Just saw Team America - Page 4

Pete-D · 10-18-2004, 03:36 AM

I saw it. I thought it was funny, like the South Park movie.

The sets (especailly New York City, Cairo, and the Taj Mahal) were surprisingly detailed and quite nice to look at.

I have to admit the "love" (lol) scene, which starts off in Top Gun fashion, had me rolling.

Yeah, its juvenile stuff, but what can you do. The Bruckheimer references were great.

I thought it lapooned both sides. The Team America members saying "Intelligence is out! We have no intelligence!", and things of that nature.

They did dig into celebrities, but they do that on South Park too ... they mercilessily tore apart Mel Gibson just a few months ago on the show, so its about standard for them.

Ernest Rister · 10-18-2004, 03:55 AM

I think their point is that now, more than ever, is a time for actors to back off rather than get involved.

No...no...no...

Team America is EXPLICITLY making fun of Top Gun-esque 80's Reagan-era action films. You have to be familiar with 80's action films to get the joke -- in these, as in Tom Clancy novels, the left-wing is depicted as evil obstacles who might as well be in league with the Evil Enemy du-jour. That's where the absurdity comes into it, by setting it today, and having celebrities play the part of the "commie sympathizers". Like any great absurdist satire, in the tradition of Ionesco, Monty Python, even Mel Brooks -- this is taken to a massive absurd extreme, just as extreme as the vomit sequence.

You didn't read (or agree with) my previous post -- and you are backing up my belief that this is the most misunderstood comedy in a long, long time.

Pete-D · 10-18-2004, 04:02 AM

They're making fun of 80s action films and Bruckheimer fare, yeah I think most people get that.

But they are harping on celebs for voicing their opinions as well. Or moreso that they're bringing celebrities down a notch for being so self-righteous.

I dunno about the other stuff with the Clancy novels and what not.

Ernest Rister · 10-18-2004, 04:09 AM

"But yeah they are harping on celebs for voicing their opinions as well."

No, they are mocking how "liberals" were treated in 80's action films and in (let's be honest) right-wing books like Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels. It is almost too-perfect a satire on 80's action cinema...so perfect a lot of people are missing the joke.

Pete-D · 10-18-2004, 04:13 AM

Are you sure about that Ernest?

I mean they do like to rip celebrities, we know that from South Park.

Simply because for starters it invites parody (like Ben Affleck thinking Cartman's hand is Jennifer Lopez or Mel Gibson going bonkers).

Ernest Rister · 10-18-2004, 04:28 AM

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Sad to say, I was a teen in the 80's, and I saw Top Gun five times in the theater (the same summer, I saw Aliens six times). God only knows how many times I saw Top Gun on home video. The film is primarily a savage rip on Top Gun -- but it borrows the cliches of other mid-80's era military action films, like Delta Force, Missing in Action 1 - 3, Iron Eagle, etc.

On the one hand, I guess it is a positive sign these movies have been forgotten. On the other hand, the irrelevancy of these movies have rendered them so obscure to the point that they don't resonate, or are even remembered today, and such obscurity is blunting the satire of Team America. Maybe the most damning thing I can say about Team America is that perhaps it is a film made 10 years too late...teens are not going to understand this movie. 30-somethings like me and my friends, who grew up in the 80's? Yeah, we got every frame.

Pete-D · 10-18-2004, 04:58 AM

Nothing wrong with being a teen in the 80s. I was a youngun, but I did envy my older cousins (and pop music back then was actually decent).

For me though I saw references to Bruckheimer's 90s films like "The Rock" and "Armageddon", especailly in the score.

I really wished they could have used "Take My Breath Away" for the sex scene though, that would've been classic.

Ernest Rister · 10-18-2004, 05:07 AM

They implicitly riffed on "Take My Breath Away" in that moment, as well as the "I Miss You More than..." song.

This is what I'm talking about.

(sigh)

You guys are starting to make me think Team America is as inscrutable to read as "A.I."....

Pete-D · 10-18-2004, 05:12 AM

Yeah I know, I just wished they had used the actual music, I think it would've been even funnier.

Patrick Sun · 10-18-2004, 08:06 AM

My point is that these kids are laughing at all the scatological "humor", and I doubt they are getting a lot of the subtext. Try listening to such snickering for the entire movie, it ain't fun.

Kevin M · 10-18-2004, 10:22 AM

quote:
While comedy is subjective, I think those 2 guys were conditioned to laugh at every single line in the movie, and it just seemed sad/forced to me.
My point is that these kids are laughing at all the scatological "humor", and I doubt they are getting a lot of the subtext. Try listening to such snickering for the entire movie, it ain't fun.

Or they were stoned out of their minds. It would answer a few things now wouldn't it?

Patrick Sun · 10-18-2004, 10:41 AM

Hey now, I'm not the one saying you have to be stoned to really enjoy this movie. [img]images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

I think Parker and Stone missed an opportunity:

Just after Gary is done proving his loyalty/trust, they should have had his hair "gelled" up a la "There's Something About Mary".