special teams

Team America: World Police - Unrated (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition)
$12.98
My kids were just at the wrong age, too young, for me to have gotten into South Park, so "Team America" was kind of a revelation to me. The movie is vulgar, politically incorrect and oh so crude. But it is also a very smart combination of writing, smart puppeteering and topical satire that is just has to be seen to be believed.

Team America is a group of star-spangled fighters who take on terrorists. They tend to be a little quick on the draw, and often cause more damage to those they want to save than the bad guys. The opening scene, in which the team blows the living hell out of Central Paris, sets the stage for the rest of the film.

It's hard sometimes to know with Trey and Stone where satire ends and crude ethnic stereotyping begins. One American character bluffs his way past a couple of Arab guards by repeating variations on "Durka durka." Is this making fun of the America belief that foreign culture and language is so easily adopted? Or that Arabic is barbaric nonsense? Hard to say. Then there is the film's portrayal of many of Hollywood's leftist artists as terror-pandering loons. Alec Baldwin comes in for a particular savaging, but then so do Susan Sarandon, Janeane Garafalo, Matt Damon and many others. Trey and Stone are notoriously evenhanded in targeting left and right, though I have to say that the right gets off rather easy in this film. It's a choice being portrayed as narrow-mindedly militaristic v getting your head blown off.

Anyway, Team America finds its way to North Korea, where lead bad guy, Kim Jong Ill, is the terrorist puppet master who pulls the metaphorical strings of terrorists around the globe. Sometimes I wonder whether the real Kim, already on the downslope of the sanity slide, would see this movie by itself as a pretext to harry the West. Let's hope that never happens. In the film, he is a sadistic crime master with a "ronery" (lonely) heart of gold. His signature song, "I'm so Ronery" bewails his lack of company at the top, while making uncomfortable fun of the East Asian pronunciation. It's this kind of combination hi- and low-brow humor that make the film irresistible and enchanting for nearly every taste..

For a kid like me who grew up in the 60's with shows like "Fireball XL-5" that feature the hop-skip motion of puppets, this film was a great nostalgia trip. Even a 6-year old kid in 1962 watching characters flop into their jet pilot's seats knew he was watching something bizarre and memorable. "Team America" ramps up the inanity of the puppeteering technique, inserting all manner of violence and sexuality that the producers of "Fireball" could never have imagined. Trey and Stone pay tribute to the genre while mercilessly exploiting and expanding it. The film's music adds greatly to the sense of irreverent fun. A love song between two characters ("Pearl Harbor sucked, and I love you") trashes Ben Affleck and takes a swipe at smarmy movie love songs. The film's theme song is not only rude, violent and jingoistic, but has a country flavor that fits right into the "I'm proud to be an American" genre of contemporary popular patriotic music.

Team America is not a film for the gentle or pious. Church folk - stay away! But if you have a certain kind of twisted humor, can stand watching puppets blowing each other away with automatic weapons and explosives, and don't mind watching naked, articulated puppets engage in every graphic sexual situation imaginable, then put this film on your cinematic bucket list.

Should you pick up or watch "Team America"? F-yeah!

Young Heroes Child's S.W.A.T. Team Costume, Medium
$28.99
I bought this for Halloween and it was a huge hit w/ my son.
The vest with the velcro strips is a great idea. All
the "gizmos" that come w/ the costume adhere to the vest and
it even has a working flashlight .I had to exchange 1st costume b/c
it was too small. I suggest going up a size, because
as with most costumes, it runs small. Overall, very happy with
this purchase as he loves it and wears it like crazy.

2006 Topps New York Yankees Baseball Cards Special Edition Team Set (14 cards including Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Randy Johnson, Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada & more)
$6.00
Set includes the following Yankees stars: Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Gary Sheffield, Mariano Rivera, Randy Johnson, Shawn Chacon, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, Carl Pavano, Johnny Damon

Basketball: The Dream Teams-Special Presentation [VHS]
$29.95
A production of the History Channel, this film takes an alternately scholarly and fawning view of the people who created and expanded the game of basketball into the multinational pastime it has become. Narrated by Jim Brown (the Fox announcer, not the football great), the film is for true students of the game who not only want to know that James Naismith invented the game but crave knowledge of Naismith's life before basketball. This 100-minute film takes nearly an hour to get to the George Mikan era and tends to focus on a few influential coaches and players, including John Wooden and Bill Russell. Put it this way: If you're interested in this material, you may already know this stuff, but it will be fun to listen to such talking heads as Bill Walton, Jerry West, and others discuss the old days. And if you're not interested in it, this isn't the video that will change your mind. If you're looking for a highlight reel that will knock your eyes out, seek elsewhere. --Marshall Fine