept and two witty, world weary men have inserted the themes. A great film in every way, never smug, somehow managing to juggle comedy and political purpose without one becoming more important than the other. A career peak for Parker and Stone.

Rating: 5/5

By Joshua Morrall

Team America: World Police - At the start of the movie I thought it would take ages to see the main characters but they suprised you by putting them in within 10 minutes and the jokes were all good besides the couple of jokes that just weren't funny. The puppets of the famous and known were greatly detailed.

Team America: World Police - This was boring and not very funny. This film tries to take the mick out of America but at the same time it is so typically American it's untrue. The humour is very shallow - just toilet humour really. I found it insulting to my intelligence and just couldn't wait untill it was over. Awful!