America is the greatest country in the World. Well, unless you check those statistics like Literacy or Infant Mortality Rates. To celebrate America, I went through a lot of decisions and couldn't exactly nail down what I wanted to do. Should I pick the easy route and just do Uncle Sam? Should I do some sort of weird, Foreign movie as a counterpoint? Bob was nice enough to even send me a few suggestions for films to do. In the End, I went with a surprisingly-easy choice: Team America: World Police. How have I not done this movie, especially considering that I've owned it for like two years?!? That's a good question, me. Let's fix that. In 2004, Trey Parker and Matt Stone were huge and could do whatever they wanted. As such, they made a highly-political satire of both World events of the time and action films. Ironically, this was made before the biggest attack on quality done by Michael Bay- the Transformers trilogy. If you're a Red State voter, you may still be mad at this movie. If you're a Liberal who can't take a joke, you may also still be mad at this movie. For burning bridges at both ends (to confusingly mix metaphors), I salute you, movie. To find out more (and why this needs a Blu-Ray release), read on...
The film involves Terrorists all over the World. In the opening scene, they show up in gay Paris.
Team America shows up to save the day, but only after destroying the Eiffel Tower, The Arc De Triumph and The Louvre. Well, to make an Omelette...
After the death of a Team Member, a new one is necessary. The man: an Actor from the show Lease. Get it? Get it? Do you? Huh? Huh?
In all seriousness, the song in this scene is funny. Wrong, but funny.
The Team uses advanced make-up and prosthesis' to make the Actor look like a Terrorist. It's fool-proof!
They manage to stop more Terrorists, but take out most of the Valley of the Kings in the process. You may notice a pattern here.
In the film's most (in)famous moment, two characters have sex. It's a long, silly sequence that must have been really weird to do as a Puppeteer.
Kim Jong Il- the villain here- has bigger plans and manages to still strike Panama. On top of that, someone suicide bombs the Team America base and...
...our captured heroes learn that Il's plan is more than just '9/11 times 1,000.' In fact, it's...
With only the Actor left to save the day, he has to take part in a Montage set to the song, well, 'Montage.' Irony!
I won't SPOIL the finale for you too much. Sufficed to say, some Celebrities die violent deaths (long story) and our Actor friend makes a very silly, but heartfelt speech. The End.
I love this movie! It's easy to hate- believe me. With this movie, I love every bit of it. It's a comedy that's funny. It's a satire that makes good points about what it is mocking. It's a Musical that's actually funny (something Trey Parker has proven that he can do). Are their weak points? Maybe. The biggest problem is that it attacks everyone for many reasons. As a Satire, it doesn't have a message that is really, really obvious. It espouses that the 'might makes right' mindset is the best, all the while making them look like horrible people. Much like other Satires (like the underrated Strangers with Candy show), it is not out to make a clear, cogent point. If you go looking for one, you're just going to be disappointed. If you want to see Puppets proudly displaying their strings while cursing, vomiting and killing celebrities, this is the movie for you! It's as American as Apple Pie...filled with dynamite. Hey movie people, why no Blu-Ray release? Can you imagine watching scenes like this in High-Definition?
Next up, Bob reviews a film that he didn't like. If at first you don't annoy, try try again. Stay tuned...
In all seriousness, the song in this scene is funny. Wrong, but funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment