Team America: World Police (2004)

Director: Trey Parker
Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daran Norris, Phil Hendrie

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While the dialogue and scenarios are pretty fucking funny in Team America--surely you've heard about the graphic puppet sex, but what about...puppet felatio?--the soundtrack is the best part of the film. This certainly isn't any surprise to those who have seen another of Stone and Parker's films, Orgazmo. I'd heard that some publications were touting Team America as the year's funniest films. To be certain: the film's a blast to watch. In fact, most of the film is absolutely hilarious.

Unfortunately, the film's gimmick starts to wear thin toward the film's end. Perhaps my tolerance for puppet actors has an hour time limit, but I would've been checking my watch after that limit's termination if I wore one. It certainly didn't help that the film also made fun of movie cliches. Team America falls prey to the danger of this kind of satire: by using cliches to make fun of cliches, it pretty much guaranteed that you're not going to see anything new in the film. I hadn't seen puppet sex before, but I had seen pretty much everything else.

The only thing that remains fresh by the end of the film is the soundtrack. From actually placing a specific monetary value on freedom (a relatively modest buck-oh-five, in case you were in the market) to a theme that's funny as rock 'n' roll but goddamn hysterical as a ballad ("AMERRRRICA! FUCK YEAH!"), the soundtrack has the goods that carries the movie even after the narrative loses its steam.

But is Team America still worth seeing despite its lack of focus toward the end of the film? I would give an emphatic and patriotic, "fuck yeah."

October 15
Pacific Theaters, evening

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