Team America

My sons delight in a super-sour candy that's painful for even them to enjoy. The more painful, the more you scrunch up your face, feeling that nothing could be worse, the more enjoyable it is. That's the fun and after the sourness has gone, the chewy residual provides some sweetness at the end, almost as a reward for having endured the trial.

In many ways, black comedy is a lot like that. The closer you skirt to excruciating discomfort, the better and the best black comedy attacks everyone, stomping towards you like a frenzied samurai, slashing at everyone, including himself. Nevertheless, without the pay-off at the end, without the sweetness, the feeling that there's a better alternative to all the mayhem, black comedy often eventually only leaves you with a nasty taste in your mouth.

Team America

With that in mind, South Park's creators have unleashed...

Team America: World Police

...tippin' their hats to the glorious Cold War all-puppets TV-show, Thunderbirds. While Thunderbirds operated off a remote tropical island, Team America resides at the spiritual heart of the USA, Mount Rushmore. They're an elite fighting squad, an unofficial World Police unit, who:

• fly stars & stripes fighter planes &
• shoot stars & stripes missiles at terrorist scum in any corner of the globe

Like the Jerry Bruckheimer big budget adventure movies that Team America continually lampoons, the opening sequence, set in downtown Paris, is spectacular.

We find Team America taking out four very Arabic-looking terrorists who have a "weapon of mass destruction", which they are about to detonate. Unfortunately, in saving Paris, Team America also end up destroying the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe but that's a small price to pay for Freedom.

Back at Mount Rushmore, Team America top-dog, Spotswoode becomes aware of a gigantic, global terrorist plot:

So far so good in the black comedy stakes, the comic dialogue is snappy, the satirical jabs are hitting home...and both sides are wounded. However, it's a slow downward ride from then onwards, including an athletic, pornographic sex scene that remains, perhaps the one of the two memorable visual sequences in the whole film.

Mind you, Trey Parker's satirical songs stand up just fine:

...though it'd be hard to think of them having any use outside of Team America.

Quite a bit is right about Team America but disappointingly, much of it just doesn't hit home. Instead of being pointed, it's nihilstic. Team America seems to stand for nothing more than the right to attack Left & Right, the excesses of Democracy & the perils of Dictatorship.

"Fair enough..."

...you might say but unfortunately that position devalues the genuine moments of comic brilliance, like when two of Team America are fed to "ferocious" black panthers by Korean dictator turned terrorist, Kim Jong 11, who also relays how lonely it is at the top.

Team America DVD

"...This movie is real comic genius from the minds of Trey Parker & Matt Stone. Great Puppet work, great sets, great songs...awesome comedy!..." Amazon reviewer Kyle. W

"...The "gay" theme and constant swearing were just too much to stomach. A shame because it really was a great idea but it was sunk by a very puerile script..." Amazon reviewer Old Gray Moose

"...The creative crew behind South Park are raunchy, worse than irreverent, and often brilliant. This ain't for everyone, and I couldn't have sat through this with my kids (the scatalogico-sexual humor and profanities were just too much), but I'm glad I...saw it..." Amazon reviewer Mark Lee

Too often, though, Team America seems to say, "Why bother, it's all crap anyway..." and in the end, all Team America seems to stand for is the Eric Cartman-esque:

...which may or may not be a bad thing!

Team America soundtrack

"...The songs from Team America are absolutely hilarious but they only take up 19 minutes of this 47 minute soundtrack. The rest of the soundtrack features the instrumental score, which isn't all that interesting to listen to. But it's still worth getting the CD just to get the songs..." Amazon reviewer Johnny Heering