Movie Review - Team America, World Police
The concept of this movie ended up being a lot better than the execution. I have to admit that I was pretty excited after viewing the original preview for this movie -- I mean, come on, a comedy/political satire, given today's political climate -- using puppets. How could they possibly go wrong? The title alone is hilarious, and makes me laugh any time I think about out.
The problem with this movie is that the concept has so much potential, and they fell so far short of that potential. Afterwards, I asked myself "What should I have expected?" I mean, this is coming from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of such masterpieces as "South Park" and "Baseketball". The South Park movie was funny. The problem is that they resorted to the same sort of sophomoric humor in this movie, while trying to deal with a much more serious subject.
Given the absurdities of the current Bush administration -- this film had so much potential. The administration has been a comedy gold mine...look at the material the Daily Show is able to generate day after day, week after week. I will forever be disappointed because they ruined a perfectly good concept for a film that so much going for it. The artistic value was great -- I thought the puppets and backgrounds were great -- I just wish they would have hired some better screenwriters. If the staff of the Daily Show had written this movie, I believe it could've ended up in my all time top-ten list.
It wasn't the political viewpoint that this movie took that disappointed me. Basically, this movie was a satire that ridiculed the extremes we witness at both ends of the political spectrum -- mocking both the die-hard Bush fanatics that believe we should be the police of the entire world, and the Peace-loving, left-leaning group of Hollywood actors that don't seem to have a firm grip on reality. It was the lack of effort put into writing solid dialog. Stone and Parker have both said that this movie was targetted for an adult audience - I mean it originally had an NC-17 rating. The dialog of this movie simply leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, I will give this movie a 5.9 / 10. If I hadn't been so excited by the premise of this movie, I may have been a little more lenient, because it did have its moments. But, puppet sex and barf gags did not cut it for me -- I'll think twice before I see another movie written by Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
The problem with this movie is that the concept has so much potential, and they fell so far short of that potential. Afterwards, I asked myself "What should I have expected?" I mean, this is coming from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of such masterpieces as "South Park" and "Baseketball". The South Park movie was funny. The problem is that they resorted to the same sort of sophomoric humor in this movie, while trying to deal with a much more serious subject.
Given the absurdities of the current Bush administration -- this film had so much potential. The administration has been a comedy gold mine...look at the material the Daily Show is able to generate day after day, week after week. I will forever be disappointed because they ruined a perfectly good concept for a film that so much going for it. The artistic value was great -- I thought the puppets and backgrounds were great -- I just wish they would have hired some better screenwriters. If the staff of the Daily Show had written this movie, I believe it could've ended up in my all time top-ten list.
It wasn't the political viewpoint that this movie took that disappointed me. Basically, this movie was a satire that ridiculed the extremes we witness at both ends of the political spectrum -- mocking both the die-hard Bush fanatics that believe we should be the police of the entire world, and the Peace-loving, left-leaning group of Hollywood actors that don't seem to have a firm grip on reality. It was the lack of effort put into writing solid dialog. Stone and Parker have both said that this movie was targetted for an adult audience - I mean it originally had an NC-17 rating. The dialog of this movie simply leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, I will give this movie a 5.9 / 10. If I hadn't been so excited by the premise of this movie, I may have been a little more lenient, because it did have its moments. But, puppet sex and barf gags did not cut it for me -- I'll think twice before I see another movie written by Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
posted by markh100 at
9:46 AM
