Team America: World Police is a hilarious movie in both premise and in action. The fact that the entire movie is made with marionette dolls is not only funny but clever. The other great thing about this movie is that it is a good satire of America and just about everyone. That is the nice thing about this movie: It should offend everyone equally.
The movie follows the premise of Team America having to stop Kim Jong-il before he destroys most of world with weapons of mass destruction. The movie is careful enough to make this premise work by adding many hilarious and weird moments so that the movie never becomes truly offensive (particularly when is shows Islamic stereotypes). One of the greatest things about this movie is that it takes advantage of the marionette dolls and essentially "breaks the fourth-wall" without the characters ever being aware. This is done by a lot of gags that involve how stupid the dolls move and just how absurd everything is. Sometimes the dolls don't walk properly, sometimes props seem to mess up, heck; a giant statue of Kim Jong-Il is literally a guy wearing bronze makeup and standing still. This is where a lot of the movie's best jokes come from: The design jokes and the satire jokes.
But then, there is the weaker side to this movie: The crude jokes. While some of them work, a lot of them don't. Now I know people will say "You either like South Park humour or you don't" (This is made by Trey and Matt, after all) but that isn't it. The problem is that the crude jokes don't add anything to the movie... and they aren't even funny. For one scene, the main character has give oral-sex to another man to be accepted as a member of Team America. This scene is referenced multiple times in the movie, but it was never funny to begin with. Just because something is crude, doesn't mean it is funny. It is only funny if it is executed properly. Just saying crude dialogue isn't funny in itself.
Unfortunately, the last third of the movie focuses mostly on crude humour for most of its jokes which makes the movie feel like a real drag. Instead of having witty satire and funny parodies in the first half, it tries to outdo itself in the final act. For some reason the movie thinks that the only way to outdo clever humour is with non- clever humour.
Fortunately, the first two thirds of the movie are pretty funny and unique. I wouldn't say the third act of the movie didn't have funny jokes--because it was still funny--but it seemed to get caught up at times and is essentially the weakest point of the film. The intro to this film is also probably one of the funniest moments.
The main reason why I like this film is for its originality and how many weird and obscure hidden "marionette" jokes are in it.
The movie follows the premise of Team America having to stop Kim Jong-il before he destroys most of world with weapons of mass destruction. The movie is careful enough to make this premise work by adding many hilarious and weird moments so that the movie never becomes truly offensive (particularly when is shows Islamic stereotypes). One of the greatest things about this movie is that it takes advantage of the marionette dolls and essentially "breaks the fourth-wall" without the characters ever being aware. This is done by a lot of gags that involve how stupid the dolls move and just how absurd everything is. Sometimes the dolls don't walk properly, sometimes props seem to mess up, heck; a giant statue of Kim Jong-Il is literally a guy wearing bronze makeup and standing still. This is where a lot of the movie's best jokes come from: The design jokes and the satire jokes.
But then, there is the weaker side to this movie: The crude jokes. While some of them work, a lot of them don't. Now I know people will say "You either like South Park humour or you don't" (This is made by Trey and Matt, after all) but that isn't it. The problem is that the crude jokes don't add anything to the movie... and they aren't even funny. For one scene, the main character has give oral-sex to another man to be accepted as a member of Team America. This scene is referenced multiple times in the movie, but it was never funny to begin with. Just because something is crude, doesn't mean it is funny. It is only funny if it is executed properly. Just saying crude dialogue isn't funny in itself.
Unfortunately, the last third of the movie focuses mostly on crude humour for most of its jokes which makes the movie feel like a real drag. Instead of having witty satire and funny parodies in the first half, it tries to outdo itself in the final act. For some reason the movie thinks that the only way to outdo clever humour is with non- clever humour.
Fortunately, the first two thirds of the movie are pretty funny and unique. I wouldn't say the third act of the movie didn't have funny jokes--because it was still funny--but it seemed to get caught up at times and is essentially the weakest point of the film. The intro to this film is also probably one of the funniest moments.
The main reason why I like this film is for its originality and how many weird and obscure hidden "marionette" jokes are in it.