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Review

An ineffectual war on terror, know-it-all Hollywood elitists, North Korean dictators bent on destroying the world, puppets having sex in almost every possible position imaginable, a vomiting spectacular to rival the excesses of Blazing Saddles's campfire scene — that and much more are on display in South Park creators' Parker and Stone's hilarious, offensive, crude and often grandiose parody. Utlizing "Thunderbirds"-like puppetry to tell this wickedly irreverent send-up of Bruckheimer action movies, Parker and Stone go out of their way to make sure all are offended as a Broadway actor (seen in a rudely funny takeoff of "Rent") joins a covert team of terrorist fighters and wind up taking on Kim Jong Il (sounding and acting like Cartman all grown-up) as well as Hollywood lefties such as Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore and Tim Robbins. There are scenes that are side-splitting, and the puppet-sex lives up to the hype. But the film also is too over-the-top, especially in skewering Baldwin and pals, making the humor less satiric and more just plain nasty. In contrast, the humor derived from the chaotic incompetence of these freedom fighters is quite subtle and likely to make more friends on the right than on the left. It's doubtful, however, that the filmmakers cared about offending/aligning with anyone and concentrated on producing as many laughs as possible. And while Team America isn't quite as accomplished or witty as South Park, those laughs — as gross and shameless and distasteful as they may be — are plentiful.

 -- David Bleiler