Team America: World Police

Team America: World Police - ***

It is a rare occasion that a film so low brow could also be so politically relevant, but Trey Parker's Team America is one of those rare occasions. According to writers Parker and Matt Stone (That's My Bush, South Park), their research for this film consisted of watching CNN, and mocking whichever celebrity that presented his or herself to be an "expert" on the political climate of America. As per usual, Alec Baldwin was one of the perennial favorites, but the inclusion of Sean Penn angered the "hollywood bad boy", who accused the boys of encouraging people to be "irresponsible". Whether presenting a even handed hatchet job on people in general or using ones celebrity to advance political beliefs despite a lack of qualification (Sean Penn, for instance, has a degree in Speech and Auto Mechanics) is more "irresponsible" is one argument, but you can see that the intention of this film is not to influence the vote, but to entertain an politically ambiguous audience. The humour is (as I said) ridiculously low brow, and a lot of the humour is more based on effective vulgarity, but it's very entertaining on a purely salacious level. Not near the best movie made this year, but one of the most enjoyable. Thumbs up.