Team America: World Police

It is strangely ironic that after a live action Thunderbirds movie was released last year it took the makers of South Park to truly bring it's spirit to the big screen. After watching Thunderbirds Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided that their next project would involves puppets, and the result is one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed, but also one of the funniest. The film follows 'Team America', a secret organisation built to defend the world from terrorists, as they recruit a new member to deal with weapons of mass destruction being distributed by Kim Jong Il, the Korean leader. While much of the film is a political satire, of how America just ends up blowing everything and everyone up, it is also more successfully a spoof of Hollywood blockbusters. This is where underneath the bad language and juvenile humour lies a more clever beast. By playing the action and dialogue as serious as possible the film is made even funnier. The use of puppets is a genius move and gives the film a distinct, low budget look but works nonetheless. Some of the sets and locations are great and very detailed and the film does go beyond its low-tech restrictions. However it also uses this limitation to great effect with characters walking hilariously and finding it hard to perform simple tasks. The film may be different to South Park in story and character, but the humour is very much the same with Trey and Matt providing many of the voices. The humour is crude and rude, but the sheer amount of jokes and outrageous nature of the film piles up on you and often despite yourself you find yourself laughing. Some of the funniest moments in the film come from the various songs littered around, from Team America's rather rude theme song, to a song about how bad Pearl Harbor was they are also spot on the satire mark. However the film is not perfect and some jokes do seem to go too far, and the angle that satirises many Hollywood actors and actresses is overdrawn and leads to a relatively weak finale. But this is still a brave and original film that is not subtle in the least but is very funny and has a lot to say about the current state of the world and Hollywood. The most ridiculous, childish, bizzare and downright hilarious film I've seen in a long time. An acquired taste and lacks any subtlety but is constantly amusing and creative, if let down slightly by the final act.