What's new

Just saw Team America (1 Viewer)

Ernest Rister

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,148
If it made $100 million this weekend, I would still find it hysterical and one of my favorite films so far this year. If it made $10 dollars this weekend, I would still find it hysterical and one of my favorite films this year.

Can't wait to see it again.

"No me gusta!"
 

Phil_L

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 3, 2003
Messages
377
quote:"No me gusta!"






LOL, that line had me rolling in the theater!
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
 

Keith Paynter

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 16, 1999
Messages
1,837
I went to an afternoon showing today - the theater was virtually empty on two accounts - first, the film is rated 18A, which is going to cut into the younger Parker/Stone fan base, and second, because everybody and their dog was at the local CFL football game, cheering the home team for a potential home playoff game. (They won, by the way, but came up short on points to clinch it.)



I came away with the impression that the film essentially has the elements of Matt & Trey's South Park satire (taking some well-deserved pot shots at celebrities and topical politics) but without the hardcore laughs of SP:BLU. (unless you include the aforementioned puppet sex and Gary's pea-soup "exposition", as it were).



This won't have the legs of their last film, but should do well on video. It's debatable about the repeat viewing factor, but it was worth it watching a bunch of gung-ho world crimefighters destroying national monuments in France and Cairo in the name of terrorist reduction (I was hoping that their overzealousness would actually be exploited more throught the film).
 

Mike Broadman

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2001
Messages
4,950
Was anyone really expecting a movie with freakin' puppets to pull a lot of dough?





I was actually impressed with the Alec Baldwin voice impression.
 

Ian_H

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 6, 2001
Messages
569
quote:I also felt bad for the 2 guys sitting in the backrow of the theater I saw this movie in because they thought every single line of song or dialogue was snicker-worthy or laugh-worthy.






How can you feel "bad" for someone who is enjoying themselves? Are they somehow beneath you because they found it funnier than you?





Anyway.. did anyone catch the extra verses in America, F**k Yeah during the closing credits?



"SLAVERY!! F**K YEAH!"



I about died when that line came up.



--Ian
 

Patrick Sun

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1999
Messages
39,660
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.
 

Ernest Rister

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,148
Team America, at its core, it is a send up of the old Reagan-era movies of the 1980's, especially Top Gun and Delta Force. People who are focused on the treatment of the celebrities are missing the forest for the trees -- it is a parody of how action films from the 80's would have treated our current situation. Anyone who has read a Tom Clancy novel knows how shamelessly he stereotypes people opposite his views, treating them as evil characters. That's the parody. Celebrities in league with Kim Jong Il? They're making fun of this type of thinking, they're not advocating it. That's the joke.



I'm starting to think this may be the most misunderstood comedy in quite some time.
 

Seth Paxton

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 5, 1998
Messages
7,585
Holy shit I can't believe how much I agree with what Earnest just said. I mean I agree with him other times, but never to this degree.

I felt the film was clearly making fun of action films and their silly plots at the forefront. Then as a subsection of that they were making fun of how the extremes from all sides actually contradict themselves at some points. The peace lovers are willing to resort to extreme violence, the tough-guy (assume anti-gay) team leader gets a bj to test Gary's trust, and so on.

In the end, the only moral point they really stand behind is similar to their war episode of South Park (where Cartman induces a flashback to the founding fathers) in which America requires both a tough hand and the ability to show regret and compassion from such actions - ie, checks and balance.

As was discussed earlier, these are guys who attack extreme positions. The attacks on stars is more than warranted because those people make themselves political figureheads despite having little or no political training or experience.

But all of that had to be resolved making fun of every action film cliche that ever existed.

I suspected that people on both sides will hate the film because it attacks both sides with equal vigor. For me, that is one of its likeable qualities.

However, the funniest parts for me stemmed from - funny songs, action parodies, puppet gags (like driving on a full size road, standing next to a full size headstone, or being attacked by cats).

All I know is I made sure to pay my $1.05 for freedom. Did you? ;)

Have you considered the fact that every line was coming out of a puppet's mouth? I mean that's pretty funny stuff to me. I'm sure some people would continue to find that image funny in itself. Heck, I thought it was hilarious when Kim Jong Il came on the giant screen at F.A.G. HQ with his face right in the camera sideways saying "Oh, Herro".


Just thought of another funny joke.
"And if you don't want to join you can walk out of here right now."
"Oh, okay." (Gary walks out)

And a dirka dirka Muhammad Ali to you too.
 

Seth Paxton

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 5, 1998
Messages
7,585
Wait a second. Animation is a form of filmmaking. Nothing about that says the film must be a child's film (Felix the Cat, Cool World, etc).

However, acting and politics are 2 distinctly DIFFERENT fields of knowledge/professions. So its more than just a stretch to say "stick to kids cartoons". They are still making an animated film here, not speaking on the Today Show without reference to their craft. Actors can still act in films about politics, and if Moore was a bit more open about just how true to documentary form his work was it would probably go over with Matt and Trey a lot better too.

Their film is not a serious political message because it has puppets puking endlessly and being attacked by cats. It has puppet sex and an analogy based around dicks, assholes and pussies.

They clearly ARE MAKING FUN OF THEMSELVES TOO. Their answer is the dick/asshole analogy that some old drunk rattles off to Gary. And its not even a political point, but rather a point about life in general. They aren't standing up for a party or a candidate.

How in the hell is that the same as an actor using the pedistal that has been giving to them for acting and turing it into a position of political power?

I mean Matt Stone was IN a Moore film (BFC). They are clearly not after him because he makes political satire. They went after him because he has become more party oriented and is aggressively going after a candidate far beyond just being a filmmaker.

I think their point is that now, more than ever, is a time for actors to back off rather than get involved. And for that matter they make some pretty good points about certain singers and their political agenda songs and certain film genres and their (apparent) political stance.

Matt and Trey aren't defending a political stance, they are attacking the silliness and inappropriateness of entertainers that do take a stance. It may seem like an easy target, but in an era of massive political divide it seems like entertainers on both sides of the fence are getting more into it rather than less, and taking themselves quite seriously as political figures even though no one has hired them to do so (including the voters).

Matt and Trey seem to be asking for more reason and understanding between the sides, and for recognition of how silly some of it has become...those dirty, hypocritical bastards.


I'm just concerned about their serious belief that Kim Jong Il is from another planet where 2 alien species are fighting for survival.

edit - I'd like to add that one of the best jokes in the film made fun of the Bush administration passing the buck to "bad intelligence" as if no person(s) was actually responsible for said info. Here in the film "intelligence" is actually a character, and they even say "bad intelligence" when they scold him for making a mistake at one point.

The joke isn't the political stance taken, but just the idea of some vague entity called "intelligence".
 

Pete-D

Screenwriter
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
1,746
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

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,148
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

Screenwriter
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
1,746
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

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,148
"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

Screenwriter
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
1,746
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

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,148
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

Screenwriter
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
1,746
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

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
4,148
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

Screenwriter
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
1,746
Yeah I know, I just wished they had used the actual music, I think it would've been even funnier.
 

Patrick Sun

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1999
Messages
39,660
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.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,810
Messages
5,123,587
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
1
Top