Sunday, October 17, 2004

Team America: World Police (IMDB) (Netflix)
Imagine a Jerry Bruckheimer movie (Pearl Harbor, Flashdance, Con Air, Bad Boys, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State) where the characters are all puppets, like the old Thunderbirds TV show. Then throw the subversive creators of the South Park comedy ("They killed Kenny!"). I like the possibilities.

Most of which are realized. Besides over-produced mini-epics, targets include Islamic terrorists, Kim Jong Il and Hollywood peaceniks, giving everyone something to laugh at or be offended by. There's even a hilarious puppet love scene that originally got an NC-17 rating, which is pretty funny in itself. And for you foreign policy buffs, it offers a, um, biology-based model that could replace the Monroe Doctrine. A puppet show that's absolutely not for the kids.