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All I can do is wonder what did Alec Baldwin do to Trey Parker and Matt Stone that made them so angry. Did he snub them at the Oscars? Did he tell them that, "they'll never work in this town again?" First, there was South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, where a war between Canada and the USA was precipitated by the Canadians bombing the Baldwin brothers. And now, there is Team America: World Police, which is an angry diatribe aimed directly at Alec Baldwin. At least, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was funny. In this new film, Parker and Stone seem to have forgotten that Team America:World Police was supposed to be a comedy, in their efforts to roast, literally, celebrities who get involved in politics. Team America:World Police is a take off of the old kiddie puppet action show, Thunderbirds which was turned into a live-action box-office bomb earlier this year. The all-marionette cast is led by Team America who battle terrorists wherever they are found all over the world. While killing the terrorists, the team generally does more damage than the terrorists' WMD would have. The leader of Team America feels that they need to hire an actor who can play a terrorist and thereby infiltrate their ranks. So, they recruit a young Broadway actor just finishing a run in "Lease", a not-to-funny joke on "Rent." Anyway, the actor and the rest of Team America set off to stop the plan of Kim Jong Il to destroy the world. Kim is playing into the hands of the peaceniks as represented by Alec Baldwin and the other members of the so-called Film Actors Guild, including Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. As usual, Parker, Stone et al. did the voices of the celebrities.
I don't know where to start in describing how awful this movie is. It is definitely the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I am a big South Park fan. And the first South Park movie was very funny. But for some reason, Parker and Stone's issues with celebrities getting involved in politics, in general, and with Alec Baldwin, in particular, prompted them to lose their sense of humor. Actually, I agree with the boys on this. I think Sean Penn going to Iraq does no good. When I see Martin Sheen out campaigning, I get all confused. Isn't he already President? Anyway, this could have been a funny movie except that they forgot to write a script. I guess they thought that marionettes are funny enough by themselves. They apparently decided that puppet sex and Alec Baldwin's head exploding was funny enough. Well, uh, no. There are a few funny bits. Kim Jong Il is pretty good but after a while you realize that Stone and Parker think it's hilarious that he can't pronounce the letter "l" and that's the only joke. A final example which is hammered in over and over is that the acronym for Film Actors Guild is F.A.G. They say this over and over again as if it's funny. Ok, I'll stop now. Don't bother to see Team America:World Police. Just watch South Park instead.