Lisa Derrick

Lisa Derrick

Posted: October 8, 2008 01:03 PM

Vast Leftwing Conspiracy as An American Carol Goes To The Dogs?

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Put on your tin foil hat and heat up a bag of microwave popcorn. The cinematic geniuses who brought you An American Carol are convinced that a Vast Leftwing Conspiracy is behind the not-so-hot box office debut of their conservative yuk fest.

Other movies playing last weekend? Along with liberal sex symbols Pitt, Mortensen and Gere, new movies wrassled Carol for B.O. supremacy: The docucomedy Religulous and Beverly Hills Chihuahua, a capitalist family comedy with a far more sinister agenda -- La Raza for small yappy dogs!

If making movies people want to see isn't enough of a celebrity-studded plot to corrupt American small town values -- and based on Palin's family, I'd say those are drug addiction, drug dealing, underage drinking, unprotected sex, and pre-marital pregnancy -- there seems to be a more nefarious scheme afoot!

Mpower pictures and Vivendi are starting to hear complaints about unorthodox treatment of An American Carol by employees of theaters that are carrying the movie. So far, ten theaters have been implicated in irregularities regarding the handling of this movie in cineplexes and other theaters--particularly as regards ticket sales...document everything you can. Put those cell-phone cameras to use whenever possible...


If [the tickets] have the wrong movie title on them, please take a picture of them and send them to the investigative team at An American Carol: complaints -- AT -- AnAmericanCarol -- DOT -- com . Please place the original tickets in a safe place and fill out the info on the AAC complaint site. They may need your ticket as evidence, should this turn out to be part of a larger pattern.

Could this be happening? Armies of pinko theater managers and their teen minions meeting in butter scented back rooms to destroy the rightwing feel-good comedy of the year?

Well, according to an anonymous source who works at an 18-screen multiplex in conservative Southern California city, it'd be pretty darn hard to rig such a vast conspiracy at the box office:

All tickets are barcoded. If a newbie at the box office prints out the wrong ticket, we'll catch it when we direct customers to the screen. Then they'll be sent back for a reprinted ticket. Or if the customer notices and cares they can go back and get a reprinted ticket. If this happens or than once or twice in a shift, the manager is gonna find out and the box office staff is gonna catch sh*t.

"Catch sh*t" is code for being put on bathroom clean up duty. Or getting fired.

So today in the interest of investigative journalism, I will be going to a multiplex, seeing An American Carol, and interrogating, uh... chatting with the staff. And I'll scan my actual ticket stub just to prove it.

Remember: Your $9.50 is gone -- don't let them take our democracy as well.

Follow Lisa Derrick on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lalisa93

Put on your tin foil hat and heat up a bag of microwave popcorn. The cinematic geniuses who brought you An American Carol are convinced that a Vast Leftwing Conspiracy is behind the not-so-hot box o...
Put on your tin foil hat and heat up a bag of microwave popcorn. The cinematic geniuses who brought you An American Carol are convinced that a Vast Leftwing Conspiracy is behind the not-so-hot box o...
 
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- MajorKong I'm a Fan of MajorKong 382 fans permalink
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Well, when the one joke in the movie was "Boy Michael Moore sure is fat!" what did you expect?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:38 PM on 10/09/2008
- BlackJAC I'm a Fan of BlackJAC 58 fans permalink

I predicted its failure with purely nonpolitical evidence: it was a hamfisted vanity project for a niche market that had neither advertising (WAR, INC.'s trailer was available on On-Demand, FIREPROOF had a theater lobby poster) nor a critics' screening the day before it opened. One gop I was explaining this to over at IMDb said that the reason for skipping the critics' screening was due to liberal bias among movie critics.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:12 AM on 10/09/2008

This is just another case of the GOP and its followers mouthing the virtues of competition but actually loathing it. Make a movie that is actually funny and not just a ham handed attempt to make Republican talking points humorous and people will go to see it.

Half the country is conservative anyway and despite a campaign by the wingut blogosphere they haven't been able to get anyone out to pay for this straight to video piece of crap. Either the wingnut blogosphere has been rendered completely impotent by changing economic and social conditions in the U.S. or even conservatives aren't willing to spend money on an artistic debacle. You make the call.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:56 AM on 10/09/2008
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Ah no, half of the country isn definitely NOT conservative. 1/3 at best, perhaps 40% if you throw in blue dog dems and some independents

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:34 PM on 10/09/2008

Exactly. Conservatives are the minority, they just didn't get the memo yet.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:46 PM on 10/09/2008

Exactly. Co.n.servatives are the m.i.nority, they just didn't get the memo yet.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:47 PM on 10/09/2008

Maybe, just maybe this whole fiasco will prompt Zucker to really look hard at his embrace of the political Right. I find it incredible that the man is such a devoted environmentalist (who has invested a lot in greening up his home, work and transport spaces) and yet supports the party de jour of major polluters. Of course the Dems are hardly blameless in that area either, but they're not stacked with climate change deniers.

Whoever came up with this "fraud" theory - be it Zucker, producer Stephen McEvetty or some idiot from Vivendi - has really embarrassed themselves. I'll probably watch this film when its a weekly rental on DVD. Till then I'll dig out my DVDs of Police Squad and Airplane (Flying High to us Aussies) and weep for what used to be.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:31 AM on 10/09/2008
- Mr X I'm a Fan of Mr X permalink

Stop taking comedy advice from John McCAIN.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:25 PM on 10/08/2008
- Ged2012 I'm a Fan of Ged2012 12 fans permalink
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Michael Moore parody does not work, for let's face it--despite the real Michael Moore's unorthodox persona, the real guy is really bright and speaks out his mind and he does so effectively.

The American Carol depicts him like he is an ignorant buffoon; it does not parody Michael Moore at all--it parodies, the way I see it, the kind of mentality many Republicans have. Why? Well, they put a dimwit to rule the highest office of the land, George W. Bush.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:32 PM on 10/08/2008
- Bongborg I'm a Fan of Bongborg 91 fans permalink
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LOL. Those Republicans comedians... if no one goes to see their movie, it has to be because of a conspiracy... and in a way it is... the conspiracy of greed in the money lending business and the stock market has brought about a condition where not even the brain dead party faithful will go spend what money they have on a movie that sucks.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:36 PM on 10/08/2008

Maybe it's because the film blows?
Yes, save your tickets....so you can ask for a refund.

At least Michael Moore had the good grace to give his turkey flick away on the intergoogle and not try to charge money for it....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:38 PM on 10/08/2008

This is indeed a vast conspiracy by people of taste and discernment. It's nice to know that there enough to make the conspiracy vast. I was afraid we might be only half that.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:53 PM on 10/08/2008
- Lisa Derrick - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Lisa Derrick 31 fans permalink

Okay, I just came back from seeing it. Ahhh, the price we pay for Great Justice. Two other people in the theater. Staff told me they usually get more even on Wednesday matinees. "Must be how they're advertising it," shrugged one usher. It was showing in the second largest of 6 screens at Mann's Chinese in Hollywood. Two jokes made me laugh out of and hour and a half, and really the problem is taht movies is not an across the board comedy, so it is stiff, stilted and preachy--not no-holds-b­arred-make­-fun-of -everyone.

Sad.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:32 PM on 10/08/2008
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This does not surprise me.

It doesn't seem to be getting much international mention, even ones of morbid curiosity over the film are few and far between. Evidently the rest of the world has a Liberal Bias, too.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:08 PM on 10/10/2008
- EbonBear I'm a Fan of EbonBear 48 fans permalink
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Sadly, modern conservatives are incapable of accepting responsibility for anything negative that ever happened anywhere ever.

Believe it or not, there was a time once when Republicans (and conservatives generally) were people of principle who believed in things, had principles and owned up to their mistakes.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:20 PM on 10/08/2008
- hartkid I'm a Fan of hartkid 15 fans permalink

dollars and "sense" are not how you judge the value of a thing like this piece of work. A measure of it's greatness cannot be broken down into monetary gain per screening, nor based upon any sort of objective analysis of its worth. This film will receive it's reward in the afterlife; the only place where its true value can fairly be judged. It will roll at the right hand of god and his son, the lord jesus "peter" chris, and peter chris's pet holy spirit, who will also be nearby (unsure if h.s. has hands, but pretty sure it doesn't. Paws?). The trinity will view the film and they will laugh and laugh and laugh. Do you know what it is like to laugh like that?

Raymond Burr: Yes, yes I do.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:09 PM on 10/08/2008

The film sucks. The end.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:59 PM on 10/08/2008
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Republican "humor" IS NOT FUNNY!There is nothing funny about incompeten­ce,greed,c­orruption,­lawlessnes­s,lying and cheating,i­njustice,u­nfairness,­demagoguer­y,fear and hate mongering,war and needless death,suffering and indifference to people who aren't "like" them.
Plus,i think any professional comedian would tell you that in order to what they do,you must first be able to make fun of YOURSELF!Repubs and right-wing­ers,neo-co­ns, whatever they call themselves,don't know the meaning of HUMILITY.
Mr.Zucker,has it ever dawned on you that your movie just might SUCK,maybe thats the problem?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:58 PM on 10/08/2008
- kathy001 I'm a Fan of kathy001 74 fans permalink

Well, it really is a vast leftwing conspiracy, just not the kind that the filmmakers and distributors think it is. You see, all us vicious leftwingers have gotten together and decided to see movies that actually entertain and/or enlighten us, rather than spend 10 bucks on something that will just make us want to chew the screen to shreds.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:57 PM on 10/08/2008
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