30/50x2: Team America: World Police

When South Park originally came out I was all-in. It was a long time ago now, but I remember recording the episodes on a VHS tape (yes kids, that was before DVDs and DVRs). Those first few seasons were pretty amazing.

But, I sort of fell out of love with South Park, but I absolutely loved South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Even with my fondness for that film it took me until now to fully embrace and watch (force myself to watch) their 2004 film.

Team America: World Police was created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker (or the guys who brought you South Park and the underrated BASEketball). Here instead of horrible looking animation, the creators bring you an entire film of marionettes. I'll definitely give Stone and Parker some credit, they are definitely ambitious.

The film itself is sort an attack on everyone - which is what Stone and Parker do so well. They make fun of and show their hatred for the world's dictators like Kim Jong-Il and Saddam Hussein, but also in a not-so-subtle way show the United States is being hated for being the "World Police".

The plot itself is a group of individuals work under the banner I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E., five members all with a different set of skills and whose home base is inside of Mount Rushmore. They are dispatched whenever the world needs saving.

During one such mission, a member of their team is killed and the group is in need of another member. Their leader, Spottswoode, recruits an actor named Gary who has a background in foreign languages. His belief is that Gary would be able to infiltrate different terrorist organizations and find out their secrets.

At this time, Jong-Il also happens to be planning a large world attack with other terrorist nations. So, it is up to the new Team America to gel quickly - even though most of the members are against the inclusion of Gary - and stop the world's terrorist from destroying the planet.

Crazy. Something completely insane it could never possibly work. But, it did. You almost forget while watching that you are watching puppets perform. Not only that, but there are so many real-life people as puppets in this film - whether it be the terrorists from the world or actors like Alec Baldwin or Matt Damon - that it actually feels like it's them (at times of course, I'm not crazy).

I really enjoyed it. I may have given up on South Park, but whenever Parker and Stone come up with another hair-brained idea for a movie, I will definitely check it out - eventually.

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