Team America: World Police - 2004

"Team America: World Police" - 2004
Dir. by Trey Parker - 1 hr. 38 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

There is one thing that Trey Parker (and long-time collaborator Matt Stone) manage to do better than anyone else: make cheesy, horrible material based on cheesy, horrible material, and have it come out awesome and funny.  The problem with making something deliberately awful and low-rent is that even if you succeed at your goals one hundred percent, you're still left with something awful and low-rent.  There's no way to win this game; for ninety-nine percent of people, if you start with crap, you end up with crap.  But "Team America: World Police" is proof that Parker and Stone belong to the one percent; a political action movie about terrorism made with puppets (with visible strings) is a patently bad idea that ends up being hilarious and awesome.

After a strike against terrorists in Paris that leaves the city in ruins and their squad leader dead, Team America is in need of a new leader.  Gary, a Broadway actor working on a play called "Lease," is recruited for the team.  He reluctantly joins, and Team America must work to thwart Kim Jong-Il's diabolical plot, and face off against the Film Actor's Guild, led by Alec Baldwin, and their liberal criticism of Team America.

Usually, making a film that makes liberal use of action movie cliches would end up lame and difficult to watch.  Viewers are sophisticated enough at this point that just pointing out the tropes of a genre isn't sufficient as a critique or as a basis for satire without something more being brought to the situation.  Genre films work largely because the filmmakers are able to use the cliches, and not draw attention to them while using them.  But making an action movie with puppets?  Perfect.  There are still action scenes (even a Matrix moment), there are explosions and lines delivered through gritted teeth.  But the fact that it's all done with puppets makes "Team America" pretty funny.  That, and Parker (and Stone) deliberately and gleefully go flying past the line of appropriateness over and over again.

There are two kinds of great stuff in "Team America": the soundtrack, and the scenes where it's even better because it's puppets doing awful things.  Much of the movie is just the cliche action scenes, but executed with absurd seriousness, and really great, ridiculous lines.  But there are also two great comedic scenes, even beyond the standard-issue action material that's been made funny.  There's an extended sex scene between two characters.  Does it matter that neither of the puppets have genitals?  Nope.  It's actually funnier, because I'm pretty sure everyone's taken two Barbie dolls and made them do X-rated things to each other, if only to get a quick laugh out of one of your friends.  So the idea of someone doing that in a multi-million dollar film, and having it projected onto big screen all across the world?  Awesome.  The other great scene is the dicks, pussies, and assholes analogy that Gary launches into, when called upon to out-act Alec Baldwin.  The monologue sums up everything great about Parker and Stone's material; it's so vulgar it's hard to repeat publicly, it's completely insane, and yet makes perfect sense.

And, as you might expect by now, any soundtrack by the "South Park" guys is going to be a complete winner.  It's really hard not to want to run around screaming, "America, fuck yeah!" after seeing "Team America."  There's more than just that one song, though, and I'm left scratching my head at how I could have managed not to have acquired this soundtrack by now.  That's going to have to be rectified sooner rather than later.

"Team America: World Police" isn't the best film that Parker and Stone have made; the South Park film is probably untoppable.  But it's probably the second best movie they've made, maybe only because they had something resembling a budget this time around.  There's no way this will leave you disappointed, unless you simply can't fathom that being too patriotic is a thing, and a thing to mock.  But then again, if that was the case, you'd have to be one of those people that get duped by "The Onion" headlines not to know exactly what you were getting in for when you sat down and watched this movie.

3.5 / 5 - TV (HD)

South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut - 1999

"South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut" - 1999
Dir. by Trey Parker - 1 hr. 21 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

In the time since "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut" hit theatres, it's become less uncommon for a TV show to spin off into a movie.  "Beavis & Butthead Do America" was ahead of "South Park" on this curve, but "South Park" did more with the change in format than any other film I can think of.  In retrospect, it might not seem as big of a deal, but at the time, "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were pretty much viewed as potty mouths, and not much else.  Sure, they were funny, but it had yet to be proven that their writing was anything more than a gleeful celebration of toilet humor and foul language.

And since that was the case, Parker and Stone rolled with that opinion, and upped the ante by creating a hard-R musical.  The boys of South Park (Kenny, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman) go see Terrance and Phillip's new movie, "Asses of Fire," itself being little more than a mash-up of farts and swearing.  The boys pick up a few new phrases, which quickly raises their parents' ire.  Instead of brushing it off, or reacting reasonably, the parents do the obvious: blame Canada.

This prompts an all-out war between the United States and Canada, once the United States takes custody of  Terrance and Phillip, with the intention of executing them.  If this is accomplished, Satan (and his lover, Saddam Hussein) will return to Earth, and rule over everyone.

This film is the point where Parker and Stone showed the ability to write with more depth and insight than most people would have expected.  They used their own battles with the MPAA, and turned it into a feature film.  "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut" is a biting satire of parents who focus more energy on causes than on their own children, as well as the tendency to periodically overreact to "indecency."  But even more than that, this is a filthy, funny film.  The first forty minutes or so are flawless; the pacing is tight, there's one insanely funny song after another, and you'll never get the songs out of your head.  That's fine if you're humming the tune, but when you find yourself absentmindedly singing "Uncle Fucka" in public, you'll understand why censorship doesn't work.  You can't beat a good joke over a catchy hook.

If you're squeamish about language (or Satan having a gay relationship with Saddam Hussein), I can see why you'd have a problem with this film.  It's not one to watch around the kiddies, but then again, the message of the film is aimed at adults.  And what's a blue word or three-hundred between adults?  This is one of the funniest films I've ever seen, and it holds up just as well a decade later.  Watch "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch," and tell me I'm wrong.

5 / 5 - Blu-Ray

Orgazmo - 1997

"Orgazmo" - 1997
Dir. by Trey Parker - 1 hr. 34 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

Now that "The Book of Mormon" is a huge Broadway hit, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at an earlier Mormon-themed movie that Trey Parker and Matt Stone made (right before "South Park" hit the airwaves).  "Orgazmo" is about a LDS missionary in Los Angeles named Joe Young (Parker), who gets lured into starring in a super-hero-themed porno film.  He does it for the money, so that he can marry his sweetheart Lisa (Robyn Lynne) in the temple in Salt Lake City, which isn't cheap.  Of course, "Orgazmo" (the movie within a movie) becomes a huge success, which complicates his attempt to stay anonymous.  Rounding out the cast is the sleazy, evil porno producer Maxxx Orbison (Michael Dean Jacobs), Orgazmo's sidekick Choda Boy (Dian Bachar), Matt Stone playing a confused PA, and a host of actual adult film stars (Ron Jeremy and Juli Ashton, among others).

First off, yes, it's pretty funny, but it's not up to par with Parker and Stone's best work.  Part of the reason for that is that Parker and Stone have developed into very sharp cultural satirists, but it took a few years to get to that point.  At this extremely early point in their careers, the anything-goes sense of humor is there, but the level of cleverness and insight isn't.  Putting a Mormon into the adult film industry sets up for a number of very easy jokes (funny ones, but still...), and "Orgazmo" doesn't get past that, ever.  Since Parker and Stone haven't really hit their stride here, they settle for faux-ineptness at times instead of really committing to the material in a more satisfying way.

So what did I like about "Orgazmo?"  A lot.  For one thing, it's paced pretty well.  There aren't any self-indulgent lulls (a pitfall when the director is also the star of the film), the jokes come at a steady pace, and things flow logically (at least as logically as they can).  Trey Parker plays wide-eyed pretty well, as does his on-screen girlfriend.  There's a few instances of going unbelievably (but hilariously) cheesy with "special effects," like when Young kicks Ron Jeremy's character in the face, or the mansion fire.  I found myself laughing all the way through - I can understand why some might not (the shock humor stuff isn't universally successful when not in service to a larger point, as Parker and Stone would correct in later work), but I did.

Unfortunately, the circumstances around the film are almost more interesting.  It's an ultra-low budget affair (filmed for $1.3 million) that got some attention because of the "South Park" explosion.  It also got slapped with a NC-17 rating (which is discussed in some detail in the MPAA documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated"), which meant that despite Parker and Stone's new-found fame, there was practically no way to even advertise this film through traditional means.  There wasn't any real way to edit the movie down to an R (despite the fact that nearly all the nudity in the film are male asses, the setting, language, and abundant use of sex toys for gags would have gutted it), and re-submitting to the MPAA would have been too costly on such  a shoestring budget.

"Orgazmo" is funny on a level of the first season of "South Park:" there's a lot of dirty language, shock humor, and fish-in-a-barrel targets.  Everyone's got to start somewhere (and yes, I know this is their second film), and this is pretty funny for what it is.  But, if you're going back and checking out Parker and Stone's work retroactively, it might be a little disappointing.  They don't aim very high, but being able to put together an entire movie on their own (and this cheaply) is a kind of achievement of it own.  Making an indie film free of pretentiousness and just focusing on being entertaining makes it unusual for it's time.  And I did laugh, even though I had already seen it a handful of times previously.  That means I'll probably watch it again at some point.

3 / 5 - Streaming

BASEketball - 1998

"BASEketball" - 1998
Dir. by David Zucker - 1 hr. 43 min.

Official Trailer

Now that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are established, respected satirists, it's interesting to go back and take a look at one of their early, non-South Park works.  "South Park" built a quick buzz, and this is one of the few external attempts to cash in on that buzz.  Actually, that makes it sound like a bad thing, which it isn't.  They were very hot for a period of time, and a lot of people wanted to capitalize on that.  For the most part, Parker and Stone stuck to "South Park," but this is the one movie they made that they didn't have complete responsibility for.

"BASEketball" is actually the last live-action film Parker and Stone worked on after "South Park" began airing ("Orgazmo" was filmed before they started working on the TV show) to date.  "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" was animated and "Team America" was a puppet movie.  David Zucker (of "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun" fame) co-wrote and directed this film, which is the only time Parker and Stone haven't assumed those duties, as well.  So "BASEketball" is kind of an odd duck in their careers.

The movie itself is a satire of professional sports (starting with a dead-on montage sequence explaining how sports found themselves in such a lowly state).  Cooper (Parker) and Remer (Stone) are twenty-something layabouts who end up inventing the sport of baseketball at a party in a futile attempt to impress some former classmates.  The sport takes off, going from driveway pastime to nationally televised, thanks to millionaire Ted Denslow (Ernest Borgnine).  Between the machinations of the evil owner of the Dallas Felons and the inevitable toll getting rich quickly takes on Coop and Remer, things threaten to fall apart.

Having seen a number of Zucker films, I find it hard to believe that Parker and Stone didn't at least take a crack at re-writing the script.  I've read a version of the script that doesn't give them credit (and they're not credited with writing at all), and while the structure and general idea are present, not much of the dialogue in the finished film is there at all.  And what's in the movie is much closer to what Parker and Stone do than what Zucker generally does.  Another interesting bit - this was the first film that Zucker had directed in seven years, and he wouldn't direct another one for five more years (a TV movie notwithstanding).  So I guess what I'm getting at is that Parker and Stone were super-hot, and Zucker wasn't at this point in time, and it feels like the dialogue in particular is really close to what Parker and Stone generally do, so it feels like they're more responsible for this movie than they took credit for.

Between the two comedy camps, what's here works fairly well.  Parker and Stone offer a willingness to cross the lines of propriety, and Zucker brings a gleeful ping-ponging across pop culture touchstones. Maybe the best example of how that worked was the foul-mouthed "Unsolved Mysteries" segment with Robert Stack, which came after Coop had "disappeared" for a couple of days.  It's a great gag, plus there's the joy of hearing Stack suggest that Coop might be "hanging in his closet from his fucking neck" without a hint of insincerity.  There's a ton of great gags along the way in the same vein - Bob Costas and Al Michaels doing off-color and oblivious commentary, Reggie Jackson's cameo towards the end, the Roadkill: Caught on Tape recurring gag (a take-off on "When Animals Attack").  The Psyche-Outs are pretty funny along the way as well, particularly Parker's.

So that leaves the nagging questions of what doesn't work, and why didn't this movie do squat at the box-office?  One of the big problems with the movie lies within the love story.  First off, Yasmine Bleeth isn't generally regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation (nor is the actress in the other prominent female role, Jenny McCarthy).  The main function of the love story (particularly in a "save the house" film") is to shine a light on what might be an overlooked potential in the underachieving hero.  In other words, it serves towards a likability factor, and gives a solid reason for an audience to root for the hero to achieve whatever it is that he needs to achieve.  When the love story falls flat (as it does here, for a couple of reasons I'll get to in a second), the audience doesn't necessarily still root for the hero.

In this case, and ignoring Bleeth's acting skills (she got famous for wearing a swimsuit on "Baywatch," and she's rather modestly dressed throughout this film), there's a fundamental problem with the set-up for the character.  Jenna Reed (her character) runs a dying wish foundation, which means that she's nearly always in the company of half a dozen sick children.  It drains any sexuality out of her character (it's like looking at the Octomom with brood), and there's not much chemistry between her and Parker anyhow (and how you have a movie that's clearly going to get an R-rating, and then take an actress who's famous for her curves and hide them as fastidiously as possible is beyond me.  Forget it, Clay, it was the 90's).  It's like a placeholder love story - the only way that it makes any sense is that she's practically the Smurfette here.  It's Bleeth or nothing in the context of the film, but it just flat out doesn't work.  And since that doesn't work (and since the "save the house" portion of the story is introduced way too late, there are a lot of things that are funny but don't have anything driving them.  The relationship between Parker and Stone is far more interesting (and even culminates in a full-on dude-on-dude kiss), and is the unspoken focus of the story, but Jenna's inclusion muddies things (if her character doesn't actually accomplish the purpose it needs to, why have her in the story at all?).

"BASEketball" is funny, light, totally watchable.  It is not a particularly pointed satire (it's a lightweight topic, although it definitely nails some things on the head), it's not as awesome as "SP:BLU" or "Team America," nor even any of your favorite two dozen or so episodes of "South Park."  If you're a Parker/Stone fan, you probably should check this out, if only for the brief glimpses of Parker doing Cartman and Mr. Garrison voices over the course of the film.  But also understand, they didn't take any credit for this film beyond appearing in it, either.

3 / 5 - NF Streaming