TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
(four stars)
A riot – with strings attached.
Running time: 90 minutes. Rated R (graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language, all involving puppets). At the E-Walk, the Loews Lincoln Square, the Kips Bay, others.
Preposterously juvenile but fiendishly clever, the latest offering from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the lunatic creators of “South Park,” tickles a whole new set of funny bones.
Their consistently hilarious, relentlessly potty-mouthed “Team America: World Police,” about a team of gung-ho American commandos fighting to stop North Korean leader Kim Jong Il from selling WMDs to terrorists, aims its satirical big guns and fires at will.
True believers on both sides of the political fence are sprayed – Hollywood’s most prominent pacifists are probably already on the phone to their lawyers – and every sacred cow takes some shrapnel.
Surprisingly, though, this slash-and-burn extravaganza of irreverence ultimately offers up a remarkably sensible, even optimistic, worldview that lets some air out of the inflated state of the current political climate.
“Team America” works as satire. But, in a twin stroke of comic genius, the filmmakers sling their arrows within the framework of a cliché-riddled action movie – and then have the terrorists, soldiers and power-mad dictator all played by puppets.
Just try not to laugh at the inherent silliness of these wooden marionettes, strings clearly visible, as they jerkily trade karate chops, shoot pool or – in the outrageously graphic puppet sex scene that narrowly skirted an NC-17 rating – work through the Kama Sutra.
Inspired by the ludicrous camp of the 1960s British TV series “Thunderbirds,” Parker and Stone have hit upon a winning formula: If a verbal joke falls flat – and a couple do – the laughs keep coming because the entire movie is a visual gag.
And a musical! Like the savvy slackers’ 1999 movie, “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” the film is punctuated by musical numbers, the very best of which is Team America’s hysterically bombastic anthem, “America: F – – – Yeah!”
“Team America” opens with the international “peacekeepers” employing their typically heavy-handed tactics fighting Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in Paris.
When one of the all-American heroes is killed in the firefight, team leader Spotswoode, who suavely steers the action with a glass of Scotch permanently affixed to his little wooden hand, must recruit a replacement.
He settles on Broadway thespian Gary Johnston – “a top gun actor” starring in a musical about AIDS called “Lease” – who must use his acting abilities to infiltrate the terrorist network.
After some crude cosmetic surgery involving shoe polish and some randomly attached tufts of hair, Gary “acts” his way past a pair of guards – who, like all the Arab characters, speak a gibberish language comprised of “durka, durka” and “Mohammed jihad” – into an Egyptian hideout.
“Anybody know of any terrorist attacks coming up soon?” he asks innocently, sparking off another explosive debacle, which results in the destruction of the Sphinx and the Pyramids.
Team America’s ham-fisted attempts at policing the world provoke the ire of the Film Actors Guild (or F.A.G.), headed by Alec Baldwin and featuring puppet versions of Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen and Matt Damon, among others.
In a misguided stab at peace, the celebrity activists align themselves with Kim Jong Il, who is secretly amassing WMDs in a plot to take over the world.
Kim Jong Il, portrayed as a stereotypical James Bond villain who spouts obscenities and sounds suspiciously like “South Park’s” Cartman, is without doubt the funniest character in “Team America,” and his sad little ditty about it being “rone-ry” at the top absolutely kills.
Careening merrily across a politically correct minefield, director Parker (who, along with Stone, voices many of the characters) skillfully creates some unforgettable set pieces, and the craftsmanship involved is simply spectacular.
From the incredibly detailed sets designed by David Rockwell and Jim Dultz (look closely, and you’ll see the cobblestones in the Parisian streets are shaped like croissants) to the clever lighting employed by cinematographer Bill Pope (“The Matrix”), “Team America” is a visual treat.
So, who’s going to hate this film?
Michael Moore, who is portrayed as a suicide bomber with a hot dog in each hand and a mustard-smeared mug.
Half of liberal Hollywood, whose puppet images are variously impaled, torched, decapitated or shot.
Fans of country music. Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, whose “Pearl Harbor” is mercilessly lampooned. Patriots. Those offended by four-letter words and scatological humor.
Who’s going to love it?
Anyone with a sense of humor: “Team America: World Police” is hands-down the funniest movie of the year.
