October 24, 2004

I SAW IT. I can't in good conscience recommend it. I will admit that Team America: World Police did make me laugh -- even some of those laughs you just can't keep in. What you've got is no doubt what many expected -- essentially comic porn for flag-waving Americans suffering from extreme PC repression. (And unfortunately that is most of us.)

Certainly everyone's taste in such things will differ. I laughed for example at the big and endless puke joke -- the timing to me was as brilliant as any Jack Benny bit. (But I'm sure many others would be left uneasy -- or worse). And I also couldn't stop laughing at "Matt Damon" (and take some pride in that). But again, not everyone will view this Harvard educated actor as the ridiculous thespian I see him to be.

One of the things I didn't much enjoy was the extreme and deeply graphic verbal vulgarity -- this despite my Navy background. It was "yuck" and "please stop" to me rather than funny. Others perhaps laughed. (I saw the movie with a small crowd, who saw things mostly my way.)

I should be honest, however. What really disappointed me was the puppet and replica violence taking place in France. I had extremely high expectations for this going in (perhaps others did not). In my view, this stuff simply cried out to be much more skillfully done -- i.e. it really demanded to be more cathartic for a red-blooded, flag-waving patriotic American. It simply wasn't. So count me a "laughed but was disappointed" Team America: World Police movie goer. If you want to go just for the laughs, and you have a high tolerance for gross-out puppet porn (and I'm not talking sex -- but there's that too), then by all means go see it. Just don't expect to find yourself cheering in the aisleways as Paris burns.

P.S. -- I'd give a $1,000 to see the movie with Robert Scheer of the LA Times.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan: "The puppet vomit scene is worth your $9 alone." Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack