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This is close close close. But any film that can elicit a Pavlovian "MATT DAMON" from me, sometimes internally, sometimes out loud, whenever I hear his name (and I really really like and rate MATT DAMON) must edge it for me. And Arec Bawdwin. So Ronery...
Hands down, South Park. I had zero expectations for that movie (I liked the show OK), and it blew me away: the songs were so well crafted, which was a complete surprise. Consequently, I had tremendous expectations for Team America...and I barely laughed at all. I know people who loved the movie, but it completely missed with me. Maybe on another night, I'd have enjoyed it more. Maybe I'd like it better now if I gave it another chance. But I've rarely had such high hopes dashed during a movie like they were that night. It was a Phantom Menace-like letdown.
I wouldn't call a live action string puppet movie animated per se. Or have I missed something here? Inanimate objects comes to life on film I guess, but I'm really confused right now. It would've gotten my vote in a properly worded poll though.
Surprised it is so close. Team America, F*** Yeah!
Trevor
Ooooh; this is tough. They're both pretty damn good and similarly unforgivable. Both still make me, a grown, educated, gainfully employed husband and father, laugh a big, stupid laugh.
"Team America" is the bigger leap of faith from these guys, obviously. It came out of no where. It was released in the midst of a bloody overseas conflict that it openly lampoons. It takes direct aim at a lot of American tropes, a lot of American ideas, and a lot of... well, at a lot of Americans. It openly ridicules a handful of foreign cultures. It has a genuinely nasty, embarrassingly satisfying sex scene. Oh, and it's shot with puppets. Risky stuff, and it pays off.
"South Park" stands on a shoulders of a long-running series, yeah, and takes fewer chances... but despite spending a lot of time with a song called "Uncle F*cker," a subplot about Saddam Hussein and Lucifer's troubled sex life, and the usual commitment to grade school -aged kids cursing, treating each other horribly and dying badly, it's a sweet, endearing thing.
Right?
Somehow, wedged between the gassy near-execution of Terrance and Philip, Saddam's racist jig and the endless Les Miserables parodies, the filthy picture manages to be life-affirming, love-affirming, and altogether lovable.
"Team America" is smart and sassy, but by comparison, it's a heartless affair. Advantage "South Park" for pulling off the double-threat.
While Team America is definitely the tighter film, BLU was so important to my Adolescence (my favorite movie prior to my induction into filmbuffery) That I couldn't stand for it to stop existing
While Team America is definitely the tighter film, BLU was so important to my Adolescence (my favorite movie prior to my induction into filmbuffery) That I couldn't stand for it to stop existing
I hate musicals, but I love South Park: BLU
I am surprised it's so close because I never thought of Team America as being held in anywhere near the same high regard as South Park - the show or the movie.
South Park has the better songs, it's the funnier film, at least in my opinion, and I think its take on censorship is more poignant than Team America's jingoistic parody.
I admit, I'm a little surprised South Park is doing as well as it is. It has some great moments, and fantastic songs, but the pacing slows to a crashing halt every time the scene is set in Hell, and if the romance between Saddam Hussein and Satan was ever funny (and it wasn't), it certainly isn't any more. And the whole thing seems kind of low-stakes to me. It's about... what exactly? The power of media and profanity to warp our minds? Not a bad movie at all, but not a great one.
Team America, on the other hand, works like crazy. Not only is it smarter and funnier, but its satire has a sharper edge, and the whole thing holds up like gangbusters. The pro-USA destruction and jingoism was funny in 2004, but now it seems almost prophetic. Seriously, in a world where Donald Trump could actually become the next President of the United States, "America, F*** Yeah!" sounds less like a joke and more like a chant from the floor of the RNC. There, I said it.
Team America helps us understand the true cost of freedom....and it's a buck-o-five. Both of these films are fantastic satire and neither takes themselves seriously. If you haven't seen "This film is not rated", watch the interview with Trey/Matt, as they talk about the marionette sex scene, and the hypocrisy of our cinema when it comes to sex vs. violence and the ratings assigned.
As much as I like the songs/characters of south park, seeing Kim Jong / Hans Blix / F.A.G. (poor Matt Damon) / the musical "Lease" / I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E / the vomit scene that goes five minutes past the already too long point / Spottswoode (who isn't from Hollywood, Gary), and many many others was too much to not go with TAWP - and who can deny that Pearl Harbor sucked...and I need you (Ben Affleck needs acting school.....). "Top, notch, acting".
Best, marionette movie, ever.
I can't live in a world without Uncle Fucker! I you don't agree with that, BLAME CANADA! It's not a real country anyway!
Who needs hardcore puppet sex, when you can see all of the Baldwin brother get bombed to death?
Why? You both complain about not time to see so many worthwhile films. Ones with reputations that have stood the test of time.
I have seen both ... years ago and just being reminded of them makes me want to poke my eyes out and finish my complete loss of hearing. They were unnecessary then and are disposable now.
Team America just went down so path that for me stopped being funny. Like all the raunchy shock bits were just not that funny. South Park was fine and funny. I am sure if I were to think harder the Other option would be more deserving.
Despite both you guys professing your prediction of a "Team America" pseudo-landslide, I don't think you should be too surprised when "South Park" takes home the win. It's certainly my vote. While I appreciated what Parker & Stone were doing with "Team America", the film lacked heart, and that was something that I found in even the opening number of "South Park". Sure, it's heart that's laced with profanities and bodily fluids, but it's heart nevertheless. "Team America" is too cynical to leave room for heart. I've watched both films recently, actually, and "South Park" holds up far better than "Team America". "Team America" seems dated in 2016, while "South Park" still feels as fresh and irreverent as it did when it was first released. Nothing in "Team America" comes close to the comedic gut punch that hit me the first time I heard "Blame Canada". Also, if we were talking 'all-time' raunchy animated films, "Fritz the Cat" would be the hands down winner. This is more of a Parker & Stone death match than anything else.
Where's the options here? Where's Ralph Bakshi's films like Fritz the Cat or Heavy Traffic, or Picha's films like Tarzoon or The Big Bang. I love the films of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, but there's more raunchy animated comedies than those two films
I actually only saw South Park for the first time a month or two ago, so there might be some recency bias, but I love both movies and I think I have to go South Park purely because of attachment. There's an extra layer to seeing characters I already loved translated to another medium so well.
For the extremely rare feat of adapting a tv show into a GREAT movie, I have to vote for Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Its what every tv fan wants -- a 4 part episode of the show with stakes heightened for the cinema.