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Marionettes do things that you’ve never imagined nor wanted them to do in “Team America: World Police,” the latest effort from “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The duo has both hit (“South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut”) and missed (“BASEketball”) with feature films, and now if nothing else they deserve points for originality.
The trouble is, once you get past the absurd milieu of watching famous actors and world leaders (as puppets) awkwardly move around, the laughs are few and far between. Sure, the jokes are omnipresent, but far too many fall flat for a variety of different reasons for this to be worth seeing.
One reason is the film’s lack of a political agenda. By offending liberals and conservatives with equal verve, and refusing to takes sides with either, the film also seems to lack a focus for its creative energy. In a way, by offending everyone it amuses no one.
Things start off with a bang (literally). As Paris and the Eiffel Tower are about to be destroyed by terrorists, Team America (think Navy Seals on steroids) flies in and saves the day, but in so doing it also damages the city much worse than the terrorists would have. Similar things happen in Egypt as well, where ancient pyramids and a sphinx are destroyed for the sake of preserving freedom around the world.
Clearly, this is a commentary on the Bush administration’s insistence on policing the world. So when it is learned that Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and Osama Bin Laden are planning to use WMDs against the world, Team America hires an American actor to infiltrate the Arab network and gather information about the attack.
As the unit goes about protecting America, a plethora of Hollywood activists line up to berate the team’s efforts, including Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, and others (none of whom lent their voice to (or approved of) their likeness in the picture). Similar to reality, they call for a peaceful reconciliation of differences, and pledge that violence is never the way to solve one’s problems. What becomes of them, and the fact that it is necessary to save the world, is strikingly ironic.
But this film wasn’t made to make any points; rather, it was created to mock and poke fun at the current political climate. Parker and Stone attempt to do so with well-written songs that reflect the action, and by making every character look as ridiculous as possible.
When the movie succeeds, it does so by presenting and allowing us to laugh at a world in turmoil, by making light out of the direst of circumstances. Most of the time, however, it’s too involved in its own gimmick to really hit home. If you’ve ever wanted to see puppets have sex, this is the movie for you.
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