I must admit, I was never a big fan of South Park. I’ve only ever watched a couple of episodes from the various different series, and what I had seen of South Park The Movie far from inspired me. Despite this, I really wanted to see the new Thunderbirds style spoof (made by the creators of the aforementioned cartoon).

We went to the UCI, Huddersfield to see Team America - World Police, and from the opening moments of the film I was completely hooked. The first thing I found intriguing was the horribly stereotypical view of so many different cultures portrayed by the film. I’m not entirely sure how they managed to get away with it, but I presume that because it was not targeted at one particular group directly, it was just generally offensive.

The plot was predictable, but superb. It showed America is such a great light, depicting their armed forces as “gung ho” and devoid of any respect for other people’s livelihoods. Now don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for all Americans out there, but unless you are an American particularly happy to laugh at your own stereotypes, please, please don’t watch this film.

Finally, the soundtrack was so clever. From the patriotic rock song “America, Fuck Yeah!” (very hard to imagine as side-splitting when you aren’t watching the film) through to a more reflecting song putting down the film ‘Pearl Harbour’ off in any way at all possible.

If you are easily offended, then I wouldn’t reccommend this film to you. However, if you feel happy to laugh at yourself and others (and don’t mind cartoon gore and regular swearing) then it’s definitely worth a watch. I’m looking forward to the DVD release.