America, Fuck Yeah!

It's hard to think about "Team America: World Police", the new movie by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker without the constant image of puppet sex. But then again, that might be part of their plan...

A movie that mercilessly mocks the liberal Hollywood left, "Team America" is actually less a political satire than a send up of every Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay movie ever made. When the main love song contains lyrics such as "I miss you as much as Michael Bay missed the mark when he made Pearl Harbor....that movie really sucked", you know you are witnessing something special.

The plot is slightly more ridiculous than the movie's theme song, "America, Fuck Yeah!". The movie focuses on an elaborate plot involving Alec Baldwin and other famous outspoken actors, the usual smattering of ethnic terrorists and the grand marshall of it all Kim Jong Il. Mr. Il, as he is referred to, has some grandiose plans to destroy the world and bring humanity to its knees - but still finds time to sing a torch song entitled "I'm so lonely" (though since it's Matt and Trey what we hear is "I'm so rone-ry"). However this all plays as a backdrop to the real drama: the men and women who make up Team America.

Without mentioning the US Government or the White House or any elected official, it would seem that the job of policing the world has fallen on the sturdy shoulders of Team America, a composite of the action-bash 'em up-movie stereotypes: the handsome but dumb jock, the "empath" whose abilities are questionable at best, the tough guy who likes to curse a lot but whose past hides a dark and shameful secret, and the perky blonde who suffered tragic loss in the first few minutes of the film. They are joined by Gary Johnston, a Broadway actor currently appearing in "Lease" the Matt and Trey version of "Rent" which has a showstopping number, "everyone Has AIDS". Because of his astounding acting talent, Gary is recruited by Spottswoode, the Team America leader and resident boozehound. Apparently to police the world and stop terrorists, you can't do it without a really good actor.

The members of Team America are so focused on their mission, stopping terrorists who have WMD's, that they are willing to destroy anyone and anything that gets in their way. This includes such world monuments as the Eiffel Tower and the sphinx. Nothing gets in the way of stopping those terrorists. This is an obvious jab at the way America has sometimes destroyed civilian areas in their attempts to stop the bad guys. However, despite this visual commentary, one senses that Matt and Trey have a bit of respect for those that soldier on and try to stop the "evildoers" regardless of consequence. This is not to say that they wholeheartedly agree with those tactics, but they do seem to understand it a bit.

As a commentary on Hollywood's constant public outcries against the US invasion of Iraq and other military actions, this movie works to a point. It gets a bit repetitive towards the end, though redeems itself by playing a song "You're Useless Ben Affleck" over the rolling end credits. (Let it be noted that Kim Jong Il himself is the crooner of this ballad.) The movie works much better as a giant spoof of all the action adventure crash 'em bash 'em movies that have come out in the past 20 years or so: the gigantic explosion, the heightened movie tension music, and the over-the-top melodramatic acting. One can imagine someone uttering the line "I cherish your friendship" while sitting in a torture chamber being the emotional highlight of a Michael Bay flick. "Team America" has all the requisite action movie cliches but the common sense (and common decency) not to take itself remotely seriously.

Though "Team America" lacks the biting and more focused social criticism found in the South Park movie, it still does its job of knocking the wind out of self-importance in Hollywood, in both actors and scripts. Rumor has it that Matt and Trey originally intended to do a version of "The Day After Tomorrow" with puppets, keeping the same script which they deemed funny enough on its own. Of course there were studio issues with that plan, so they scrapped it and "Team America" was born. As much as I'd want to see puppets trying to outrun cold air, there is something to be said about a movie that indulges in puppet kung fu, puppets singing torchsongs, and puppet vomiting. It may not be South Park, but it sure is funny.