Team America: World Police (7/10)

by Tony Medley

I don’t like cartoons and I don’t like puppets in movies, so I wasn’t expecting much for this. In fact, I didn’t even attend a screening, but I did go and, what a surprise!

Forget the story. It’s the characters and POV that count. This attacks Alec Baldwin, and his leftwing Hollywood actor buddies, and also pokes fun at America’s new penchant for trying to solve all the world’s ills.

Created by the folks responsible for South Park, the team is comprised of Joe, a football player and natural born leader, Sarah, a top empath from Berkeley’s School of the Clairvoyant, Chris a martial arts expert, Lisa a top Princeton psychology major, and Gary, an actor (“because that’s all spying is”). They are run by Spottswoode, their mentor. They are all Americans with their headquarters in caves at Mount Rushmore, and they view their task as policing the world.

On the other side are Kim Jong Il, the North Korean dictator, and his dupes from the Film Actor’s Guild (FAG), led by Baldwin, Jenine Garafalo, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and many others from the Hollywood left. The good guys vs. the bad guys. This is a rollicking, politically incorrect movie that everyone can like. I saw it with a friend who’s slightly to the left of Lenin and she liked it as much as I did.

Although it can get a bit wearing on me to watch puppets, this is so well written and so tongue in cheek, that it was a pleasure.

October 23, 2004

The End