NYT: "American Carol" A Lazy Satire Of The Left

New York Times:

"An American Carol" wasn't screened in advance for critics, but why would it be? After all, what good is the traitorous opinion of the cheese-eating news-media elite when it comes to a satire of the radical left?

Kevin Farley stars here as Michael Malone, a Michael Moore-like documentary filmmaker whose most recent diatribe, "Die, You American Pigs!," is a box office failure despite his following among campus protesters, Hollywood sissies and other snooty factions of the blame-America-first set. Malone tries to right his reputation by preparing a fiction feature ("Fascist America") while simultaneously planning a rally to ban the Fourth of July.

Directed by David Zucker ("Airplane!") with his trademark indifference to pace and plot, "An American Carol" uses the template of "A Christmas Carol" to string together its gags (far too many of which involve Malone's stuffing his mouth or getting whacked in the face).

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[protagonia]

Why does conservative comedy ALWAYS fail?

Because a joke must be based on truth to be funny.

[metatron1970]

I predict it's going to be a showdown between "American Carol" and "The Love Guru" which film will sweep the Razzie Awards next year.

[pbfishtaco]

"Down Periscope" could be the name of Kelsey Grammer's career.

[SOOKOOYAH GURL]

I saw the movie, not in its entirety. I left just before the end. I saw it for free, thank God - because I would have been demanding my money back.

#1 - It was the dumbest movie I have ever seen.

#2 - It was so CRUEL. The cruelty towards liberals, fat people, the handicap, and worst yet towards MUSLIMS and Arabs. It was crass and again, so cruel.

#3 - It was basically a a bunch of cameos of RIGHT WING nut jobs.
John Voight
Kelsey Grammer
James Woods
Trace Adkins
Dennis Hopper
Kevin Sorbo
Leslie Nielsen
Bill O'Reilly as himself - who woulda tunk it?
It was missing all the other No talent actors like Chuck Norris, Sly Stallone, etc..

#4 - It compared Liberals to HITLER, that should tell you how desperate and dumb these people are.

There was a part with them making gags with sick children. It was sickening.

There was NOTHING funny about this movie. I kept watching because I wanted to truly understand how ignorant these Republican fearmongers truly are.

SAD!!

[Ares1]

According to Yahoo Movies, American Carol garnered $3,810,000 at 1639 theaters gaining ninth place.

Hay David, where was this big audience that you expected to come into the theaters that haven't been in a while? This was a bust in the box office, good luck rebuilding your reputation.

Their is no zeal like a new convert in politics, and inversely, his success in movie making.

I'm sure he a couple of conservative actors careers into the sunset at least on the main circuit of acting.

[Changeling]

What reputataion?

He hasn't put anything funny to film in 25 years.

[metatron1970]

A Michael Moore parody at this late date? Zucker might have been able to get away with it around '04-'05 (pre-Katrina, which seemed to be the turning-point for popular perception of the GOP), but even the so-called "liberal left" don't exactly continue to embrace him as a spokesperson in the same manner that Bill O'Reilly continues to be worshipped on the right. I'm not even sure he's relevant anymore. How sad about Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, and the hyperintelligent James Woods. I guess we have to start telling our kids that, believe it or not, there was once a time when these actors were considered cool. And I'm not sure I'll ever be able to enjoy Airplane! in quite the same way after this. If for no other reason than financial consideration, didn't anyone associated with the creation of this film realize which way the wind is blowing?

[pbfishtaco]

The wind is in their face, but the money must've been worth walking into.

[BlackJAC]

Given how many name actors in it, he had to have gotten them to do it for scale like with SOUTHLAND TALES.

[Changeling]

An American Carol:

$3.8 mil for 9th place this weekend on 1638 screens.

Religulous took 3.5 million on 502.

Eat that Grammer, Zucker, Voight, et al. Not nearly so clever, entertaining or 'righteous' as you THINK you are.

Take your straight to DVD swill and scurry away now.

[Fletch17C]

Thanks for the box office returns. I hadn't heard how Maher's film had done. I'm curious to see it when I get a chance.

As for "American Carol," it has nothing going for it.

First off, how many knock-offs of a "Christmas Carol" have there been? Thousands, and most have been terrible. Even Dickens' book is hardly one of his best. I think the only movie that didn't completely suck was Bill Murray's "Scrooged." The mere concept is old, tired, and completely unoriginal, which confirms the reviewer's point that this Zucker's movie is just plain lazy.

Second, Kelsey Grammer as Patton? That's about as believable as Chris Kattan as Mike Tyson. Or maybe Dakota Fanning as Hamlet. Unless you're making fun of Patton by portraying him as a cry baby prone to hissy fits (something I don't think the wingnuts intended), Grammer is hardly the man for the job.

Grammer and Hopper, as well as Robt. Downey (who is not in this movie), are well-known junkies. Junkies tend to be paranoid. That explains why these fools are Chicken Little Republicans.

[Changeling]

Yw

I drove 140 miles to see Religulous in the only theatre in my state carrying it.

I found it a worthwhile trip.

[whit4brains]

What happened to Dennis Miller? I use to really enjoy his show on HBO and his specials.

[Changeling]

He stopped being funny.

[usakaput]

WHEN IF EVER WAS DENNIS MILLER FUNNY?

[Nikki1976]

This movie is by and for those few insecure, bitter, and mean-spirited male baby boomers who are utterly consumed with (1) jealousy toward liberal notions of sexuality and (2) their own vulnerability and fear of those sneaky, radical islamic terrorists.

So, they make themselves feel macho and safe again by making an obvious "satire" where patriotism equals an unquestioning belief that "US might equals right" and that the natural order of the world is that white American men are superior, dominating and best left unchallenged (keep dreaming dudes).

Now, if these "tough guys" would only stop whining like teenage girls about how the mainstream media oppresses them so much and won't let them speak!!! "American Carol" is being distributed by Vivendi/Universal - as in the owner of Universal Studios and the owner of those vast left wing apparatchniks, NBC and MSNBC! Gasp!

[chuckleatlibs]

What exactly are 'liberal notions of sexuality'? Having an affair when your overweight wife is dying from breast cancer? Or maybe having 'cigar-sex' in the oval office? Please clue me in, because the only sexual innuendos in the movie were when the terrorists were in the bathroom stall making suggestive noises and comments, and the Marines muttered, "Navy", and the sailors muttered, "Marines". Nobody broke the door down to stop them but instead just let them be, so what is your point?

[rowzeer]

What a hateful diatribe.....Maybe it means leaving your disabled wife for a rich trophy wife...or sending salacious emails to Congressional pages.....or it could be soliciting gay sex in a airport bathroom.....or from a DC prostitute.....or having an affair with your husband's business partner whose divorce records are now sealed thanks to the GOP.

[rowzeer]

What a hateful diatribe.....Maybe it means leaving your disabled wife for a rich trophy wife...or sending salacious emails to Congressional pages.....or it could be soliciting g*y s*x in a airport bathroom.....or from a DC lady of the evening.....or having an affair with your husband's business partner whose divorce records are now sealed thanks to the GOP.

[walk0nwalls]

I wouldn't say that the right can't EVER be funny but like, it's hard to make people laugh when you're essentially kicking people when they're down.

Derisive, condescending humor, well... kicking puppies isnt' funny.

[BlueandGreen]

It's also hard to make people laugh when your butt cheeks are spackled shut. These people are so anal!

[pbfishtaco]

When people who can't take a joke try to be funny, it just turns out bitter and stiff. Both sides have plenty to joke about, but man, these guy's head just isn't in a funny place. It's just a revenge movie, and I don't mean "Revenge of the Nerds"--Citizen Kane in comparison.

[Myshkin57]

I wouldn't say that either, but I can't say that I've ever seen a funny bit of right-wing comedy. Fox tried that horrible Half Hour News Hour show and it was painful. Now, they have Red Eye, which might be worse. I think there are plenty of things about us liberals to make fun of, but the right has yet to figure out how to make a joke about it.

[BrianMac]

I sometimes laugh at Bill O'Reilly. He's a cartoon pretending to be a (gulp) journalist or commentator or something adult-like.

[clevelandchick]

Typical Republican humor: black jokes, fat jokes and physical abuse is their idea of 'funny'. FYI Zucker, slapstick is only funny when it's self deprecating and humanizing....not when it involves ganging up on one person; calling them fat and beating them over and over for the hell of it. Not funny. Sociopathic? Yes. Funny? No.

[uclafan]

Commissioned by Republicans. Come on. Also, Beverly Hills Chihuaua is a much better movie...

"NO MAS"

[Aramingo]

Not having seen the movie, but reading one point in the review got me thinking. When they spoke of what might have happened had FDR heeded the isolationists, they didn't bother to pointout that those isolationists were the conservatives of their day.

[Changeling]

It's part of the GOP idolization and selective memory of history. You know, that same idolization of history that let's them think that Ozzie and Harriet America EVER existed outside of television?

It would've changed nothing. We still would've entered in 1941 because the attack on Pearl still would've happened because the Japanese still would've thought that breaking our Navy's back was a necessity.

And rightly so because no sane person in the Japanese government at the time would think the US would be SO isolationist that we'd just let them gobble up the Pacific unchecked and let them right up to our back door.

[totalliberal]

Why not go and tell "this" liberal that he is a cheese-eating, traitorous progressive Mr. Zucker.... No? Didn't think so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50

[SethBLiNK]

I love that Trumka guy. Been reading about him since I first saw that video. Somebody should make a movie of his life.

[sean6886]

Did all the Hollywood right-wing, neo-con kool-aid drinkers get together for this movie?

How sad!

I don't recall any liberals, progressives, or democrats trying to ban the Fourth of July. Once again, trying to box us into their un-patriotic label.

They only should've shown it to their underground meetings.

Losers.