Tuesday 02nd 2004f November 2004
« « I, Robot| Finding Neverland » »Team America: World Police
I haven’t been reviewing for a while – it was starting to feel like a chore, and hey, it’s not like anybody’s paying me. But I have been watching movies, and occasionally even developing opinions about them. And today, even though I shouldn’t be, I am bored.
I had very high expectations of Team America: World Police. I was very impressed with South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, and I was hoping for more of the same. These guys had proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were very capable of combining their satirical, gross out comedy instincts with intelligent scriptwriting and a real ability to make a satisfying movie.
So it’s disappointing. I mean, it’s funny, and it certainly hits some of it’s targets. One of the funniest recurring gags is the Teams’ constant complete indifference to the chaos and destruction they leave in their wake – the Parisiens’ open mouthed amazement as the heroes stand amid the wreckage of Paris (a toppled Eiffel Tower, crushed Arc de Triomphe and razed Louvre) and announce their success of their mission is hilarious.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone know they need to have sympathetic characters and an identifiably human story if the film is going to be more than an unbearably elongated sitcom episode, and that’s where the problem lies. One of the jokes of South Park is the way the kids are fairly grounded for the most part, and it’s the adults who go off into irrational insanity. Unfortunately this time around they’ve neglected to create any characters who aren’t also jokes – the heroes of the movie are the same people that are the targets of it’s satire, and that doesn’t really work.
They need relatable characters, and they don’t have any, so what do they do? They pile up all their “World Police” jokes at the beginning, and then switch focus, making the team sympathetic and choosing another target: movie stars. I’m not saying that movie stars with political opinions aren’t funny, but this material just isn’t as strong, and it all starts to go downhill. Oh, there are funny lines and ridiculous action movie conventions relentlessly lampooned, but it just doesn’t hang together.
And it is such a shame. The whole puppets thsing works like a charm. Interestingly, it seems to allow them to point up the unreality of most action movies by making the puppets behave more realistically, and have it look much less realistic because they’re puppets. Ok, I haven’t explained it very well, but it’s cool – the sex scene particularly.
It’s not a disaster by any means, but disappointing. Very disappointing. And for the record, some of the other movies I’ve seen recently:
- Garden State – it’s good, but not as good as everybody says it is. Zach Braff is clearly a very talented guy.
- The Forgotten – Efficient thriller, with a few good shocks, but it’s less than the sum of its parts and fairly instantly forgettable.
- I Heart Huckabees – in the same vein as Garden State, but much better. Whimsical, entertaining and very enjoyable. Although I should add that the person I saw it with fell asleep, so I guess it’s not for everybody.
There have probably been others, but if I can’t remember them, well, there doesn’t seem like there’s much point in mentioning them.
Comment ID: 2322
At 6:48 pm on Sunday 16th 2005f January 2005, Nigel statedEoin and I saw it last night with an audience who laughed from start to finish. One woman even howled non-stop for the duration of the film.
It was a curiosity though. Kim Jong-Il was a hoot but I was disappointed that the only other political figure to appear was Hans Blix. It would have been more stisfying if they’d crammed more people in. Saddam Hussein’s treatment of Satan was hilarious in the South Park movie and surely they could have don something like that here.
Similarly I was disappointed that the whole movie star thing didn’t really work. The Matt Damon gag in particular was unfunny. Plus, if they could lampoon Michael Moore why wasn’t Ann Coulter anywhere to be seen?
It came across as a parody of the kind of movie that American right whingers, sorry, right wingers, wish those wooly liberals in Hollywood would make. In other words, it’s a satire of a notion. Hmmmmm.
Still, it’s a long time since I laughed so much in a cinema. Bravo! Especially for the nooky and panther scenes!
Comment ID: 4221
At 2:52 am on Tuesday 18th 2005f October 2005, JIMI opinedI laughed solidly for the first half hour, possibly the first hour (it’s a while since I saw it). I mean I was in pain from laughter. I especially love the way they milk all the movie conventions. But then it just ran out of steam. It’s hard to sustain something that’s just about the gags for the length of a feature film. You need something to care about. It’s a real cop-out that they didn’t show Bush (although I only really thought about this afterwards) and they had no clear moral viewpoint (which I guess is better than a wishy washy pseudo liberal viewpoint, but disconcerting nonetheless). My favourite bit was when the boss asks the actor guy to give him a blowjob (the second time that is).