An American Carol (2008)
David Zucker certainly has fallen on hard times
creatively. If this movie is what he
has to offer, than he might as well give it up. This guy and his brother Jerry brought us Airplane and the
Naked Gun series. Now, Zucker, a known
conservative, decided to make an unfunny conservative comedy aiming at those
crazy liberals. It all comes across as
being boring and unfunny. Zucker has
turned into the right leaning version of Oliver Stone. Like Stone, it is rather sad to see someone
throw away their careers for their political message.
The basic plot is a Michael Moore-like (Michael Malone) character
decides he wants to start making fictional films instead of documentaries. Malone gets involved with a group of
Terrorists unknowingly helping them in the process. The second plot involves three ghosts showing Malone the true
meaning of America, in which he hates everything about.
To say the two plots don’t fit that well together is an
understatement. It was like they took a
Naked Gun script and a Fox News movie and mashed them together. The movie doesn’t know if it wants to be
spoof of A Christmas Carol or movie about comedian terrorists.
And, I hate to break this to you, Zucker, but Team
America beat you to it. Stone and
Parker did a better job of it. When
characters were preachy in that movie, it was a joke. When people preach in this movie, it is supposed to be taken
seriously. That’s where An American
Carol fails, because it spends too much time preaching instead of telling and
showing us a funny movie.
And, the jokes, if you want to call them that, are lame
and downright unfunny. It just proves
conservative humor isn’t funny. Do you
remember The ½
Hour News Hour ?
Nope, that’s my point exactly.
It might be time for Zucker to re-watch his older movies and get back to
making those.
The movie is so straightforward with its message that it
is laughable. “Criticizing
America=supporting the Terrorists.” It
is never that simple, and it feels more like the Oliver Stone type of “making
shit up for the message” sort of storytelling.
The movie leans more toward propaganda than parody and that’s sad.
-Kevin P.
Farley: Chris Farley’s
brother is all right in the role, but the script doesn’t give him anything to
do. And, he’s supposed to be the main
character. He mostly gets slapped.
-Gary
Coleman, Leslie Nielsen and Dennis Hopper
all have parts in this movie and they’re all dead. I am not making a connection, just a note.
- Kevin Sorbo:
Wait, Sorbo is in this film?
Where has he been?
-Kelsey Grammer as General George S.
Patton: Okay, he’s not bad
as Patton, but damn do they really play out this character to death. He’s part of the running gag, but it’s not
funny.
- Trace Adkins
as Death?: Is it because people listen
to his music and die?
- Bill O'Reilly: This movie and Iron Man II. If you want to make a your movie even more
unfunny, as Bill O’Reilly.
An American Carol is a poor and giant misstep. It is sad when a puppet movie does a better
job making fun of Michael Moore than an entire movie devoted to lampooning
him. This movie would be one of the
movies that a Naked Gun movie would make fun of somehow. Yet, there are a few amusing moments here
and there, nothing can save this movie from Poop-dom. There is room to make fun of the far left in a movie, but this
isn’t it.
Grade: D
2 comments:
This is one of those movies I refuse to watch.
It's pretty bad and even the director agreed that the movie wasn't that good either. I love that the movie is full of the who's who of conservative actors.
I have no idea why DAG and Coleman are in the movie though.
Post a Comment