Team America: World Police

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the naughty boys behind TV’s South Park, are at it again with an action-adventure puppet show about a U.S. rapid-response team in the war on terror. The movie’s sophomoric humor masks what is, just under the surface, a carefully calculated piece of mass-market commerce. And despite its blithe profanity, studious “bad taste” and eagerness to be an equal-opportunity offender, it reaches for the widest possible audience and doesn’t miss a beat: The first half strokes the America haters, and the second plays to those who think the Hollywood left (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Danny Glover, etc.) are working with the forces of evil to destroy America. For those in between, there are those endearingly cheesy puppets (by Norman Tempia and brothers Charles, Stephen and Edward Chiodo).