Salutations™!!

The Less Desirables Movie of the Week is Team America: World Police and is brought to you by a/perture Cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables. It stars Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Pam Brady, the minds behind South Park and who also wrote the script.

Per IMDb: “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.”

Based in a world of nothing but puppets and marionettes, Team America is a top anti-terrorism task force who stop at nothing to destroy terrorism (and generally anything around it, including entire neighborhoods in Paris), where ever it rears its ugly head. The team comprises Lisa; Carson, her lover; Sarah, quirky and somewhat weird “psychic”; Joe, a rough and tumbling jock-type who is in love with Sarah; and Chris, a kick-arse martial artist. The team is “led” by Spottswoode who is played by Daran Norris, who was Cosmo on Fairly Odd Parents (I loved that show).

During a botched campaign against terrorists in Paris Carson is killed. Spottswoode decides they need to recruit an actor to be able to infiltrate terrorist cells. They hire Gary Johnston, a successful Broadway actor. He’s reluctant at first but it’s Lisa who talks him into it. Meanwhile, they find out that there is a terrorist cell in Cairo, Egypt and they destroy almost all of Cairo destroying the terrorists. A group of actors, featuring Liv Tyler, Samuel L. Jackson, Susan Surandon, George Clooney, Danny Glover, Helen Hunt, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen and Sean Penn, among others, known as the Film Actors’ Guild (or F.A.G.) and led by one of Gary’s favorite actors, Alec Baldwin, criticize Team America for destroying cities. Whilst Gary and Lisa celebrate their “victory” by having sex in a very graphic scene, a group of terrorists destroy the Panama Canal as retaliation for Cairo. They find out that Kim Jung-Il is behind the terrorist activities. Gary also tells Lisa that his acting made his brother get killed by gorillas (not guerrillas).

Gary finds that once again his acting resulted in the death of others he abandons the team. They go out and fight without him and are ambushed when film director Michael Moore infiltrates the base (hidden in Mount Rushmore) and suicide bombs it. The team, watching their screens, believe Spottswoode to be dead and then are caught off guard, their ships and transportation destroyed and captured by terrorists. In North Korea, Kim Jong-il hosts a peace ceremony, inviting the F.A.G and all the world’s political leaders. Really, Kim Jong-il plans to detonate a series of bombs throughout the world, reducing every nation to a poverty-stricken Third World-type country.

In a drunken stuper, Gary is reminded of his responsibility by a confusing speech from a drunken hobo. He heads back to Mount Rushmore, where he finds the area in ruins. However, Spottswoode and I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. (the super computer that powers the team’s, well, “intelligence”) have survived. Spottswoode said that he had to prove to him that he was willing to do anything and be a team player so he forces Gary to do something unmentionable. To find out what, watch the film.

I’m not really going to give anything else away from here. It’s totally worth seeing the film to find out what I’ve left out, both before here and the ending. The comedy is almost side splitting at times. Funnier than South Park and I like South Park. The elaborate sets, the awesome puppetry of the marionettes and how after about 3 minutes you forget that you’re watching dolls move, it’s all masterful. The plot is, of course, not very realistic but at the same time isn’t too far from plausible. The portrayals of the famous actors is just like South Park: not very close to the way they talk but a mockery and that’s extra funny. The film was slapped with almost 10 NC-17 ratings before finally being cut down to an R rating. I believe the version I watched (and own on DVD somewhere) is the NC-17 version. It’s extremely raunchy which adds to its fun.

Rotten Tomatoes rates it 77% Fresh saying: “Team America will either offend you or leave you in stitches. It’ll probably do both.” The audience score is better at 80%. I watched this on Netflix and I highly recommend it if you like offensive raunchy things. I am rating it 4.5. If I did “quarters” it would be 4.75, but I don’t do them as that starts getting into the minutia. Go watch the film. Have you seen it? Do you agree or disagree? Drop me a line and let me know.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“Matt Damon.” – Matt Damon (Trey Parker)