'Team America: World Police' [Blu-ray]
(Trey Parker, Matt Stone, et al / Blu ray / NR / (2004) 2015 / Warner Bros.)
Overview: First time on Blu-ray! Popular Broadway actor Gary Johnston is recruited by the elite counter-terrorism organization Team America: World Police. As the world begins to crumble around him, he must battle with terrorists, celebrities and falling in love.
Blu ray Verdict: "Team America: World Police" is a great sendoff to one of the most turbulent times in American history, and "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, both equal opportunity offenders, pull no strings (no pun intended) with this hilarious and blazingly satiric model of the United States and its supposed role in world affairs.
But again, what better way is there to remember the tumultuous reign of the U.S. and its War on Terror than to make a movie that satirizes the living hell out of both? Like their previous effort "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut," they take chances that no other filmmaker in America is ever willing to take, and that is to be as crude and vulgar as humanly possible for 90 minutes straight.
Anyone expecting an anti-Bush treatise like "Fahrenheit 9/11" or a pro-Kerry ad campaign will be sorely mistaken. It's really best that liberals and conservatives both stay as far away from this movie as possible, as they both get their fair share of bashing. Parker and Stone have even said that anyone who thinks it should be used to sway votes is a "f**king idiot." America itself seems to be at the top of their hit list, or at least American bravado is.
As a casual fan of "South Park," I understand that Trey Parker and Matt Stone go to the extreme in making fun of American culture and lampooning people they don't like. Already they've gotten "fan" mail from Sean Penn, who is understandably upset over his portrayal in the film, as well as several other liberal celebrities who are portrayed as being backstabbing morons.
But I'm not really here to argue political bias in this film (George W. Bush has got to go come November 2nd, in case anyone wants to know), and the perfect satire has come to fuel the fire of the most important election in United States history.
"Team America: World Police" is hugely inspired by the "Thunderbirds" marionette cartoons that aired during the 1960s, and it shows us a TEAM of Americans that POLICE the WORLD. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has weapons of mass destruction and has implemented plans to use them. So Team America goes to work to foil his evil plans. In doing so, they lay waste to several world landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian pyramids.
"America" parades through virtually every action movie cliché imaginable, most notably from the films of producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose "Pearl Harbor" (2001) gets lampooned the worst; they even hit "Top Gun" (1986).
There is no question that "Team America: World Police" is inspired and imaginative film-making, made by two creative geniuses who LOVE to push the envelope anywhere they can. Liberal Hollywood celebrities get some of the worst bashing here, with political gadfly Michael Moore playing the part of a hot dog-munching suicide bomber and Alec Baldwin as the leader of the Film Actors Guild (F.A.G., get it?). But conservatives aren't off the hook either, as their politics of U.S. intervention in every world affair is taken to ridiculous heights, hence the title "World Police."
"Team America: World Police" is a brilliant satire of our times, of course that doesn't make it safe from the detractors who claim that Parker and Stone are irresponsible morons. Indeed, there are smarter ways to approach such sensitive material, but Parker and Stone aren't intellectuals who are out to change the world, they're just two guys who like to fool around and make people laugh. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
www.WarnerBros.com
Own it on Blu-ray Digital HD October 13th, 2015!