I have to admit being a little surprised they took a shot at George Clooney, since Clooney had been in the South Park movie and I wasn’t aware Clooney had made any anti-Bush statements. Of course, I wasn’t aware that Helen Hunt or Samuel L. Jackson had, either.
Being in the movie doesn’t necessarily mean they made anti-Bush statements. In fact, I’ve read interviews with George Clooney where he refuses to give political opinions because he says he doesn’t think that’s an actor’s job. I was thinking they might have just put him in the movie to bust on him because he’s their friend.
I could be totally wrong though. Judging by their interview on Conan a few nights ago, it doesn’t take much to piss them off.
The song at the end of the ending credits was pretty funny. Everybody missed but the two of us who stayed.
My two cents:
Cent 1: As a movie, it was pretty slow going until near the end. Then actual jokes started to be used. Trying to make a parody of bad movies is generally not going to work. And it doesn’t. It’s only when it gets “South Parkian” that some fun happens.
Cent 2: As political commentary, pure ultra-right wing crapola. They buy the Karl Rove “If you don’t support the President you support the terrorists and deserve to die!” mentality. Note that the only real-life liberals shown are distorted Hollywood types. They even have Michael Moore be a socialist (!!!) mad bomber. No real-life conservative figures are shown at all! And Hollywood (as well as Washington) are full of them. Very, very biased. They claim in interviews that the celebs are fair game since they are only celebs expressing political opinion. And Parker and Stone are ???
Save your money. Go see “P.S.” when it comes out.
I just saw it today and I have to say it’s the most incredibly, gut-bustingly hilarious thing I’ve seen since, well…South Park, Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Just had me laughing out loud from beginning to end. Just when you think they can’t get any more over the top, they do. And given how much it pissed off the poster just before me, I can see they were spot on in their lampoon of Hollywood.
I thought it was funny for the whole enchilada - things at the beginning - the play, the abduction, the fight in paris, egypt, etc.
Sounds like you are just as guilty as you claim they are - mock the hollywood elite (to which michael moore is now a part) and you are “ultra-right wing.” It’s just a movie - chill out. Karl Rove? Come on! They aren’t royalty or rocket scientists or saviours - their just actors - I think that was a message that was central to the movie that you seem to have looked past, and not very good ones to boot. The interview with Sean Penn was brilliant! He couldn’t have said it better himself!
By the way, what does “Note that the only real-life liberals shown are distorted Hollywood types” mean? The impersonations were spot on (except Matt Damon, that was just mean.)
The movie was fun, funny, and had some scathing humor - too bad some people left their funny-bones at the door…
What happened on Conan?
They explained why they were mad at Michael Moore.
Apparently, they thought that he placed the animation sequence in Bowling for Columbine right after the Matt Stone interview to make people think that Trey and Matt made it.
It never even occured to me that Parker and Stone made it or that people were supposed to think they made it.
I’m actually a bigger TP & MS fan than a Michael Moore fan but I really think they’re wrong and/or way too easily offended in this case. Even if he did do it on purpose (which, well, he probably did), what’s the big deal?
Sheesh – of all the things someone could be mad at Michael Moore for, you’d think they coulda picked something a little meatier.
Cisco
I for one did think that the animation in Bowling for Columbine was made by Matt Stone.
I also thought he had done the voice.
Don’t you agree it was very much in SouthPark style?
I can imagine him beig ticked off about that!!
I think it is very misleading.
Exactly what I thought. In fact I didn’t know better until I read this Thread. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that it is a very common misconception- that animation was very much in the South Park style. I’d be ticked off too.
I’m still laughing about the Panama-canal scene.
When the water is flooding the place and one Panamanian guy is trying to hold on to a lamp post, being innundated by water, shouting the whole time, “¡No me gusto! ¡No me gusto!” Then the aftermath showed all the marianettes floating in the water like bodies; but, mixed among them were the domestic fowl that were just floating in the water like they were just tossed in with no attempt to make them look like anything other than toys tossed in a bathtub; plus, a piñata!
I don’t know if the other audience members were laughing at the movie, or if they were laughing at my sister & and I gasping for breath from our laughter. Tragedy can be so funny sometimes.
Like The Thunderbirds, the marionettes were really creepy looking. Plus, they’re a lot harder to spell than “puppet.” But I was struck by the quality of the scenery in many of the scenes. They really had some beautiful artwork. I think that’s part of what makes them so funny to me, that they have such an ability to produce really good stuff and they use it to create the most crude stuff that is yet run through with a thread of real intelligence and insight. The beginning…
with the backdrop of Paris and the marionette, and camera pans back to show a marionette operating a marionette……I thought that was really great.
Ultra-right wing? Did you see the part of the movie where the Team America went around to foreign countries and basically destroyed everything in sight without a concern at all? The thing this movie mocks is extremist, simplified, non-critical thinking on both sides, from the “Woooh, America!” folks to the “Booo, America!” folks, they despise people who think the world can be summed in catch phrases and one-liners. This has been a theme of theirs in South Park as well.
Wow, way to completely miss the point! The entire rest of the movie is a satire of Bush’s foreign policy! Americans show up in a foreign country, uninvited, cause untold death and destruction, and then fly off into the sunset wholly unaware of the extent to which they are justifiably loathed by the people they just “saved.” Does that ring any current-event bells? The central theme of Team America is a send-up of the simple-minded jingoism of Bush administration, not an endorsement of it.
I’m mystified by this idea that the movie is somehow “anti-liberal” because of the negative portrayal of Hollywood celebrities. This has nothing to do with Parker and Stone hating liberals, and everything to do with Parker and Stone hating celebrities. Look at South Park, and the way they’ve portrayed Barbara “Mecha-” Streisand, Ben Affleck and J. Lo, or Rob Reiner, just to name a few. Look, I’m as liberal as the next guy, but even I can get behind the idea of feeding Sean Penn to a panther. That’s the sort of issue that cuts right across ideological lines.
I thought it was a basically good comedy with a number of wickedly funny moments, but not better than an average South Park episode.
I was actually a bit let down by the puppetry. They did some great things, but somehow I expected more; I’m spoiled by the overachievements of South Park, I guess. In particular, I thought most of the celebrity puppets were really, really bad. The only ones I would have recognized unaided were Sean Penn (not good, but close enough), Kim Jong Il (very good), and Michael Moore (also good); the others were crap. I could have sworn the Tim Robbins puppet was supposed to be Elton John.
As for political balance…
[spoiler]While there are jabs at both sides, I thought they were of a different nature. The jabs at the left are very overt and over-the-top, venturing into Freeper territory (really, they’re eating this movie up over there). While I think celebrities, especially the activist kind, deserve a lot of mockery, having them fight with the terrorists or become suicide bombers was a bit much.
The jabs at the right, however, tend to be subtle and easy to miss or underplayed. Sure, Team America destroys everything as they sweep through and you get a second or two shot of the crowd looking astonished at their city in ruins, but then it’s on to the next scene and you don’t really get a sense that they just pissed off ten times as many people as they were after (the more overt criticism). Then there’s the overall theme of the movie as an American apologetic for being a dick, but it’s mitigated by “hey, sometimes it’s good to be a dick”. Sucking cock to prove your patriotism? Fucking hilarious. Will the audience connect the dots? Doubtful.[/spoiler]
So I think the movie, whether it intends to or not, does come off as leaning right, understandably so, and that seems to be the way it’s being received.
For what it’s worth, I knew the animation in Fahrenheit 9/11 wasn’t by the South Park guys and I don’t think it reflects their style at all.
You mean Bowling for Columbine.
Haven’t seen Team America, but my brother – who’s as staunchly anti-Bush as anyone you’ll find – did, and he said it was the funniest thing he’s seen all year.
Oops, yeah, that’s what I meant. Thanks for catching that.
Thanks for the answer Cisco.
I thought the marrionettes movements were great. Did anyone else say, or almost say, “Wow, this flick has some good act…” before remembering that you were watching a movie with puppets? I swear, I almost muttered this at least three times.
Also, the look on the terrorist’s face at the beggining of the movje when he was looking down on the kid was priceless.
It is a common misconception, but then so is “effin cry”, and they’re both ridiculous. Yes, the style was similar to South Park, from the animation to the direction, but it wasn’t presented as being by Parker and Stone, so why assume as much? And why assume he was trying to be deceptive about it? He wanted to do a funny, South Park style animated segment about the history of gun control. Placing it right after the interview with the creators of South Park was the most natural thing to do.
I finally got to see Team America: World Police at a matinee today.
I was the only one in the theater.
Something tells me the movie would’ve been more enjoyable with an audience to laugh and go “ew” and stuff along with. As it was, the only scene that made me laugh out loud was when they sent in the “panthers” to kill the two second-tier Team America characters.