Team America: World Police.

Review #2557: Team America: World Police.

Cast: 

Trey Parker (Gary Johnston/Joe Smith/Carson/Kim Jong Il/Hans Blix/Matt Damon/Tim Robbins/Sean Penn/Michael Moore/Helen Hunt/Peter Jennings/Susan Sarandon/Drunk in Bar/Liv Tyler/Janeane Garofalo/Additional voices), Matt Stone (Chris Roth/George Clooney/Danny Glover/Ethan Hawke/Martin Sheen/Additional voices), Kristen Miller (Lisa Jones), Masasa Moyo (Sarah Wong), Daran Norris (Spottswoode), Phil Hendrie (I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E./Chechen terrorist), Maurice LaMarche (Alec Baldwin), Chelsea Marguerite (French mother), Jeremy Shada (Jean Francois), Fred Tatasciore (Samuel L. Jackson), and Greg Ballora, Scott Land, Seb Hartman & Tony Urbano (Lead puppeteers) Directed by Trey Parker (#2226 - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut)

Review: 

"It's funny when someone responds with, “Oh, well they think this is funny?” No, we just think that everything's funny. We think that “funny” is a great thing and “funny” is a great way to think about things and deal with things. People who don't have great senses of humor think that comedy is that you just think something's trite and stupid and you don't care about it. [They think] if you're laughing, it's because what you think you're laughing at is stupid — because that's about as far as their sense of humor goes. People don't realize that it can be something a lot deeper than that." - Trey Parker

Sure, let's talk about the movie with puppets and American spirit for the 4th of July. The production of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) was a pain in the ass for Trey Parker and Matt Stone (particularly with the ratings board), but it was a successful pain in the ass, and eventually the two of them came up with something they thought would be funny to do for a film. They landed upon the Thunderbirds (as originally created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson from 1964-1966), which they vaguely remembered watching as reruns when they were bored and found it "so expository and slow" for a show that took itself really seriously involving the Tracy family and a few vehicles (when production was rounding the corner to finish, Parker and Stone jokingly called Anderson "absolutely insane"*). Of course, it also helps to be a "send-up" of the Jerry Bruckheimer productions of the time (most notably Pearl Harbor [2001], although non-Bruckheimer films like Megaforce [1982] also proved an inspiration). Parker and Stone wrote the film with longtime writing partner Pam Brady. The Chiodo Brothers helped create the hundreds of puppet characters, with Parker and Stone soon realizing during filming that the comic tone to them came from the marionettes trying to drama rather than just having "puppets doing jokes". Trying to capture every stunt live on film and making the deadline of late September 2004 took a toll on the filmmakers, who also had to battle with the MPAA for the rating because, and I'm not kidding, a puppet sex scene (but the violence, well...), but they got the job in time for release in theaters in October, which happened to be less than four months after the live-action adaptation of Thunderbirds. 

Team America: World Police was a fair hit with audiences at the time; various filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright have called it among their favorite films of this particular generation. The biggest compliment is that the movie is clearly more entertaining than the two Thunderbirds movies. With a film that was about American optimism that basically has kept Americans looking forward regardless of how naive it all sounds. Stone and Parker clearly enjoy dealing in humor when it comes to the world that gets construed for nihilism because they favor the middle ground and what sounds funny in common sense. It just so happens that there are a few folks worth making fun of (visually/audibly) to go with a rhythm of four-letter colorful words (including a climax involving the nature of what can be construed as "collateral damage, am I right?"). It freewheels for 98 minutes on a loose plot involving looming terror, a horde of film actors guild (get it?) members and the Bruckheimer spirit of entertainment at all costs in chaos that is pretty funny for what actually gets on screen beyond (obviously) the wires. Beneath the tension (in the "I think America will win, but unless....") is a few silly moments on the side that ranges from the hang-ups of "actors" and whatever goofy stuff you spot in the staging of puppets trying to maneuver around the environment. Parker and Stone are perfectly comfortable with the voices they want to put on (Norris probably hones it in the best for the not-Jeff Tracy from) and the movie rolls along with its tongue-in-cheek ra-ra spirit that, naturally, has a rip-roaring "America" song (the one that goes "fuck yeah", yeah, yeah, yeah). You see a few neat-looking vehicles to house the puppets and staging that works with the scenarios. It ribs at wannabee global dictators and wannabee do-gooders with enough conviction in actually having fun (well, unless you're Sean Penn*). As a whole, Team America is packed with enough goofy moments in the audacity of going nuts with puppets going on an adventure ends up being a bit more than just being swears and strings. 

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*Apparently, Gerry Anderson was quoted as stating "there are good, fun parts [in the film] but the language wasn't to [his] liking".

*Bro really sent them a letter being mad that Parker and Stone said there was "no shame in not voting" and closed it with "All best, and a sincere fuck you".

Hobgoblins.

Review #1602: Hobgoblins.

Cast:

Tom Bartlett (Kevin), Paige Sullivan (Amy), Steven Boggs (Kyle), Kelley Palmer (Daphne), Billy Frank (Nick), Tamara Clatterbuck (Fantazia), Duane Whitaker (Roadrash), Jeffrey Culver (McCreedy), Kevin Kildow (Dennis), Kari French (Pixie), and Daran Norris (Club Scum M.C) Written, Produced, and Directed by Rick Sloane.

Review:

"I went to junior college to learn the basics of film making, then spent three years unlearning their techniques, because none of them applied to how the real industry works. I did have access to free school film equipment, a sound stage and post-production, so they did come in handy. They discouraged me every step of the that I should find another career to pursue, but I became a working director and was back as a guest speaker by the time I was 23."

Sometimes you just need to be reminded of why one loves movies by seeing the ones that are clearly and obviously products of a different era that turn to waste one's time. And sometimes you need to look upon different voices with their own perspective on how to make a film without being hindered by interference or a lack of money to stop someone. Sloane, a California native, aspired to be an animator from a young age, but he shifted his interest to filmmaking through study at Los Angeles City College for art and film courses. He found the films they showed to be "cinematic pabulum" (for films like The 39 Steps...), but it was the showing of one different from the others in the low-budget Hollywood Boulevard (1976) that inspired him the most, noting it as a teaching tool for low-budget filmmaking that he would utilize as a template for the films he would later make. He directed his first film with Blood Theatre (1984), a slasher/horror comedy feature. Sloane is known for his self-production of each film he does, which also includes editing and cinematography. Of course it also helped that in the days of the 1980s and 1990s there were (as he claims) "40,000 mom and pop video stores across the country, and you could get instant distribution on practically anything that was feature length." If he thinks of himself as some sort of cult director like John Waters or someone who simply wanted to make films of the taste he had as a teenager, then all power to you. Sure, the film might seem to be a ripoff of Gremlins (1984), but Sloane has stated that he wrote it before that film was released, one that on first draft would only show the eyes of the monster. Clearly there were changes made in those years, but none of them probably involved a better script.

Sure, there were numerous films that could be thought of as ripoff-I mean descendants inspired by Gremlins such as Ghoulies (1985), Troll (1986), Critters (1986), and Munchies (1987). And all of those have one other thing in common: All of them had a follow-up film, because one utterly, truthfully, faithfully needed a sequel to Hobgoblins 21 years later. I mean hey, even Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) had follow-up films come decades later and that also got a restoration from the original workprint; personally, Hobgoblins proves that some things could deserve to take a whacking on the wayside. It may have been made on the cheap, but cheap films can still be good if there's something interesting to go with it. This is a collaterally cheap clutter of a movie, clanking at 92 minutes with clumsy queasiness. It is inconceivable, inept, inert, and a waste of time. Manos might be boring with an amateur at the helm making obvious missteps, but what we have here is a bad movie with an established director in making cheap B-movies, more specifically ones with threads of a plot mixed with hair-brained characters and effects that are exactly what to expect from looking like silk pillows. So here we are, with monsters that have one big interest: creatures that make people's biggest desire come true while eventually killing them. You know, that could make an interesting idea, one that could rely on the futility of having dreams that are either not realistic or ones that people have to strive for themselves as opposed to freaks from space. Here, we have idiots for characters, a mix of teenage clichés that don't even get the benefit of what happens to those other, better-budgeted, better-scripted (of sorts) horror films: a body-count from the main cast (one, and I repeat, one person dies in the film). Even the satisfaction of seeing those fuzzballs get blown to bits is muddled in the fact that they were kept in a film vault for 30 years by a guy guarding an old film studio because...if you can find a reason, you will personally get a letter of commendation from me. If anything deserves to be called cinematic pabulum, his film would be written in the biggest font possible with bold lettering as perhaps #1 on a piece of paper that is then set on fire while the Star Spangled Banner plays loudly in the background. But wait, why don't we do a rundown of a scene or two to really bring the point home. For starters, our main four is tiresome from the very get go, made particularly clear in a spar involving rakes and garden hoes that goes on for quite a while. Believe it or not, it was actually a homage to the final fight from Streets of Fire (1984), but even Sloane has admitted to it being the worst scene he has ever done in a film. 92 minutes cannot go by faster, particularly with a sequence involving our lead being berated for being weak (by losing the fight...to a guy in the Army) while in the background involves goofy noises. How about highlighting the fantasies the hobgoblins give out - one meets the woman (who he had been calling repeatedly) of his dreams, and nearly is pushed off a cliff, another loses their prudish inhibitions and goes to a nightclub, and the other gets to play out being a commando that gets set on fire...oh but he comes out in crutches at the end, so he's okay. But our climax involves the lead getting to do a big fight scene to prove he's a real brave man...and then the old man saves him from a hobgoblin trick.

But hey, there may be positive things to note. Sure, he made a cheap movie under his own control and it has found a bit of cult appeal when it comes to being made fun of. Mystery Science Theater 3000 made fun of the film, and Sloane liked most of what they said about his film. It reminds me best of that joke that goes about how is not owned, truly they aren't owned, as they slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob-I mean bad movie. But it is important to say that he made a moron movie, one that might as well be idiot-proofed from being eviscerated that says anything too different from what has already been said about its obvious failings. Cheap isn't even the worst of its problems, considering its vapid characters and effects, terrible execution, and all-around failure in every single category in attempts at horror, comedy, and science-fiction. Staring at a wall with droning music playing might be the better alternative then to see this once, if only because you wouldn't be inspired to write a thousand words about it. In short, it deserves to stuck in the bottom of the barrel for all time, belonging in the pits with filmmakers like Coleman Francis and James Nguyen. But hey, at least he gets to make films that he liked when he was a teenager on his own dime...so that means something for someone.

Next Time: Believe it or not, it's one long on the backburner to cover. The Postman (1997).

Overall, I give it 0 out of 10 stars.