Team America: World Police
Dir: Trey Parker
2004
***
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police is a really clever idea littered with unnecessary mistakes. Released just after the invasion of Iraq, its timing couldn't have been better but I'm not sure they really made the most of the situation. The format that worked so well in South Park wasn't really suited to Team America: World Police. The involvement and portrayal of more political figures would have made it more effective and although some politically active celebrities were fairly brought down a notch, this was tirelessly overcooked. Filming it as a Gerry Anderson style puppet action film was inspired and is the films big selling point. The sharp and brutal satire that Stone and Parker are famous for is there but for me, their egos soon took over. When they should have stuck with parodying both political ideology, the media and action films, they went off key with poor homosexual jokes and casual racism. The film was funny enough without the shock elements, the shock elements make it look childish and lazy when it's really much better than that. The songs are great, it looks amazing and it is genuinely very funny, I just felt to me that they almost wanted to sabotage their own creation somewhat with cheap and nasty shock tactics.