Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2004
- Take a pot shot but be warned.

 If National Treasure served up dodgy patriotism then Team America: World Police gets its kicks from poking fun at Americana. At its best when satirising, at its worst as a story and crudely manufactured excess, but the two overlap; the story in fact is a social and action movie parody, which works intermittently, and other times a misfire. Perhaps offensive by taking moral high ground in its boldly crude satire, this is overblown and cannot be overvalued as tongue seems to be placed firmly in cheek.

 The American censor’s notes are the kind of thing that this movie’s creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker potentially jibe – “rated R for graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets” – and are exactly the point.

 As it is, the storyline is a clunker but if it weren’t for what Stone and Parker are lampooning the plot would pass as nonsense.

 Using marionettes for characters, a Broadway actor named Gary is recruited by the U.S. Government to help in stealing information from the Arabs that is crucial to identifying where the terrorists will invade next, the threat described as “9/11 times 100”. Meanwhile, unbeknown to Government officials in America, the North Korean leader, straight out of a James Bond world domination scenario, parodied all the more keenly here than in a movie like Austin Powers, is scheming to destroy the world, seemingly for the sake of it.

 It would seem the political point is made early on when, in satirical acumen, die hard terrorist debunkers Team America – plat with Thunderbirds rocket capabilities and Top Gun and Con Air meets John McClane meat headedness – invade Paris (subtitled with America-centric innuendo) to intercept Arab terrorist threats and inadvertently collapse the Eiffel Tower into smithereens. American military pride is glorified while ridiculed.

 What could you expect from Stone and Parker’s smart brand of slapstick humour, as popularised in the South Park series and film released five years ago?

 But like in South Park any celebrity is prime suspect and target and so Team America’s politics is shrouded. F.A.G. (Film Actors Guild) opposes Team America and U.S. interventionism, and Parker and Stone are not taking the celebrities fondly – among them puppet caricatures of Martin Sheen, Helen Hunt, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn – so what side is the movie on? As they say down under, this is more mickey taking than politics, or a good old ribbing, not necessarily good natured.

 What is especially good about this is the parody of familiar Hollywood formulas and clichés. The likes of Jerry Bruckheimer action cum romantic movies, and Stone and Pam Brady’s writing and Parker’s clever direction imitating the nuances of such movies is funny at the beginning.

 The dialogue is one of the best things in the first forty-five minutes. “Gary, you can’t blame yourself for what gorillas did”, says Lisa, a blonde all-American from Team America, comforting Gary in his reminiscing of that damaging traumatic childhood experience, hilarious in mock-serious monologue. Involving the ménage de trios with other Team America members, Lisa is vulnerable: “Promise me you’ll never die”. Gary replies: “You know I can’t promise that”. Lisa: “Promise me you’ll never die and I’ll make love to you right now”.

 Stone and Parker don’t take themselves seriously to the extent of revealing the puppet strings of their characters and at one point they make fun of this usually taboo miscalculation of cinematic puppetry where the strings should remain invisible. The marionettes move with deliberateness reserved for the puppetering stage and not movie animatation techniques. Which does not mean this movie is messy stylistically. The puppets are altogether convincing and their symmetry is appropriately manufactured adding to the fun.

 And the movie offers good production values of its kind even if the connections between the over the top scenes, the movie’s politics, and the cleverer parody make this appear haphazard and uneven.