Team America: World Police (15, 98 mins) Starring the voices of: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daran Norris Director: Trey Parker
TREY Parker and Matt Stone, the genius pair responsible for South Park, put their politically incorrect spin on Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet et al with this adults-only puppet romp.
Team America is an international police force dedicated to maintaining global stability, under the watchful eye of group commander Spottswoode.
He has gathered together experts from every funky walk of US life: all-star quarterback Joe, who is the team's natural born leader; top empath Sarah from Berkeley's School for the Clairvoyant; martial arts expert Chris; and ace Princeton psychology major Lisa, who specialises in how terrorists think.
Spottswoode and his proteges learn that the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is brokering weapons of destruction to terrorists.
Spottswoode recruits rising Broadway star Gary Johnston, who is wowing audiences in an AIDS-themed musical, as an inside agent.
He soon realises that he must be prepared to devote his acting talents to an even higher cause.
Technically, the film is a tour-de-force, with more than 100 sets and dozens of marionettes.
The filmmakers have great fun mocking the limitations of the marionettes - a Matrix-style fight between a Team America member and a terrorist dissolves into a messy clattering of limbs and tangling of strings.
As with South Park, Stone and Parker compose some wickedly subversive songs to accompany the action.
