Reception
Reviews of the film are generally positive; it holds a 76% ("Fresh") at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, out of 192 reviews (and 68% of the site's Top Critics) with the consensus "Team America will either offend you or leave you in stitches. It'll probably do both." The film also holds a rating of 64/100 at Metacritic ("generally favorable reviews"), based on reviews by 38 critics.
Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson was supposed to have met Trey Parker before production, but they cancelled the meeting, acknowledging he would not like the film's expletives. Anderson felt "there are good, fun parts but the language wasn't to my liking".
National Review Online has named the film #24 in its list of "The Best Conservative Movies". Brian C. Anderson wrote, "the film's utter disgust with air-headed, left-wing celebrity activism remains unmatched in popular culture." However, political and social commentator Andrew Sullivan considers the film brilliant in its skewering of both the left and right's approach on terrorism. Sullivan (a fan of Stone and Parker's other work, as well) popularized the term "South Park Republican" to describe himself and other like-minded fiscal conservatives/social libertarians. Parker himself is a registered Libertarian.
The film suffered oppositional criticism before it was released. In August, Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge blasted Paramount and the filmmakers for trying to "mock the terror war". A week later, the conservative group Move America Forward criticized the film, saying it was "inconceivable" that filmmakers would have spoofed the Nazis during World War II. Before the film was released, statements were released by a "senior Bush administration official" condemning the film. Upon receiving the news, the duo called and found it was instead a "junior staffer", causing Stone to quip "What is it – junior or senior? What are we talking about here? Who knows? It might have been the janitor." The two eventually decided it was free publicity, with which they were fine. Some media outlets interpreted the film's release on October 15 to be in theaters before the November elections. In reality, the release date had nothing to do with the elections; in fact, the film was intended to be released earlier, but production fell behind.
Read more about this topic: Team America: World Police
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