Trey Parker and Matt Stone are back on the big screen. Instead of making another animated film, they've decided to go the Thunderbirds route and make a film with marionettes. It wasn't that long ago that the first trailer appeared online, gleefully taking aim at world leaders and Hollywood alike. This was the fastest film Paramount has ever put out from start of production to release.
Describing the plot would not do this justice. But to give you an idea, we get an elite team of military specialists whose base is in Mount Rushmore, who travel around the world tracking down terrorists. The main focus of this film is stopping Kim Jong Il of North Korea who is organizing the world's terrorists in an effort to take over the world. But this movie is more about the moments and the topics it is skewering rather than the linear storyline.
Besides the obvious political targets, it takes all of the action movie cliches and puts them on their ear. From the obligatory opening action sequence to the wanton destruction with complete disregard of the consequences. The team made up of standard members, the couple, the angry guy, the sensitive one, all the regular stereotypes.
You know, the more I try to think about how to describe this movie, the harder it becomes. It has a great energy and spreads it's focus to both ends of the spectrum. Take this quote for example: "If I were asked to extract a political position from the movie, I'd be baffled. It is neither for nor against the war on terrorism, just dedicated to ridiculing those who wage it and those who oppose it." This is from Roger Ebert's review, someone who clearly did not like this film. My take is that it is pointless to try to pin down a political side, they target the extremists on all sides of the issue, described by the fantastic speech about the three types of people in the world and why we need them. This description is rather insightful, a bit broad an vulgar, but insightful anyway.
I just love the reckless abandon with which it goes after the posing stars of Hollywood spouting off their political views as if they are any more important than yours or mine. I loved this attack on Hollywood, I've never cared for the way these stars would get in front of a camera for some cause, too many people are gullible enough to have faith in their word without doing any other research. I also loved how it's very stars, the Team America force, is also a target with the way they go after terrorism with no thoughts towards the consequences of their actions. And also their attacks on those committing the acts of terrorism, primarily Kim Jong Il and a large number of non descript middle eastern terrorists. The only area that seemed to get off unscathed was the White House, no pot shots taken at our president, or his staff, which I found rather refreshing considering the state of our government and how it seems that everyone and their mother is taking a shot at our political leaders. Please do not take that as a statement of support or attack on our current political climate, it's just nice to see someone restrain themselves from the obvious targets.
Besides the obvious political targets, I really enjoyed the action film cliche attack. Formulaic Hollywood action films are such an easy target, and even here the cliches are used to effectively further the plot, yet at the same time expose their own ridiculousness. The destruction, the chases, the silly disguises, the phony personal dramas. I loved it.
The use of marionettes was a bold choice. I have no idea why they decided to go this route other than animation or live action, but it does add another level of absurdity to the goings on. Watching the puppets and their strings walk, fight, make love, it is brilliant. It makes me think about a comment I overheard on my way out of the theater: "That was so fake, I could see the strings. This movie is so fake." Did I hear that right? They went into a movie advertised as puppets versus terrorists, and they complain that it's fake? Some people just don't get it.
Bottomline. It's a film that needs to be experienced. It is funny, over the top, offensive, and has a surprising amount of intelligence built into the outlandish dialogue and visuals. This is the puppet movie to see this year!
Highly Recommended.
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