That's because Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done quite a number on the Hollywood Left on South Park in the past. 
They're definitely not friends of Barbara Streisand, that's to be sure.
Posted on 10/09/2004 8:19:10 PM PDT by Snake65
Just got back from Team America: World Police.
Raunchy and utterly irreverent but incredibly funny. While they're drawing on Thunderbirds, the 60s era puppet scifi show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South Park fame) aim their scattergun humor more at Bruckheimer/Bay style filmmaking and the American cult of celebrity than the earnest old pilots of International Rescue.
Are the filmmakers a couple of racist, gay-bashing, jingoists? No. They demolish PC mores with the same giggly delight that they blow up the Louvre.
The story revolves around a "top gun" actor named Gary brought into the tight-knit Team America led by Spotswood, a highball-swilling Oscar Goldman type. Team America spends its time hunting terrorists, mistakenly demolishing monuments and causing chaos worldwide (measured in miles from America, that is). After a thrilling initial adventure (unless you're a Cairo resident) Gary inevitably has doubts about his calling and quits the team. Things go south park fast for the rest of the team during a combination dogfight/relationship discussion and the team ends up captured by the evil, Elmer Fudd-with-an-Asian-accent Kim Jong-Il, and Gary must ultimately decide whether to be a dick, a pu__y, or an a__hole.
Yes, there is puppet sex. Oh boy is there puppet sex.
There's a good deal of music too. I'm not sure that any of the songs reach the zany genius of What Would Brian Boitano Do? from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, but they're pretty funny. There's the obligatory sad lost-love song (Pearl Harbor Sucked...and I Miss You) and the catchy Team America Theme (America, F_ck Yeah!) which I and a number of other previewers walked out of the cinema singing. And a surprise appearance of one of the better South Park series songs.
Just watching the puppets move was funny. Seeing them do martial arts, chase each other in cars, drink, dance, and think about their romantic options is even better.
I thought that Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn et. al. were going to be minor cameos, but the politically active actors (who belong to the Film Actor's Guild) take a far more pivotal--or should I say suspenseful?--role in the movie than I thought. All come to a series of spectacularly ugly ends (to enthusiastic audience applause).
Alec Baldwin - gunned down
Sean Penn - eaten by "panther"
Jeanne Garafalo - head blown off
Susan Sarandon - thrown off of tower
Michael "Socialist Weasel" Moore - explosive, mustard-stained suicide vest
Danny Glover - eaten by "panther"
Helen Hunt - bisected by samurai sword
Samuel L Jackson - head blown off
Liv Tyler - shot
Tim Robbins - burned alive
Matt Damon - snapped neck
Oh, and Hans Blix gets eaten by sharks after threatening KJ-I with the possibility of an angry letter from the UN.
The movie ends with Trey and Matt making a case for Team America in what's certainly the most raunchy peroration ever put on film.
I'll be buying the soundtrack and the DVD. I can't imagine the puppet sex that was excised to earn it an "R" rating, considering what was left in.
Not for kids or sensitive viewers who might be offended by totally over the top language, sex, and violence of the puppet variety.
I wholeheartedly agree. This is the first film to shock and awe me since... well... The South Park movie!
The people in my theater were doubled over in pain laughing so hard.
My theory is that the puppet sex cuts came from the scene where Gary tries to join the team again and not the obvious one.
Yep, the "prove yourself to the team" moment was pretty mild, considering the rest of the movie. I was shocked at several things, but mostly at the audience's reaction to the celeb deaths. Applause throughout.
My spouse came close to falling out of her chair laughing during the puppet sex.
What a fabulous review! You totally make me want to see this movie!
Just the deaths will be worth the price of admission. I cannot imagine what a "panther" is.
I love the Thunderbirds, long time fan. Sounds a wee bit raunchy to see with my brother-in-law, another Thunderbirds aficianado. I think I'd feel really creepy watching puppet sex with him. But I will see this flick.
I saw the film today and must say that it is the most politically subversive movie for our side. I beleieve this movie will do more to unravel the pinko scum Moore and his neo-marxist ilk than anything else out there. The lib position is not just argued against - it is actively mocked. I laughed through the whole thing. Conservative thought has become the undeground rebellion in a time when the left have created a decaying, humorless monolithic PC society.
I can't wait to see this movie. The nearest preview was sold-out by yesterday. Seeing puppet-Moore and puppet-Penn get blown up is worth the price of admission.
Of course the subtext of them being puppets is...
Should I ever decide to get married I'll have to watch it with my future wife so she'll have no reason to ask me "where did you learn that????"
That's because Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done quite a number on the Hollywood Left on South Park in the past. They're definitely not friends of Barbara Streisand, that's to be sure.
Just came back from the sneak preview-- it is pretty raunchy, also very funny. Very sould satisfying to see Hans Blix's skeleton in the shark tank. They actually weren't all that nasty to Michael Moore. It was so subversive that its lesson, delivered at the end, cannot truly be rendered without using obscene language, but anybody who thinks this movie doesn't take sides is deluding himself. The lesson at the end is pretty accurate. In non obscene language I think it is-- we have to do it because we can, yes we are er.....jerks who are arrogant and destructive and a lot of other stuff but we aren't as bad as those other guys are. And not as stupid as Sean Penn. I think everyone else who was made fun of in this movie has enough sense to realize that a nasty letter to Trey Parker or Matt Stone is very likely to end up on the Drudge report and only stimulate more business for the movie.
One of the things that's really interesting about the movie is they make fun of every single action movie cliche. It's like they're saying to the action movie screenwriters, you guys all are lousy screenwriters, we're so much more creative than you are that we're just going to run laps around your scripts and make fun of them at the same time.
I also saw the sneak preview. Hilarious. Don't miss it, even if you are easily offended - it's worth it just to find out why Sean Penn is so upset! (see Drudge)
The only scene I found offensive was after "Gary" the actor staggers out of the bar.
The theater erupted in laughter and applause every time one of the Leftist characters was destroyed. Liberals in the audience must have been uncomfortable, but they were laughing just as hard.
I've always thought that Matt & Trey are Libertarians, not Republicans, but as Libertarians they have much more in common with Republicans than Democrats/Liberals/Socialist. They see that Islamofascism and the likes of KJI are a threat to the personal freedom that is the Libertarian highest value. That's why I think M&T are correct when they say they skewer the left and the right. Though they end up skewering the left more because of the current PC climate that steps all over individual freedom and promotes a**holes like Saddam, Arafat, etc.
When you see Alec Baldwin, you will see the ugliest of human nature!
Looking forward to it!
Outstanding. What a pleasant change of pace to have liberalism mocked for a change. After reading the Freeper reviews on this thread, I've penciled Team America onto my "must see" list.
The Rainforest Episode and the Rob Reiner episode will forver be praised.
They view KJI as a Korean Cartman. That's why he's played as such in the movie.
OHHH so Kim Jong 11 steal part of the scenes of the movie LOL!
Rack ittt
I saw the making of it on MTV Kim Jong 11 singing I am Lonely I hear Matt want that song be nomintee for oscar have Little Kim sing it at oscars
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