This is cross-posted from my film class messageboard:
I just got home from a sneak preview of this and it was absolutely hilarious. Minor spoilers follow (it’s not exactly a murder mystery so it’s pretty hard to spoil it but I won’t go too far into detail or give away too many jokes.)
First of all, the songs really jumped out as some of the funniest and best parts of the movie, just like in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. If any of you are fans of the show you will recognize the “Montage” song from the episode entitled “Asspen”. It’s a brilliant self-referential song that is played during a montage. “If you fade out it makes it seem like more time has passed in a montage…”
Next, the puppets worked. I was worried that they wouldn’t when I saw the first trailer for this movie but they really worked. They make it abundantly clear throughout the movie that you are looking at puppets and used some pretty funny and creative ways to do so. The sets were also great and some of the aerial shots showed that a lot of work went into them.
Like everything Parker and Stone do, it was full of homages. Right now I can think of two nods to Star Wars, two to The Matrix, one to Kill Bill, and one to Mission: Impossible. I’m sure there were several more that I either didn’t notice or don’t remember.
There were a few misses but even going in with high expectations this film hit more times than I thought it would. I’ll definitely be seeing this one again.
It looked like a parody/take off of the Thunderbirds from the previews, but I was kind of puzzled that it was rated ‘R’. It didn’t seem too edgy in the previews, but…
…are we talking about marionette sex scenes here?! :eek:
Are you not familiar with Parker and Stone’s work? Team America isn’t as raunchy as South Park but there is definitely plenty of language and two sex scenes.
I remember watching the Thunderbirds (cool vehicle puppet show) when I was a kid, apparently this was the inspiration for Parker/Stone.
Older son took younger son to the sneak preview last night, he said it was both funny and foul. Must be pretty raunchy: older son (who is 21) had to declare himself my younger son’s “guardian” to get the kid (who is 15) into the theater.
