"Team America gets NC-17 Rating"

[Guest MikeSC]

I think Sean's point was that if you don't understand the seriousness of the war and its effect on people around the world, to not only have but encourage an "I don't give a shit" attitude is pretty irresponsible. The last point seems to just ask them to educate themselves on the seriousness of the matter and then see how they feel about it.

No, Sean's point is that anybody who doesn't agree with him is uneducated.

 

Why Penn thinks he has the intellectual legitimacy to comment on things is beyond me. He couldn't carry Miller's intellectual jock.

-=Mike

[Guest MikeSC]

Now granted I only saw one episode of "That's my Bush" but it didn't seem to me as they were being pro-GOP or anything. They made fun of everybody, which is what I like about Matt and Trey. Mike is right though -- if a show/movie doesn't have the Republican person raping nuns or lynching blacks, it's a pro-Republican propaganda piece.

 

Although the funniest thing about the whole "That's my Bush" story is the fact they advertised on the back cover of National Review...

The main problem is that Parker and Stone utterly and completely pussied out on TMB the moment that Bush got elected. The show originally was supposed to air a month after the election and they said it was going to be just like South Park in terms of no-holds barred mocking of the institute of the presidency. But once Bush got elected they immeadiately delayed the project for over five months and in that time totally castrated it to be nothing more than a bunch of pussy sitcom parodies with Bush and his family plugged into them with ZERO bite.

They've BOTH said it was a parody of sitcoms (the heavy usage of a laughtrack was intentional --- ditto the wacky neighbor).

-=Mike

[GreatWhiteNope 0]

On the subject of the rating - Matt and Trey were on Dennis Miller's show a few days back and said they got an R rating at the last minute.

[Guest MikeSC]

On the subject of the rating - Matt and Trey were on Dennis Miller's show a few days back and said they got an R rating at the last minute.

I pointed out earlier that their ADS indicate that they have an "R" rating.

-=Mike

[Gary Floyd 0]

Sean Penn...Let me tell you about him:He's an overpaid,overrated, highly privalged actor who represents everything I hate about Hollywood: He thinks that his opinion alone is worth hearing and that everyone else's isn't, and is a complete dickhead. Honestly, who didn't read that letter and think "what an asshole" Hell, I'm a pretty liberal guy myself, and I can't stand Penn and his Hollywood ilk. If you agree with him, that's allright, but just think about who's saying these words:

"Oh, Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't agree with me! I'll write a letter to them..."

 

Shut The Fuck up Penn. If Matt and Trey made fun of me in this movie, or on "South Park", I'd be fucking honored.

[Nighthawk 0]

If you're going to underline a word, at least spell it right.

[Guest GreatOne]

Hehe, honered

 

Hey Sean should be happy they didn't rip on his I am Sam character.

 

(Actually Vince McMahon did, and called him Eugene)

[Gary Floyd 0]

Christ,so I misspelled a word. Big fucking deal,

 

Anyone going to see the film when it comes out

[Dangerous A 0]

I will be seeing it this weekend, despite what Sean Penn says.

 

IMO, it's Sean Penn who needs to be knocked down a peg, not Parker and Stone.

[Slayer 0]

Not just honered, but honered on "Soyth Park"

 

Now that's just criminal

[Gary Floyd 0]

Not just honered, but honered on "Soyth Park"

 

Now that's just criminal

well, I changed that

[therealworldschampion 0]

I'm seeing this, fuck what Spicoli thinks

[BX 0]

I just got back from seeing this, as is custom at the theater I work at.

 

All I can say is, if you bring kids and hold any sort of "values" concerning what they see, when the main character and the main female character are out on the deck, leave with the kids for about five minutes. What follows is simply the most graphic, hilarious sex scene EVER. My fucking throat was bleeding from laughing so hard.

 

Then again, if you hold any sort of "values" concerning what your kids (or you, for that matter, you pussy) see, don't even go to the movie. Go watch Shark Tales.

 

For all of you 18-24 year old males, if you don't see this movie, I'll have to kill you, simple as that.

[Skywarp! 0]

Ebert gives it one star.

 

Team America: World Police

 

 

Roger Ebert / October 15, 2004

 

Cast & CreditsFeaturing the voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller and Daran Norris

 

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Trey Parker. Written by Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language, all involving puppets).

 

 

"What are you rebelling against, Johnny?"

 

"Whaddya got?"

 

--Marlon Brando in "The Wild One"

 

If this dialogue is not inscribed over the doors of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, it should be. Their "Team America: World Police" is an equal opportunity offender, and waves of unease will flow over first one segment of their audience, and then another. Like a cocky teenager who's had a couple of drinks before the party, they don't have a plan for who they want to offend, only an intention to be as offensive as possible.

 

Their strategy extends even to their decision to use puppets for all of their characters, a choice that will not be univerally applauded. Their characters, one-third lifesize, are clearly artificial, and yet there's something going on around the mouths and lips that looks halfway real, as if they were inhabited by the big faces with moving mouths from the Conan O'Brien show. There are times when the characters risk falling into the Uncanny Valley, that rift used by robot designers to describe robots that alarm us by looking too humanoid.

 

The plot seems like a collision at the screenplay factory between several half-baked world-in-crisis movies. Team America, a group not unlike the Thunderbirds, bases its rockets, jets and helicopters inside Mount Rushmore, which is hollow, and race off to battle terrorism wherever it is suspected. In the opening sequence, they swoop down on Paris and fire on caricatures of Middle East desperadoes, missing most of them but managing to destroy the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre.

 

Regrouping, the team's leader, Spottswoode (voice by Daran Norris) recruits a Broadway actor named Gary to go undercover for them. When first seen, Gary (voice by Parker) is starring in the musical "Lease," and singing "Everyone has AIDS." Ho, ho. Spottswoode tells Gary: "You're an actor with a double major in theater and world languages! Hell, you're the perfect weapon!" There's a big laugh when Gary is told that, if captured, he may want to kill himself and is supplied with a suicide device I will not reveal.

 

Spottswoode's plan: Terrorists are known to be planning to meet at "a bar in Cairo." The Team America helicopter will land in Cairo, and four uniformed team members will escort Gary, his face crudely altered to look "Middle Eastern," to the bar, where he will go inside and ask whazzup. As a satire on our inability to infiltrate other cultures, this will do, I suppose. It leads to an ill-advised adventure where in the name of fighting terrorism, Team America destroys the Pyramids and the Sphinx. But it turns out the real threat comes from North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Il (voice also by Parker), who plans to unleash "9/11 times 2,356." "Why that would mean ..." says Gary. "2,146,316," says Kim Jong Il. No. 1 on his list: Blowing up the Panama Canal.

 

Opposing Team America is the Film Actors' Guild, or FAG, ho, ho, with puppets representing Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn (who has written an angry letter about the movie to Parker and Stone). No real point is made about the actors' activism; they exist in the movie essentially to be ridiculed for existing at all, I guess. Hans Blix, the U.N. chief weapons inspector, also turns up, and has a fruitless encounter with the North Korean dictator. Some of the scenes are set to music, including such tunes as "Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You" and "America -- F***, Yeah!"

 

If I were asked to extract a political position from the movie, I'd be baffled. It is neither for nor against the war on terrorism, just dedicated to ridiculing those who wage it and those who oppose it. The White House gets a free pass, since the movie seems to think Team America makes its own policies without political direction.

 

I wasn't offended by the movie's content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides -- indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they're wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn't matter.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Ebert gives it one star.

 

Team America: World Police

 

 

Roger Ebert / October 15, 2004

 

Cast & CreditsFeaturing the voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller and Daran Norris

 

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Trey Parker. Written by Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language, all involving puppets).

 

 

"What are you rebelling against, Johnny?"

 

"Whaddya got?"

 

--Marlon Brando in "The Wild One"

 

If this dialogue is not inscribed over the doors of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, it should be. Their "Team America: World Police" is an equal opportunity offender, and waves of unease will flow over first one segment of their audience, and then another. Like a cocky teenager who's had a couple of drinks before the party, they don't have a plan for who they want to offend, only an intention to be as offensive as possible.

 

Their strategy extends even to their decision to use puppets for all of their characters, a choice that will not be univerally applauded. Their characters, one-third lifesize, are clearly artificial, and yet there's something going on around the mouths and lips that looks halfway real, as if they were inhabited by the big faces with moving mouths from the Conan O'Brien show. There are times when the characters risk falling into the Uncanny Valley, that rift used by robot designers to describe robots that alarm us by looking too humanoid.

 

The plot seems like a collision at the screenplay factory between several half-baked world-in-crisis movies. Team America, a group not unlike the Thunderbirds, bases its rockets, jets and helicopters inside Mount Rushmore, which is hollow, and race off to battle terrorism wherever it is suspected. In the opening sequence, they swoop down on Paris and fire on caricatures of Middle East desperadoes, missing most of them but managing to destroy the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre.

 

Regrouping, the team's leader, Spottswoode (voice by Daran Norris) recruits a Broadway actor named Gary to go undercover for them. When first seen, Gary (voice by Parker) is starring in the musical "Lease," and singing "Everyone has AIDS." Ho, ho. Spottswoode tells Gary: "You're an actor with a double major in theater and world languages! Hell, you're the perfect weapon!" There's a big laugh when Gary is told that, if captured, he may want to kill himself and is supplied with a suicide device I will not reveal.

 

Spottswoode's plan: Terrorists are known to be planning to meet at "a bar in Cairo." The Team America helicopter will land in Cairo, and four uniformed team members will escort Gary, his face crudely altered to look "Middle Eastern," to the bar, where he will go inside and ask whazzup. As a satire on our inability to infiltrate other cultures, this will do, I suppose. It leads to an ill-advised adventure where in the name of fighting terrorism, Team America destroys the Pyramids and the Sphinx. But it turns out the real threat comes from North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Il (voice also by Parker), who plans to unleash "9/11 times 2,356." "Why that would mean ..." says Gary. "2,146,316," says Kim Jong Il. No. 1 on his list: Blowing up the Panama Canal.

 

Opposing Team America is the Film Actors' Guild, or FAG, ho, ho, with puppets representing Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn (who has written an angry letter about the movie to Parker and Stone). No real point is made about the actors' activism; they exist in the movie essentially to be ridiculed for existing at all, I guess. Hans Blix, the U.N. chief weapons inspector, also turns up, and has a fruitless encounter with the North Korean dictator. Some of the scenes are set to music, including such tunes as "Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You" and "America -- F***, Yeah!"

 

If I were asked to extract a political position from the movie, I'd be baffled. It is neither for nor against the war on terrorism, just dedicated to ridiculing those who wage it and those who oppose it. The White House gets a free pass, since the movie seems to think Team America makes its own policies without political direction.

 

I wasn't offended by the movie's content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides -- indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they're wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn't matter.

You know, Ebert liked "Garfield The Movie" and "Speed 2", so fuck what he thinks.

 

I'm seeing it

[Dangerous A 0]

As soon as Ebert gave thumbs up to "Van Helsing", I quit following his reviews. He is now a moron who I think has lost touch or sold out. "Van Helsing" was trash and when I saw him give it a favorable review, he lost all credibility in my eyes.

[Skywarp! 0]

Ebert is definitely loosing his mind.

 

However, I'm starting to get skeptical of the film--the only review that gave it over 2 stars was Rolling Stone with 3 1/2. Everyone else says that it's kinda funny, but a good number of jokes fall flat, it overstays its welcome, and it pretty much has no point.

 

Or maybe I'm just reading the wrong reviews. Unfortunately, the people that I think are the best critics, the Onion A/V Club, update Wednesdays and don't see sneak peaks, so it's always too late to find out what they think.

 

I'm still seeing it, but my defense mechanisms are causing my expectations to lower.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Ebert gives it one star.

 

Team America: World Police

 

Roger Ebert / October 15, 2004

 

Cast & CreditsFeaturing the voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller and Daran Norris

 

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Trey Parker. Written by Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language, all involving puppets).

 

"What are you rebelling against, Johnny?"

 

"Whaddya got?"

 

--Marlon Brando in "The Wild One"

 

If this dialogue is not inscribed over the doors of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, it should be. Their "Team America: World Police" is an equal opportunity offender, and waves of unease will flow over first one segment of their audience, and then another. Like a cocky teenager who's had a couple of drinks before the party, they don't have a plan for who they want to offend, only an intention to be as offensive as possible.

 

Their strategy extends even to their decision to use puppets for all of their characters, a choice that will not be univerally applauded. Their characters, one-third lifesize, are clearly artificial, and yet there's something going on around the mouths and lips that looks halfway real, as if they were inhabited by the big faces with moving mouths from the Conan O'Brien show. There are times when the characters risk falling into the Uncanny Valley, that rift used by robot designers to describe robots that alarm us by looking too humanoid.

 

The plot seems like a collision at the screenplay factory between several half-baked world-in-crisis movies. Team America, a group not unlike the Thunderbirds, bases its rockets, jets and helicopters inside Mount Rushmore, which is hollow, and race off to battle terrorism wherever it is suspected. In the opening sequence, they swoop down on Paris and fire on caricatures of Middle East desperadoes, missing most of them but managing to destroy the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre.

 

Regrouping, the team's leader, Spottswoode (voice by Daran Norris) recruits a Broadway actor named Gary to go undercover for them. When first seen, Gary (voice by Parker) is starring in the musical "Lease," and singing "Everyone has AIDS." Ho, ho. Spottswoode tells Gary: "You're an actor with a double major in theater and world languages! Hell, you're the perfect weapon!" There's a big laugh when Gary is told that, if captured, he may want to kill himself and is supplied with a suicide device I will not reveal.

 

Spottswoode's plan: Terrorists are known to be planning to meet at "a bar in Cairo." The Team America helicopter will land in Cairo, and four uniformed team members will escort Gary, his face crudely altered to look "Middle Eastern," to the bar, where he will go inside and ask whazzup. As a satire on our inability to infiltrate other cultures, this will do, I suppose. It leads to an ill-advised adventure where in the name of fighting terrorism, Team America destroys the Pyramids and the Sphinx. But it turns out the real threat comes from North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Il (voice also by Parker), who plans to unleash "9/11 times 2,356." "Why that would mean ..." says Gary. "2,146,316," says Kim Jong Il. No. 1 on his list: Blowing up the Panama Canal.

 

Opposing Team America is the Film Actors' Guild, or FAG, ho, ho, with puppets representing Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn (who has written an angry letter about the movie to Parker and Stone). No real point is made about the actors' activism; they exist in the movie essentially to be ridiculed for existing at all, I guess. Hans Blix, the U.N. chief weapons inspector, also turns up, and has a fruitless encounter with the North Korean dictator. Some of the scenes are set to music, including such tunes as "Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You" and "America -- F***, Yeah!"

 

If I were asked to extract a political position from the movie, I'd be baffled. It is neither for nor against the war on terrorism, just dedicated to ridiculing those who wage it and those who oppose it. The White House gets a free pass, since the movie seems to think Team America makes its own policies without political direction.

 

I wasn't offended by the movie's content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides -- indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they're wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn't matter.

the hell, is this supposed to be a bad review? Because the text of it makes me want to see it more.

[Downhome 0]

I'm going to see it tonight.

 

IMDB rating = 8.1/10 (886 votes)

[2GOLD 0]

I'm going in an hour, catching it before working in the rain.

 

I just see it as a hold over movie till THE GRUDGE and SAW come out.

No expectations whatsoever.

 

Course, I smell a Baseketball type reception to this film. Either going to love it or hate it with a passion.

[Downhome 0]

The score over at RottenTomatoes is 83%/77%.

 

I predict that I'll be laughing my ass off at this one, I can't wait.

[2GOLD 0]

This movie is awesome. I need a soundtrack.

 

How could Ebert not get the message? The message gets spelled OUT for him and he still missed it. Ebert must not like good movies anymore.

 

It's a parody of action films mixed in with a parody of...well everything

 

I loved it. I'm buying the DVD.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

Awesome movie. Hell, they even used a song from South Park in it. Despite what you may read on other websites about the movie only bashing the right or the left (Democratic Underground wants the movie boycotted--or at least many of the posters there do), the movie bashes both sides. I've suggest it to ANYONE--well those who don't feel squemish at a puppet sex scene. The Damon/Affleck jokes of course are there as well since it's Parker/Stone.

[Guest MikeSC]

This movie is awesome. I need a soundtrack.

 

How could Ebert not get the message? The message gets spelled OUT for him and he still missed it. Ebert must not like good movies anymore.

 

It's a parody of action films mixed in with a parody of...well everything

 

I loved it. I'm buying the DVD.

I'll remind you that Ebert LOVED the Star Wars prequels thus far.

 

Loved the hell out of them.

-=Mike

[Downhome 0]

I went to watch this, but I was 16 minutes late because of a problem with my engine and cell phone. Seeing how I never go to a movie when I'm late like that, I turned around and came home. I'll go tomorrow night though, and I might just stay for the specia 10 pm showing of Friday the 13th.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

The movie was quite funny, but I was actually let down a bit. A number of the jokes fell flat to me, especially a lot of the 'terrorist' jokes. And the actors stuff was pretty funny for a while but they overplayed it imo, to the point where by the end it wasn't that funny, just kinda lame.

The parodies of action movie cliches were really funny, as was the over the top stuff, and the sex scene, haha. Good stuff.

 

However, none of that mattered....... because the PUPPETS and the sets were GLORIOUS!!! Just awesome, they looked great and were just hilarious how they moved. I would love to see more movies done by Stone/Parker in this style (but according to them they'll never ever do another, based on how hard this was. A shame).

[cabbageboy 0]

This was probably the funniest thing I've seen in years. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission. The puppet sex, Kim Jong Il, making fun of Affleck and Damon...it's all hysterical.

 

I wasn't sure exactly what political statement this movie was trying to make. In some ways I'm not sure I liked it. For a movie that was trying to trash both sides, it seemed to me like it trashed the liberal left a LOT more. Aside from Kim Jong, all of the heels were liberal (and misguided) Hollywood stars. The protagonists are the gung ho Team America of course, and we're left thinking basically that "Yeah, we fuck up sometimes but we're still way cool."

 

That is the curious thing about the film: While sending up gung ho Bush policy (destroying most of Paris, blowing up the Sphinx and pyramids, etc.) it ends up giving the vibe that it's still cool. You can't help but cheer on Team America since they're the protagonists.

 

But in the end, I really liked it and it was certainly the funniest thing I've seen this year.

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

I'm not sure some big political message was trying to be put forth, certainly to a point, but they weren't trying to beat your head in with it. It was mostly just one big "These type of movies suck and you should realize it by now". At least thats how I saw it.

 

Hilariously vulgar movie and I expect everyone within ear shot of it to be saying "Jesus Tittyfucking CHRIST" as much as they can within the next few months.

 

As I said, more parody than big huge statement movie.

[Downhome 0]

I haven't even seen it and I believe the following is more than likely the message of the film:

 

1) Many celebs are a bunch of fucks who try to act like big shots by talking about shit they know nothing about.

 

2) Stupid things are done by all on both sides, and it's funny.

 

3) The United States may make odd decisions at times, we have a certain image, but damnit to hell, we still kick ass.

 

4) It's ok to make light of serious topics, so sit back, understand that it's all in fun, laugh, and enjoy ya bunch of tight assed bastards.

 

5) Many things that happen in action/etc... films are just flat out stupid.

[EricMM 0]

Remember the price of freedom:

 

$1.05

 

America, Fuck Yeah!

 

The real message of the movie? The metaphor about Pussies, Dicks, and Assholes.