“Team America” is also a good spoof of movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer’s brainless noise-festivals like “Pearl Harbor,” “The Rock,” and “Bad Boys II.” The plot is simplicity itself for action movie fans: Team America fights terrorists with guns, tanks, jeeps, planes, and more guns. We see things mostly through the eyes of the new guy, who wins over the Team, has a secret from his past, questions his abilities, and must learn to believe in himself. He is joined by a love interest, a tough guy, a nice guy, the other girl, and a wise and fatherly boss. Everything explodes, even the opening credits, and plot points are so dumbed-down that every location has to be gauged by its distance from America (example: before the Team can go to Korea, the words “North Korea, Asia, 5,652 miles West of America” have to be plastered across the screen).
When the puppets aren’t singing, we’re treated to a non-stop “Gladiator”-esque score, and there is so much slow-motion and absurd zooms. Team members debate who has “feelings” for whom while blowing up Korean fighter planes. A montage of the hero training is accompanied by the song “It’s Time for a Montage!” By parodying the pacing of a Bruckheimer movie (but not, thank God, its length), Parker & Stone are able to avoid getting bogged down the way spoofs, like “Kung Pow!” and the “SouthPark” movie, have a tendency to do. All this is, of course, combined with the same toilet humor that made “SouthPark” famous. I don’t think there’s a single synonym for the male sex organ left un-uttered.
The reason I’ve never been a big fan of “SouthPark” can probably be explained by what makes that program different from “The Simpsons.” Both cartoons will poke fun at all sides of an issue, but “The Simpsons” does so with a genuine admiration for the human condition and affection for they way its nuclear family bumbles toward enlightenment. But “SouthPark,” I’ve always felt, has nothing but disdain for the Cartmans, Kennys, and Kyles of the world. With “Team America,” one gets the sneaking suspicion that Parker and Stone have finally learned to start liking their characters, ridiculous as they are, instead of beating us over the head with how awful we are.
Finished October 25, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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