Five out of five stars

It is a coincidence that ‘Team America: World Police’ will be released in theaters nationwide only four days after Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ hit DVD shelves.

Both are at their best when mercilessly skewering their targets, both have blatant disregard for actual facts (although Moore seems to be in denial about it) and both attempt to make salient observations about our post-‘War on Terror’ society and the foreign policy that comes along with it.

With all apologies to the Kool-Aid-drinking supporters of America’s favorite tubby trouble-maker, the only film that accomplishes the last of those three is the one with explicit puppet sex. ‘Team America’ is the must-see film for any voter prior to Election Day.

This should not come as a major surprise to anyone who has kept up with creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s day job as masterminds of Comedy Central’s ‘South Park.’ Some of the most memorable moments from that series (which has, shockingly, not lost its bite after eight seasons and counting) have dealt with oft-taboo subjects with such vulgarity and insensitivity. Stone and Parker have discovered that, sometimes, some of the best points can only be made once everyone involved is deflated.

‘Team America’ is essentially the first Jerry Bruckhimer-esqe action thriller to deal exclusively with post-Sept. 11 terrorism. Half of the jokes are derived from sending up the conventions of these over-the-top clich factories, and the satire of the film will only grow exponentially as soon as Hollywood deems it safe for Michael Bay to center a film about Sept. 11 itself.

There are other hallmarks of Parker and Stone’s work; the language is coarse – really motherfucking, shit-sucking coarse – and, as with their 1999 classic ‘South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut’ and 1997’s ‘Orgazmo,’ the duo’s musical prowess shines. This time, we get treated to the Toby Keith-influenced ‘Freedom Isn’t Free,’ an extended version of South Park throwback ‘The Montage Song,’ and, of course, the mighty, rumbling theme of the our beloved heroes, ‘Team America: Fuck Yeah!’

As the film draws to a close, the main character delivers a monologue that is so gut-bustingly vulgar, and you won’t realize until hours after you leave the theater how poignant it is. The moral of the film leaves the viewer with the kind of insight that Moore could only dream of conjuring up, no matter how many times he points his sausage link fingers at his new target d’jour.

Published on October 14, 2004 at 12:00 pm