Is terrorism funny? Is George Bush’s wasteful war anything to laugh to about? Not really, but after three years of being bombarded by bad news, sometimes you need to cut loose with crass cinematic silliness that upsets as much as it plays the funny bone.

So Tune in and drop out with ‘Team America- World Police’ the latest craziness from the creators of ‘South Park’, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I had all but written off the creative duo as one-trick wonders. A decade after the original uncensored south park short circulated around the early internet, the pair had yet to produce anything that was even remotely as funny as the ‘Jesus versus Santa Claus’ bit from long ago.

But with ‘Team America’, Matt and Trey have stepped off into the wacky world of marionettes and come through with a movie that will have you rolling in the aisles. It’s like watching the original ‘Thunderbirds’ TV show gone horribly wrong. And like ‘South Park’ before it, ‘Team America’ goes out of its way to be offensive to everyone. The movie doesn’t pull its punches or chooses side, and is sure to irk people on the conservative right as much as it has with the liberal left.

Controversy picked up on ‘Team America’ before it even came out, as Matt and Trey were forced to cut down the puppet sex scene in order to get an ‘R’ Rating. Watching the steamy scene play out it is hard to imagine what got edited out, the marionettes twist each other’s strings in every way imaginable. I’m sure the ‘directors cut’ DVD will reveal just how sick and twisted puppets can be. And let’s not discount the ‘Team America’ musical number

I haven’t laughed this much at a movie in a long time, and with the all too real horror stories going on every day, I left ‘Team America’, feeling like ‘I needed that!’. For Movie Magazine this is Purple.

© 2004 - Purple - Air Date: 10/20/04