Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never been afraid to say what they think, and sometimes they speak without thinking. Nine years of South Park episodes, a feature film, and side-projects like Orgazmo and BASEketball should have taught everyone that by now. But in that time, just as Eric Cartman once buffed up from fat-ass to super-fat-ass, these writers have buffed up from fart jokes, to serious and biting political satire ... with fart jokes.

Their latest project, Team America: World Police, is the next step in the evolution of what a parody should be. Instead of taking the easy route by showing how stupid one side of the political aisle is, they decided to show how moronic everyone is. And they make their point: no one is safe from Team America.

Team America is an elite US anti-terrorist squad that has a secret base in Mount Rushmore. When their computer, I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E., tells them of potential terrorist activity in Paris, they swoop in uninvited to put an end to it. In the process they destroy the Eiffel Tower, which lands on the Arc de Triomphe. They then blow up the entire Louvre to get a single terrorist. Despite the rubble and destruction, they find nothing at all wrong with this. A member of Team America is lost during this assault, prompting a hunt for a replacement. They find stage actor Gary Johnston, who is performing the lead role in Lease on Broadway. He is convinced to come along and join the team in helping police the world, particularly from the evil of Kim Jong-Il.

I'll be damned if they don't have a song for every little thing that happens too. The soundtrack alone is at least half the fun of the movie. Describing the plot in much more detail than this would reveal too much good comedy, so I won't. But here are just a few of the important messages that the film teaches.

Alec Baldwin is a F.A.G.
Pussies hate dicks, because they get fucked by dicks.
'Pearl Harbor' really sucked.
Collateral damage is a state of mind.
Puppets can have sex.

and, of course, Matt Damon!

This is, by far, the funniest film I have seen in a very long time. I audibly laughed at least 40 times during the running time, and probably more. Even if you have no sense of humor, it is impossible to not marvel at the technical achievement of the movie. The sets in this film, and particularly the cinematography, are more impressive then most of your typical live-action films. This really should be expected since the entire project started as a parody of Bruckheimer films. The traditional 'Supermarionation" style puppets (of Thunderbirds) are combined with motors inside the faces to create eerily realistic facial expressions.

Viewing some of the things that happen to these puppets, you are likely to be deeply disturbed - probably because you have never seen anything like this before. How many films have you watched recently that you can say that about? Probably the most fun comes from the songs though. In probably the best example of If-it-ain't-broke in the industry, having achieved an Academy Award nomination for their songs in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Stone and Parker have another fresh batch of musical comedy gold for this film, with the perfect action-movie-ready song, America, Fuck Yeah! leading the pack. This movie is truly amazing from start to finish.

The DVD is labeled as a Special Collector's Edition and while it boasts great video and audio (no DTS; get over it) I feel a bit cheated with the bonus features. Oddball films like this NEED a commentary. It has been rumored that the South Park feature will be re-released soon with one; I can't imagine why Stone and Parker wouldn't have recorded one for this film. Even without that though, what you get is plenty. There are at least two hours of featurettes dealing with the puppeteers and interviews with our hero's creators. These segments are very educational in showing the difficulties of doing a film of this scope in this format. All of the segments are worth watching; even if you are just going to rent the DVD, give the extras a spin.

The movie is crude, vulgar, and infinitely in bad taste. This means, of course, Team America: World Police is a must see. There was never a movie like it before, and there probably won't be one again (unless there is a sequel). Since it just so happens to be exactly the event movie it is parodying, there really is no damn good reason to miss it.

This gets the official Shawn 'Seal of Approval' as one of the best DVDs of 2005.