‘Team America ‘ pokes fun at sorry state of world

In theaters

TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, directed by Trey Parker, written by Pam Brady, Parker and Matt Stone, 98 minutes, rated R.

The new puppet satire, “Team America: World Police,” opens in Paris with a cell of turbaned terrorists plotting to undo us all with their weapons of mass destruction.

Never fear. On the case is Team America, which is eager to storm into any country – especially France – in an effort to bring the terrorists down.

And do they ever.

Before long, the handsome, colorfully suited wooden soldiers from Team America are fighting the terrorists in the otherwise peaceful streets of Paris.

It’s a bloody battle that leaves mimes shrieking, baguettes exploding, brie baking in the heat of napalm and our own bombs recklessly toppling the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre in the process.

Within seconds, a culture is destroyed, but is that really a concern considering that Team America has smoked the terrorists out of their holes, killed them, and thus left the world a safer place?

If all of this sounds like dicey, anything-goes moviemaking designed to push buttons, that’s because it is.

It comes from “South Park” creators Trey Parker, who directs, and Matt Stone, who co-wrote the script. Like “South Park,” it’s dangerous, edgy fun, calling out hypocrisy and crushing it with absurdity.

It’s a movie that’s going to make a whole lot of people uncomfortable – first with its content, which pokes fun at the sorry state of the world, and second in how it elicits big laughs from, well, the sorry state of the world.

The movie has scenes that are among the funniest of the year, not the least of which involves the film’s now infamous inclusion of puppet sex, much of which was cut to prevent the film from receiving an NC-17 rating. Still, plenty of puppet sex remains, and really, who knew that marionettes could be so tender, crude and aggressive in the bedroom?

What “Team America” has in its sights isn’t just war, terrorism and politics. It also bashes North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, the Hollywood action films of Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer, and famously liberal, outspoken actors such as Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Helen Hunt and Sean Penn, all of whom, we learn, are proud members of the Film Actors Guild, or F.A.G. If that sounds decidedly pro-right wing to you, so will the idea that filmmaker Michael Moore also is taken to task here in one explosive scene I’ll leave for you.

Some scenes in the movie go too far in their effort to shock, such as in a musical spoof of the Broadway show, “Rent,” the likes of which can’t be printed in a family newspaper, and other moments just plain drag. Still, those tired of the malaise of political correctness that has overcome our culture will nevertheless find gleeful, juvenile release in the ripe satire of “Team America: World Police.”

Grade: B-

On video and DVD

GARFIELD, directed by Pete Hewitt, written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, 85 minutes, rated PG.

On one level, the movie “Garfield” is exactly what fans of Jim Davis’ comic strip expect. It’s genial and familiar, offering the occasional mild chuckle in an environment that can’t help feeling a bit stale thanks to the strip’s longevity.

What isn’t so familiar is what director Pete Hewitt and his screenwriters have done to Garfield (voice of Bill Murray). For some reason, they’ve given him a conscience, which he most certainly doesn’t have in the strip, and featured him in a plot that finds him reacting to the budding love affair between his owner, Jon (Breckin Meyer), and veterinarian, Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt), while trying to save his arch enemy, Odie, after he’s dognapped by an evil television reporter (Stephen Tobolowski).

The story is bland and workmanlike – week-old catnip that’s lost its bite.

What saves it is the animation, which is set amid a live-action world and which is extremely well done. With the exception of a few real animals, whose mouths are digitally enhanced to move as they talk, Garfield is the film’s only computer-animated character and he’s a well-crafted wonder.

A real fat cat, Garfield moves with the realistic heft of a Rubenesque kitty. Most impressive is his fur, the texture of which is perfect, and his oversized eyes, which pop, roll and react to every pseudozinger and manufactured situation as if it were original material. Sometimes, with his constant mugging, you almost believe it is.

The film will appeal most to young children, who will warm to it in ways that their parents won’t. There’s a reason for that. This is indeed a movie for kids – innuendoes and risque doubletalk are kept to a minimum. The movie exists to please only one age group, and while its makers could have done it all better, I’ll take “Garfield” any day over last year’s other cat flick, the disappointing “The Cat in the Hat.”

Grade: C+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at Rotten

Tomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.