Movie Review: Team America: World Police

Puppets on strings, for a lot of people, conjure innocent childhood images of Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet jerking like clockwork across the TV screen.  While these characters' actions were portrayed without ultra-violence or death, the marionettes that inhabit the world of Team America: World Police are depicted fornicating, vomiting, cursing and meeting their demise in a variety of grisly manners.

An all-action comedy that repeatedly jabs at the American war on terror, Team America: World Police tells the story of a group of 'super soldiers' who travel the world in pursuit of terrorism.  Written and directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, the story is punctuated by a series of often-hilarious tongue-in-cheek musical numbers (that wouldn't be out of place in Top Gun), as the hapless team battle against North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il plot to destroy the world using 'weapons of mass destruction'.

Beginning in Paris, we see a small group of Arab terrorists loitering with intent, engaged in the exchange of a suitcase with a tell-tale flashing light - a WOMD.  Amusingly, the language spoken by the Arab terrorists is totally unintelligible and gibberish, typical lines of dialogue along the lines of "Durka durka, Jihad, Mohamed."  Team America soon enters the fray, toting nothing less than shoulder-guided missiles and machine guns.  As weapons fire and guns blaze we see the rapid and wanton destruction of The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.  As the city lies in rubble, one of the team proudly reassures the crowd: "Everything is bon.  We stopped the terrorists!"  Before long, the pursuit leads to Cairo where we witness the inevitable destruction of the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

The story continues in this manner with a combination hilarious dialogue, one-liners, the obligatory 'hero in training' montage (with accompanying song) and the most hilarious puppet sex scene conceivable!  I can only guess that the writers watched a lot of porn movies in preparation for this scene!

Despite the subject matter, the political leaning of the writers is neither important nor clear: it's all about getting laughs, and often in the crudest manner possible.  With very few lulls and almost no bad gags, this film had me crying with laughter within five minutes and kept me grinning for its entire hour and half length: mission accomplished.

On reflection, after witnessing a number of genuinely shocking moments, one thing did surprise me: what self-respecting terrorism spoof could be complete without using the acronym for 'the war against terrorism'?  Perhaps in the sequel!