Team America
- Thread starter Jimbo
- Start date
I can't believe they had a "sex" scene with string puppets LOL 
I saw it on Friday night, and I'm still laughing about it today. Easily the funniest movie I've seen this year so far. The songs alone are worth the price of admission.....the "America, F**k Yeah" song is the best! The country song that parodies all of the artists these days cashing in with lame patriotic songs was a classic as well. "Pearl Harbor Sucks" and the "Montage" were two other awesomely hilarious songs.
Based on the reviews, I thought the film was going to have an equal amount of jabs thrown at the left and right. However, after seeing it, I think that there is a decidedly right slant to the film (which made me all the more happy). I laughed at the fun made toward both sides, though.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker really do not like Michael Moore because of the stunt he pulled with them in the Bowling for Columbine movie. He placed a South Park-like cartoon into the movie immediately after their interview, and many fans thought that Trey and Matt had done it themselves. Who'd have thought that Michael Moore would do something like that? (lol). Well, I really enjoyed watching him get his just desserts in this movie. It's too bad that more of people he's misrepresented in the past do not have the ability to make their voice heard to the public like Trey and Matt do.
Go see this movie!
Based on the reviews, I thought the film was going to have an equal amount of jabs thrown at the left and right. However, after seeing it, I think that there is a decidedly right slant to the film (which made me all the more happy). I laughed at the fun made toward both sides, though.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker really do not like Michael Moore because of the stunt he pulled with them in the Bowling for Columbine movie. He placed a South Park-like cartoon into the movie immediately after their interview, and many fans thought that Trey and Matt had done it themselves. Who'd have thought that Michael Moore would do something like that? (lol). Well, I really enjoyed watching him get his just desserts in this movie. It's too bad that more of people he's misrepresented in the past do not have the ability to make their voice heard to the public like Trey and Matt do.
Go see this movie!
I usually don't like to see politics screw up a good movie but this one was hilarious!.. If you haven't seen it yet, get out and go.. I haven't laughed that hard watching a movie in about a decade.
Hmph...I usually like South Park humor and I thought this move was one of the worst I've seen. Thought there definitely some funny parts, I was always waiting for the real punchline of the joke. I did enjoy the "America" theme song. I would've liked to see the Michael Moore puppet in a little more torturous demise.
paladin said:
Which just goes to show you how FARRRRRR LEFT the targets of this movie truly are.
Damn, I'm glad I check into here from time to time. I had no idea this movie had adult content.
My wife was going on a shopping binge this Fri. night and I was going to surprise my 7 & 10 year olds by taking them to that movie. I thought it was for kids.
My wife was going on a shopping binge this Fri. night and I was going to surprise my 7 & 10 year olds by taking them to that movie. I thought it was for kids.
Tom,
There's no way TA is OK for kids. It almost got a NC-17 rating. Adults only. And some adults might be offended.
-J
There's no way TA is OK for kids. It almost got a NC-17 rating. Adults only. And some adults might be offended.
-J
Tom Larkins said:My wife was going on a shopping binge this Fri. night and I was going to surprise my 7 & 10 year olds by taking them to that movie. I thought it was for kids.
Wow, I shudder to think what would have happened if you had done this. I can imagine that you'd drag the kids out of the theater less than five minutes into the movie!
While a lot of people don't look too closely at ratings these days, the "R" rating on this one should clue people in that this isn't your normal movie with puppets in it.
I told my wife what I was thinking about doing and she looked at me like I fell on my head. "Didn't you know that was an adult movie" I felt pretty stupid however I would have certainly picked on the rating. I just saw some of the commercials on TV and assumed it was for kids. Sex scenes w/puppets........geezzzs!!!
Regarding political "slant", and whether it's suitable for kids, check out the parts I bolded in the feature story below about Parker and Stone on "60 Minutes Wednesday" a couple of weeks ago:
Bad Boys Preview New Movie
Oct. 13, 2004
(CBS) In 1997, two young filmmakers sent shock waves across the country with a politically incorrect cartoon about four foul-mouthed kids at a bus stop.
Both denounced and celebrated by critics, Comedy Central's "South Park" went on to become a phenomenon.
Now, the guys from "South Park," Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are pushing cultural norms even further with a controversial new movie called "Team America: World Police," Correspondent Vicki Mabrey reports.
It could be your typical action-packed blockbuster. But its stars are less real than Hollywood's usual action heroes. They're puppets.
"The idea was basically to do a [Jerry] Bruckheimer move with puppets," says Matt Stone.
"Because we were like 'Armageddon' done with puppets," adds Trey Parker. "Super funny. 'Day After Tomorrow' done with puppets. Super funny."
Parker and Stone are the masterminds behind "Team America: World Police." Known for their irreverent and sometimes even offensive humor, they're treading on one of the most explosive issues today: the War on Terror. It's a political satire about a group of American heroes that wanders the globe fighting terrorism.
"We're poking fun at terrorists," says Parker. "We're poking fun of the whole thing. To us, everything is funny."
There are no sacred cows, from terrorists who speak gibberish, to the defacing of Mount Rushmore, to former UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix meeting the film's arch villain, Kim Jong Il. The North Korean leader feeds Blix to the sharks.
"People who don't have a sense of humor don't understand that," says Parker. "They think that if you're making fun of something, it means you totally don't care about it. You don't think about it, it doesn't affect you and it's like completely the opposite, you know? It's exactly how we think about things."
The first glimpse into their unusual way of thinking was the cartoon "South Park." The weekly tales of its four little third-graders talking trash and exploring adult issues shocked its way across the nation seven years ago.
Nothing was off limits. Though the show outraged some parents and aired at 10 p.m. with a warning, it became an instant cult hit and cultural icon.
"They're sweet little guys. They just have foul little mouths," says Mabrey about the characters in "South Park." "You wanna wash them out with soap."
"I wish we could say that ... we look and we find out what would be shocking and put it on the shock-o-meter. It's not," says Stone. "We try to tell wholesome stories."
"We just can't do it," says Parker.
So what's the power of profanity? "It's, well, it certainly has made us a lot of money," says Parker, laughing.
Is this real dialogue for kids?
"It's real dialogue for us, but kids. There's a philosophical underpinning that makes 'South Park' different than other shows, which is kids have to be taught to be good people. That we're not naturally born good people. That society actually makes us better," says Stone. "Kids are naturally born egotistical, self-centered, greedy. And they need to be taught to live with other people."
"We grew up around all these hippies, just going, you know, 'Society's so messed up, man. And our only hope is like the innocence and the purity of the child,'" adds Parker. "And it's like, 'No, dude, you got it backwards, you know?' It's like our only hope is society, really."
Both Parker and Stone grew up in small Colorado towns, where their friends really were the kids from the bus stop. Parker played the piano and Stone was a math whiz. They met at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where they collaborated on a student film about cannibalism. Naturally, it was a musical.
But they didn't just share a twisted sense of humor. "Trey and I weren't just the guys who did their term paper, like, the night before. We're the guys who did it, like, the morning before," says Stone. "Like, you'd wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to do your term paper. Like, that bad. We're those guys."
"Actually, honestly, in the last eight years of doing 'South Park,' my procrastination has been validated. Because it has been proven that it is the only way I can be creative," says Parker. "I'm not funny if I have time, and I wish I would have known that in the third grade, when all my teachers yelled at me for procrastinating all the time. I'd have been, like, 'No, you don't realize. This is actually genius.'"
Part of the genius of "South Park," critics say, is the way it works in the hot topics of the day, such as music piracy and the war in Afghanistan. This keeps the show fresh, even in its eighth season.
Known for pushing the boundaries of political incorrectness, the show often has an undercurrent of biting social commentary, especially when it comes to celebrity. In 2000, when the "South Park" movie, "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," was nominated for best song, Parker and Stone showed up at the Academy Awards dressed as Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez.
"Whenever people ask you where did the idea for this come from, you always say, drugs," says Mabrey.
"I'll say right now, because it will shock a lot of people, I've never smoked pot in my life," says Parker, as Mabrey looks at him in disbelief. "And when people find that out, they freak out that the guy that does 'South Park' doesn't smoke pot."
"They probably look at you and think, 'Slackers, stoners,'" says Mabrey. "I don't know where that name came up from," says Stone.
"We work really hard," adds Parker. "If we were slackers, then the first year after 'South Park' had taken off, we would have done what everyone else does and said, 'Great, now you all go make it and we'll make the money.' But we still write every single episode ourselves. Direct it, edit it, do all the voices for every single episode. Because we care."
They oversee every detail of every project, right down to the voices, as 60 Minutes saw when camera crews visited them on the set of "Team America." But if they thought dealing with puppets would be easier than dealing with movie stars, they were wrong.
"You think it would be great. You really do. But, whether you, as soon as you shoot your first scene and you're like, 'OK. This is all I want you to do is walk in and look to his right.' And, the puppet comes in and goes," says Parker, as he makes a jerking motion with his body. "And, it's like, 'OK, let's try that again.' And, you're doing that shot for an hour. You know you're in big trouble."
But these puppets are doing things puppets have never done before. They're fighting to the death, being shot at, blown out of Jeeps, crushed by helicopters, and drowning in the Panama Canal when it's destroyed.
"Team America" is being released this week by Paramount, which like CBS and Comedy Central, is owned by Viacom. So with the movie's release just before Election Day, are the filmmakers trying to influence the election?
"We don't think anyone's gonna come out of this movie going, 'Oh, well, now I'm gonna vote for Bush,' or, 'I'm gonna vote for Kerry,'" says Parker. "And if we think that if anyone would come out of this movie changing the way they were gonna vote, they shouldn't be voting."
They say this R-rated puppet movie takes aim at both conservatives and liberals. And it's already being branded offensive. In fact, the scene that drives home the movie's pro-American theme is so vulgar, 60 Minutes can't even show it.
Still, Parker and Stone say their goal isn't simply to offend.
"What interests us is the story of what it's been like for all of us to be an American for the last three years? Because it's been kind of rough," says Parker. "And it's basically, like, we wanted to tell the story about just your average American, and suddenly someone shows up out of nowhere and says, 'Hey, these people wanna kill you. They want you dead.' ... which was a lot of people's reactions three years ago of just going, 'Wait, whoa, these people really wanna kill us.'"
"But it's not totally political because you've got Danny Glover. You've got Sean Penn. You've got Alec Baldwin? Why are they villains," asks Mabrey.
"They're funny, you know? I mean, it's funny to take those activist actors and elevate them to the level to what they think they are in their minds," says Stone. "You know how, like dogs think ...every dog in its brain thinks it's a huge wolf, you know? Like, even poodles? I just think actors in their mind think they're like these really important world leaders. That when Sean Penn is on TV, on CNN during the, before the Iraq War, talking about the nuclear non-proliferation treaty."
"Super funny," says Parker.
"That is pure comic gold," says Stone. "I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. I don't care what you think of the Iraq war. I don't think what you think about nuclear weapons. That is funny. ... And so taking Sean Penn and creating this thing where it's, like, 'Look, Sean Penn, here you are. You're who you think you are.' You know, you're this incredibly important world leader. That's just satire. That's just funny."
But is there a line that they won't cross?
"I don't know," says Stone. "We haven't found it yet."
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Bad Boys Preview New Movie
Oct. 13, 2004
(CBS) In 1997, two young filmmakers sent shock waves across the country with a politically incorrect cartoon about four foul-mouthed kids at a bus stop.
Both denounced and celebrated by critics, Comedy Central's "South Park" went on to become a phenomenon.
Now, the guys from "South Park," Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are pushing cultural norms even further with a controversial new movie called "Team America: World Police," Correspondent Vicki Mabrey reports.
It could be your typical action-packed blockbuster. But its stars are less real than Hollywood's usual action heroes. They're puppets.
"The idea was basically to do a [Jerry] Bruckheimer move with puppets," says Matt Stone.
"Because we were like 'Armageddon' done with puppets," adds Trey Parker. "Super funny. 'Day After Tomorrow' done with puppets. Super funny."
Parker and Stone are the masterminds behind "Team America: World Police." Known for their irreverent and sometimes even offensive humor, they're treading on one of the most explosive issues today: the War on Terror. It's a political satire about a group of American heroes that wanders the globe fighting terrorism.
"We're poking fun at terrorists," says Parker. "We're poking fun of the whole thing. To us, everything is funny."
There are no sacred cows, from terrorists who speak gibberish, to the defacing of Mount Rushmore, to former UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix meeting the film's arch villain, Kim Jong Il. The North Korean leader feeds Blix to the sharks.
"People who don't have a sense of humor don't understand that," says Parker. "They think that if you're making fun of something, it means you totally don't care about it. You don't think about it, it doesn't affect you and it's like completely the opposite, you know? It's exactly how we think about things."
The first glimpse into their unusual way of thinking was the cartoon "South Park." The weekly tales of its four little third-graders talking trash and exploring adult issues shocked its way across the nation seven years ago.
Nothing was off limits. Though the show outraged some parents and aired at 10 p.m. with a warning, it became an instant cult hit and cultural icon.
"They're sweet little guys. They just have foul little mouths," says Mabrey about the characters in "South Park." "You wanna wash them out with soap."
"I wish we could say that ... we look and we find out what would be shocking and put it on the shock-o-meter. It's not," says Stone. "We try to tell wholesome stories."
"We just can't do it," says Parker.
So what's the power of profanity? "It's, well, it certainly has made us a lot of money," says Parker, laughing.
Is this real dialogue for kids?
"It's real dialogue for us, but kids. There's a philosophical underpinning that makes 'South Park' different than other shows, which is kids have to be taught to be good people. That we're not naturally born good people. That society actually makes us better," says Stone. "Kids are naturally born egotistical, self-centered, greedy. And they need to be taught to live with other people."
"We grew up around all these hippies, just going, you know, 'Society's so messed up, man. And our only hope is like the innocence and the purity of the child,'" adds Parker. "And it's like, 'No, dude, you got it backwards, you know?' It's like our only hope is society, really."
Both Parker and Stone grew up in small Colorado towns, where their friends really were the kids from the bus stop. Parker played the piano and Stone was a math whiz. They met at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where they collaborated on a student film about cannibalism. Naturally, it was a musical.
But they didn't just share a twisted sense of humor. "Trey and I weren't just the guys who did their term paper, like, the night before. We're the guys who did it, like, the morning before," says Stone. "Like, you'd wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to do your term paper. Like, that bad. We're those guys."
"Actually, honestly, in the last eight years of doing 'South Park,' my procrastination has been validated. Because it has been proven that it is the only way I can be creative," says Parker. "I'm not funny if I have time, and I wish I would have known that in the third grade, when all my teachers yelled at me for procrastinating all the time. I'd have been, like, 'No, you don't realize. This is actually genius.'"
Part of the genius of "South Park," critics say, is the way it works in the hot topics of the day, such as music piracy and the war in Afghanistan. This keeps the show fresh, even in its eighth season.
Known for pushing the boundaries of political incorrectness, the show often has an undercurrent of biting social commentary, especially when it comes to celebrity. In 2000, when the "South Park" movie, "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," was nominated for best song, Parker and Stone showed up at the Academy Awards dressed as Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez.
"Whenever people ask you where did the idea for this come from, you always say, drugs," says Mabrey.
"I'll say right now, because it will shock a lot of people, I've never smoked pot in my life," says Parker, as Mabrey looks at him in disbelief. "And when people find that out, they freak out that the guy that does 'South Park' doesn't smoke pot."
"They probably look at you and think, 'Slackers, stoners,'" says Mabrey. "I don't know where that name came up from," says Stone.
"We work really hard," adds Parker. "If we were slackers, then the first year after 'South Park' had taken off, we would have done what everyone else does and said, 'Great, now you all go make it and we'll make the money.' But we still write every single episode ourselves. Direct it, edit it, do all the voices for every single episode. Because we care."
They oversee every detail of every project, right down to the voices, as 60 Minutes saw when camera crews visited them on the set of "Team America." But if they thought dealing with puppets would be easier than dealing with movie stars, they were wrong.
"You think it would be great. You really do. But, whether you, as soon as you shoot your first scene and you're like, 'OK. This is all I want you to do is walk in and look to his right.' And, the puppet comes in and goes," says Parker, as he makes a jerking motion with his body. "And, it's like, 'OK, let's try that again.' And, you're doing that shot for an hour. You know you're in big trouble."
But these puppets are doing things puppets have never done before. They're fighting to the death, being shot at, blown out of Jeeps, crushed by helicopters, and drowning in the Panama Canal when it's destroyed.
"Team America" is being released this week by Paramount, which like CBS and Comedy Central, is owned by Viacom. So with the movie's release just before Election Day, are the filmmakers trying to influence the election?
"We don't think anyone's gonna come out of this movie going, 'Oh, well, now I'm gonna vote for Bush,' or, 'I'm gonna vote for Kerry,'" says Parker. "And if we think that if anyone would come out of this movie changing the way they were gonna vote, they shouldn't be voting."
They say this R-rated puppet movie takes aim at both conservatives and liberals. And it's already being branded offensive. In fact, the scene that drives home the movie's pro-American theme is so vulgar, 60 Minutes can't even show it.
Still, Parker and Stone say their goal isn't simply to offend.
"What interests us is the story of what it's been like for all of us to be an American for the last three years? Because it's been kind of rough," says Parker. "And it's basically, like, we wanted to tell the story about just your average American, and suddenly someone shows up out of nowhere and says, 'Hey, these people wanna kill you. They want you dead.' ... which was a lot of people's reactions three years ago of just going, 'Wait, whoa, these people really wanna kill us.'"
"But it's not totally political because you've got Danny Glover. You've got Sean Penn. You've got Alec Baldwin? Why are they villains," asks Mabrey.
"They're funny, you know? I mean, it's funny to take those activist actors and elevate them to the level to what they think they are in their minds," says Stone. "You know how, like dogs think ...every dog in its brain thinks it's a huge wolf, you know? Like, even poodles? I just think actors in their mind think they're like these really important world leaders. That when Sean Penn is on TV, on CNN during the, before the Iraq War, talking about the nuclear non-proliferation treaty."
"Super funny," says Parker.
"That is pure comic gold," says Stone. "I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. I don't care what you think of the Iraq war. I don't think what you think about nuclear weapons. That is funny. ... And so taking Sean Penn and creating this thing where it's, like, 'Look, Sean Penn, here you are. You're who you think you are.' You know, you're this incredibly important world leader. That's just satire. That's just funny."
But is there a line that they won't cross?
"I don't know," says Stone. "We haven't found it yet."
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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