Team America: World Police   

Voices by:

Trey Parker: Gary/Joe/Hans Blix/Kim Jong Il/Others

Matt Stone: Chris/Others

Kristen Miller: Lisa

Masasa: Sarah

Daran Norris: Spottswoode

Directed by Trey Parker

Written by Pam Brady,

Matt Stone and Trey Parker

If I learned one thing from watching Team America: World Police, it's that you can only take puppet jokes so far.  After a while, the whole premise begins to wear thin and you realize that there isn't much going on underneath this whole facade. 

Team America is the latest creation from the minds of the men behind South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.  In the movie, Team America is a group of "superheroes," who go around the world protecting it from terrorists, and each member of the group has their own special talent that they bring to the fray.  One's a martial arts expert, one has semi-psychic ability, one can act, etc. 

The opening scene is quite inspired as Team America flies into Paris and destroys everything in its path to stop an act of terrorism.  The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe are not spared in this battle for freedom.  The scene also lays out the emotional story behind everything, because every 80s action flick had to have one.  And this is where Team America works well.  It is a great spoof of all the cheesy action movies that we grew up with (at least those in my generation).

However, more attention is paid to how Parker and Stone can have fun with puppets.  They beg us to look at how funny it is to see puppets fight, or how they walk out of a room, or how they throw up, or how they have sex.  It all becomes very tedious, with the bigger problem being that it just isn't all that funny either. 

There's one scene involving one of the main characters and vomiting, and I really wasn't sure what was more disturbing to me, the actual scene or the lady in front of me howling like it was the most hysterical thing she's ever witnessed.  It was just inane.  As was Spottswoode's trust test for Gary near the end of the film.  Unfortunately, Team America: World Police is full of these moments.

It's not like this movie is completely bereft of humor, however.  Parker and Stone again prove their knack for creating memorable songs.  The Team America theme song, the Montage Song (which first appeared on South Park), Kim Jong Il's ode to loneliness, and the song from the musical "Lease" all contribute mightily to the few laughs to be had from this film.  Gary's speech at the end is hilarious and the skewering of self-righteous actors is perfect.  But there isn't enough of all that.  As soon as the movie seems to get going, everything quickly takes a back seat to another puppet joke or gross-out moment.  It makes for a frustrating experience.   

With South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Parker and Stone proved they were capable of intelligent satire combined with great songs and huge laughs.  In Team America: World Police, they just prove that they can only deliver the great songs.