Make It Reel

Its time once again to visit ... the cineplex! As circumstances dictate, my pal W (i should start calling him Dubya now, short for Dubious *lol*) and I kickstarted his so-called birthday celebration by uh ... watching 2 movies for 1 (take that, you Hollywood emperors!). First up - Team America: World Police. Created by those insane Canadians who served us South Park, this is their take on current world events by way of that 60s sci-fi TV series Thunderbirds. As a child, I was only mildly amused by puppets masquerading as space rescuers (or was that the other way around?). This time, put into context in the real world we inhabit - i don't think any movie made me laugh like this in a long, long, loooooooooooong time. Ok? Ok. Trey Parker and Matt Stone butcher every sacred (and unsacred) cow and skewer anyone who logs a lot of airtime on CNN and in our collective consciousness. In short - bwahahahaha! Anything that brings me to tears from laughing so much is two thumbs up in my book. The DVD should make its way to my collection soon enough (the original, ok). Next up: Shark Tale. After the success of Shrek 2, it'll be very hard to top it, especially during the same movie season. Despite the heavyweight voice talents and star power - Robert De Niro, Will Smith, Renee Zellwegger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black and Martin Scorsese - Shark Tale comes off second to Finding Nemo in terms of fully exploring the limits of animation in an underwater setting, plus you can't help feeling you've seen its style before (e.g., silly-fied name brands). Dreamworks, though, still has a nice little hit on its hands. Edu-tainment at its best - though Team America is definitely NOT for the kiddies.