Its thunderbirds with swearing and sex.

Subversive masterpiece
Review date: 2005-08-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

This brilliant movie starts out on an inspiring note, with the destruction of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. And then it just gets funnier and better. The puppets appear quite human so that there's no problem with the "suspension of disbelief." The heroes are quite fallible but very likable.

There's some spectacular cinematography in the Panama Canal scenes and in Egypt, where the Great Pyramid and the venerable Sphinx suffer the same fate as the Eiffel and the Louvre. The Mount Rushmore scenes, (HQ of Team America) are also impressive.

Gary is an actor appearing in a Broadway musical when the Team approaches him for help. One of the most gripping scenes is Gary singing lead in a rendition of the hit song Everyone Has AIDS. The camera catches the emotional audience as some individuals shed an elegant, politically appropriate tear or two. Priceless!

Things turn even more hilarious with the appearance of the Film Actors Guild (FAG), led by the silver-tongued Alec Baldwin. His speech, interrupted by rapturous desk-thumping by the assembled FAG-ers that include Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Jeanine Garofalo and a particularly DUH Matt Damon, is something to cherish. The media comments by some of these esteemed celebrities are equally hilarious.

Then there is of course the intercourse, a passionate scene between two attractive teamsters, giving new meaning to Leonard Cohen's album title Various Positions. This is just a short interlude; I didn't find it particularly shock- or noteworthy. People do get up to these types of trick in the grip of passion.

Kim Jong Il is definitely a star of the movie with his cute accent and his banally evil personality. I caught myself entertaining thoughts of sympathy for Kim as he fed Hans Blix to his pet sharks. And the feeding itself reminded one again of the awesome savage power of nature. "Brix" (as Kim called him) learnt a lesson for trying to impose his silly western cultural norms on the beloved leader of North Korea. What arrogance to attempt such a thing!

In the meantime, the porcine propagandist, also known as Michael Moore, has caused great damage at the Mount Rushmore HQ by blowing himself up with a suicide jacket. But when things look bleak, Gary returns as the hero. Kim is entertaining the FAG celebrities plus delegations of dignitaries from around the world. This is to distract them while his minions are preparing to set off 230 major bombs around the world.

Just in time Gary frees the team, then he uses all his skills as an actor and orator to deliver an eloquent speech that completely upstages Alec Baldwin, the master of ceremonies. The detonation of the bombs is averted and a fight to the death ensues between the Team and the Hollywood actors. A particularly sleazy looking Sean Penn meets his end at the fangs of a big black kitty cat, Sarandon is sliced in two and the others are shot in riveting gun battles.

My only complaint is that I sorely missed Parker and Stone's most lovable characters, the Canadian master comedians Terrance and Phillip, whose movie Asses Of Fire contributed so much to making the South Park Movie so unforgettable. A bit of Terrance and Phillip's flatulence and coprofilia would have made this little gem even funnier.

Easily bored, I don't like long movies. I am pleased to report that Team America: World Police is just the right length. No scenes are superfluous or too lengthy, and the action sequences are all in the right places. I think it is going to become a cult movie like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The best songs are the aforementioned Broadway number and Kim's I'm So Ronery ...

Team America: World Police has a progressive and subversive message that ought to please everybody across the political spectrum, from the leftist moonbat to the conservative fruitcake and all people with a sense of humour inbetween. The Gnostic nature of Gary's speech with which he wins over the audience of worldwide dignitaries, is particularly striking. Underneath all the vulgar references to reproductive and other organs, there is a profound message to people who like to ponder these things.

I also strongly recommend Stone and Parker's South Park TV series, the movie South Park: Bigger, Better, Uncut and the CD Chef Aid. This talented duo's talents and wicked sense of humour are quite unmatched in popular culture today.

Gets even funnier every time I watch it
Review date: 2005-08-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

I was slightly disappointed the first time I saw this film - probably because I was so hyped up about it, having heard so many people talk about how hilarious it was. My second time through it, though, everything clicked. Team America: World Police is juvenile and disgusting, yet sharply pointed satire that goes out of its way to be offensive - in other words, it's hilarious, and yet more proof of Trey Parker's genius. Parker and Stone do things no one else would ever dream of doing - or even be allowed to do. It's a film I know I know I will enjoy watching time and time again for years to come.

Hilarity aside, the audacity of making such an elaborate film using puppets is almost mind-boggling. Parker and Stone probably had little idea of what they were getting into, yet they stayed the course, brought together a tremendous team of individuals who, as the special features make obvious, relished the chance to take the art of puppetry to new heights, and created something that is really quite amazing. It's uncanny how life-like these puppets are - I daresay Alec Baldwin, for example, is much more wooden in real life than is his puppet in this film. These aren't just wooden characters dangling on strings; each puppet's head is filled with animatronics that control his/her expressions with uncanny precision. The puppet fights are hilarious, but nothing's funnier than watching Gary give "the signal" as his first mission with the elite American fighting force goes south.

As with everything Parker and Stone do, there's actually a point behind all of the humor. Though their detractors would never admit it, these guys actually do have a handle on what is going on in the world - and within America. If you've ever seen South Park, you know how quickly they manage to exploit the big issues of the day. No one is safe from these guys' political humor, but the Left does tend to suffer the brunt of the satirical attack in this film. (Those who say Parker and Stone are suddenly outright conservatives have obviously forgotten their short-lived series That's My Bush - which was the only unfunny thing they've ever done.) Team America itself takes America's military might to obvious extremes, as when they pretty much destroy Paris in order to stop WMD-toting terrorists (of course, no one seems to consider the fact that the terrorists would have destroyed Paris to an even greater extent themselves had their plan succeeded). Alec Baldwin's ilk, though, suffers most because they have two Stone/Parker targets on their back. One, they are soporific liberals who would stop terrorism by sympathizing with the enemy and commiserating with their extreme anti-American views over tea and crumpets; two, they are actors and I think Parker and Stone really mean it when they say they hate actors - it's one of the reasons they chose to make this movie with puppets (plus, one of the original inspirations for the project was the idea of doing a parody of today's action films).

I don't think I need to describe the movie, really. Kim Jong-Il (even though he does sound a little too much like Eric Cartman, at times) is a great character, of course, but you probably know all about the film's story by now. It is true that Parker and Stone push the envelope (actually, they just tear it all apart and rush right on past it) at times - especially in the puppet love scene and the vomiting scene - probably just to prove how much they can get away with, but you just have to expect that sort of thing from these guys. It's one of the things that makes them Parker and Stone. Let's not forget the songs, either. From the heart-pumping theme song to Kim Jung-Il's loneliness lament, Team America World Police features a great soundtrack (be sure to go all the way through the final credits in order to hear a final little snippet from Kim Jung-Il).

If you're easily offended, you'll probably be holding your nose higher and higher as you watch this film (even while those around you are bent over holding their stomachs with laughter) - but that's okay because the rest of us need someone to hold our popcorn while we struggle to regain our breath.

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