An American Carol (2008)

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