lemon1 Reviews

Team America: World Police (2004)

Trey and Matt wussing out?

[1/10 · 16 October 2004]

I am a HUGE South Park fan, never once have they offended me, what anyone sees as offensive I see as hilarious, that's why I've seen every episode of South Park at LEAST twice. But somehow Team America didn't work for me, I know these guys stand a bit more to the right than your usual Hollywood folk and that's what I've always found them so refreshing. Although I lean more towards the left, I've always appreciated them for their insight. My problem with this movie isn't that it's too controversial or offensive, it's that it isn't enough of EITHER!. All of the elements seem to be in place, Trey directing, Thunderbirds style puppets, Jerry Bruckheimer parody, roasting of Hollywood stars, everything except the HUMOR!. What's up guys, where's your nerve? you had all the targets up, and yet you left most of them standing!

Any episode of South Park is way funnier than this, they should've gone in with a more provocative script, I guess they were holding back because of the sensitive issue, but that goes exactly against the theme of the movie itself, what a shame. Extremely weak compared to the South Park movie, this goes into the hall of shame next to Baseketball, I'm afraid.

Una de zombis (2003)

Terrible at best!

[29 September 2004]

This movie was a complete letdown, since the mid 90's Spanish cinema, has had a great impact on the world, whether it's Almodovar's thought provoking award winning films to cult movies by directors like Alex de la Iglesia (Day of the Beast, Accion Mutante, La Comunidad), this movie attempts to be the latter, problem is, movies get cult status because they're fun, interesting, or have some type of alternative edge, in other words you don't set your goals to create a cult movie, it becomes one on its own merit, this obviously was a poor attempt at formulating one, and boy does it fail. A way to not spoil it and sum it up is to simply call the script juvenile, this is the kind of movie you and your friends would write in grade school, but it does not actually deserve to be put on celluloid. First of all if you're looking for a Romero type zombie romp, then forget about it right now, what they call zombies here, can talk, walk, run, think, and pretty much do everything that normal people do, except they are all under the spell of a mad scientist (if this sounds like a terrible horror comic you see in bargain bins, you're getting close). But that's not all, on top of it, this actually tries to pass itself off as an honest portrayal of the film-making process and a coming of age story, complete with afternoon special ending, OH THE HORROR!!!

So to sum it up:

1. Not funny 2. Very corny 3. Not scary or gory 3. Forced "edgy" dialogue 4. Mediocre uninspired acting

So yeah, as posted before the only thing worth watching is Santiago Segura, who should stop doing favors in the future.

Watch anything by Alex de La Iglesia, anything ELSE with Santiago Segura or even Airbag even though it makes little sense.