Team America: World Police
“Nice brog!”
Had it on the DVR for ages, didn’t get around to watching it until last week. Loved it! I don’t watch South Park, not because I don’t think it’s funny but because I can’t take the voices, physically; the frequency of Cartman in particular is like nails on a chalkboard. But I like their work, generally, and I liked this a lot. Much of it is pretty obvious, but just as much of it is either smart enough to balance it out (Gary hurling; cue the strings of rock-bottom realization; hurling; strings; hurling; strings; it just keeps going, like three iterations past most of us would have ended the joke) — or it lets the viewer feel smart (I totally called those housecats and felt all proud as a result).
My other favorite parts: the montage song (Wet Hot American Summer has a couple of montage send-ups sharper than this one, but the song here is brilliant, especially the line about fading out at the end to denote the passing of time); Hans Blix getting mauled by sharks; and the minor-key crooning of “Americaaaaa / Fuck yeeaaaaah” when Gary quits the team.
“I’m not watching that shit. I heard about the puppets fucking and I’d like to get to sleep sometime before March.” It’s not that bad. It’s pretty wrong, but it’s maybe 90 seconds.
Tags: movies
I enjoyed it, mostly for “Maaaat Daaaaamon”.
I also enjoyed it for “Maaaat Daaaaamon”. And “Areck Berdwen”. Tye watching “The Departed” after watching “Team America: WP” and see if you can take it half as seriously.
My boss is Korean, and fond of the word “inevitable”. Keeping a straight face in meetings can be a struggle.
Hah! My 19 year old niece and I watched it last week and loved it, but I fear I allowed her to be scarred forever by the puppet sex. I was told about the puppet sex in advance, but no one warned me about the last 10 seconds. Eeeuuwwwwww!!
I have “America, Fuck Yeah” on my iPod, and cannot help grinning and giggling like a total idiot whenever it comes on. Hee!
What we need is a montage!
I stopped being a fan of South Park when I crossed over into my 20s, but I loooove that movie. It makes me sad that there are only, like, three people in my life who know what the fuck I’m talking about when I say “I’m so ronery.”
I found the f*cking puppets scene to be about 15 different shades of wrong but laughed my ass off. I used to watch South Park religiously in the beginning. (Kyle’s Mom is a Big Fat B*tch…yeah I know that song. Snotted myself). It was new; a novelty to me. But it got, well, stupid, even for them. Mkay.
That montage song has made it impossible for me to watch episodes of any flavor CSI with a straight face (yeah, yeah, mock me later). They all contain montages of forensic wizardry that make me start singing “What we need here is a forensic MON-tage!! Forensic MON-tage!!”
‘Cause I needed to be weirder. Thanks a lot, Parker & Stone.
I gotta say, I worked in Americorps for a year and …
… well, you know where this is going.
One member of the team: “Americo-o-o-o-orps!”
Everyone else: “FUCK YEAH!”
Only sung really really softly when our boss was around. :)
I love me some South Park, but I live here fer chrissakes.
But that puppet up there? Gives me the squickies.
Hell, I wanna kick the stuffing out of the cryptkeeper puppet in a bad way, and the Snuggle bear too. I have puppet issues. I don’t think I could watch this movie and stay inside my own skin.
But the review kinda makes me want to…
Our clan had endless viewing marathons a couple of summers ago, and went as Team America for Halloween that year. We still frequently wave our arms around goofily for the “signal.”
In the airport parking lot the other day, I honestly truly saw a bumper sticker that said, “Freedom isn’t Free.” Of course it’s not! Everyone knows it’s a buck-oh-five.
@Margaret in CO: I have to agree about the puppet squick; for me, it’s dolls, and they’re just too close. Ew. I do love South Park though.
Puppets and marionettes slay me. I still have ripsnorting flashbacks to “Jake Steel, Marionette Cop” from the old Ben Stiller show. Haven’t seen TA:WP yet, but I probably should.
I’m in the army, and was in Iraq last year…my unit used to watch movies for morale (we had a very sweet sheet/projection screen) and we watched this SEVERAL times. Not what I would typically watch at home, but boy was is it hilarious in that context.
@Crissy: I am sad that no one understands me when I complain “don’t you know how FUCKING busy I am?”
and I still have “america fuck yeah” on my iPod.
Hey Jen! Thank you, from a citizen to a soldier – thank you.
On the puppet/doll phobia tip. I watched the weirdest documentary on tv a couple of days ago about these women who bought these dolls that looked like real babies called “baby reborns”. The women take them for walks in a pram and feed them and stuff. The makers can even give the dolls heart beats or make them move. One Grandma even had a replica of her grandson made, ewww. Now, that? Properly freaky! Puppets? Not so much.
For me, the pinnacle of hilarity was ‘Pearl Harbor Sucked, and I Miss You.’ Because it’s so, so true…
@Jen: glad you’re home!
In the “unrated” version, not only is there puppet sex, but there’s “cleveland steamers” as well. Really, really, REALLY over the top, but friggin’ hi-larious.
I actually saw this for the first time last week, too, and really enjoyed it! I read somewhere (possibly Wikipedia) that Stephen Sondheim said it was the best musical of the last few years or something along those lines. I must agree! The songs were hilarious. I’m sure that anytime I see a story on the news where the US has embarrassed itself I’ll be softly humming, “America! Fuck Yeah!”
This is one of my favorite movies! It’s just so ridiculous and over-the-top, but I love how it calls everyone out on the absurdity of modern-day politics.
Amerrrricaaaaaaa! FUCK YEAH!
@jbp: the unrated version’s puppet sex is seriously all kinds of wrong, but I can’t help but laugh my ass off every single time I see the movie.
Oh, sweet Lord. I love this movie so much. I have so many favorite moments, but I think the one that tops them all is the scene with the “panthers” because they look exactly like one of my cats.
And the music is priceless. My brother-in-law and I will still sing, “American, Fuck yeah!” and “Freedom is a Buck o’ five” to each other.
I love that you love this movie. i don’t know why.
In 2005, I rented it with my best friend. We decided to spice up our evening and made it into a drinking game (natch). However, we weren’t too inventive and decided to drink every time someone died (a little bit tipsy), every time they said america (drunk) and every time they swore (shit-faced).
The song “America, Fuck Yeah” almost sent me to the hospital. Totally worth it.
I have a friend who works for the US State Department, who saw this with us in the theater when it first came out. It was almost more fun to watch her than to watch the movie–I swear I thought we were going to have to carry her home because she’d passed out from lack of oxygen, she was laughing so much.
A few months later, she told us about a meeting she was in wherein some high ranking government muckity-muck asked, “What is *wrong* with Kim Jong-Il anyway?” To which she could only reply, of course, “He’s ronery.”
Sadly, she said most of the folks in the meeting missed the reference, but it still makes me laugh to think about.
I love that movie. We have both Freedom isn’t Free and America, Fuck Yeah on the Official 4th of July Mix, right next to Ray Charles doing “America, the Beautiful.”
HANS BRIX!!!! has replaced KHAAAAAAAAAN!!! as our expression of fury, too. And the puppet sex is Not That Bad.
I love that damn film…Whenever I get sick, my step-mother always tells me to “declare a jihad on that cold.”
I saw this in Ireland when it was at the cinema there. The Irish crowd got totally different jokes than I did: I was the only one in the whole theater laughing at “F.A.G.”, while they as a whole absolutely howled during the puppet sex. I think the experience made me enjoy it more.