Team "F*** Everyone but US!"

I saw Team America a couple of weeks ago and just haven't blogged about it until now. Actually, Cecily pretty much captured most of my thoughts but I thought I'd post a flying mention anyway.

When I walked out of the movie, I was stunned. Because the characters were puppets, I wasn't really clear on whether I should be angry, shocked, or amused. Upon further reflection, I realized that anger and disgust were pretty appropriate. Initially, the filmmakers scored by nailing a lot of American attitudes and behaviors on the head. I was, at first, encouraged by this skewering of America's ridiculous behavior but my good feelings rapidly changed to bewilderment.

Where was the piece of the plot that would end up showing the world that Americans realize our own stupid behaviors and don't support them? Um...nowhere near this movie. When you create a movie that's based on stereotypes of all different types of people and then has the stereotypical 'winner' actually win, it feels like something's gone horribly wrong.

That's what happened. I was expecting to see something other than (guess what) Americans winning, peace activists portrayed like mindless idiots, Middle Easterners depicted (all of them) as turban-wearing, beard-having terrorists, and women portrayed (you guessed it) as blonde (wooden)Barbie dolls.

By the way, during the puppet sex scene, the male puppet displayed his wood but it wasn't the kind that does any good!