Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
disliked it.
The movie An American Carol -- focused on the 4th of July, structured after a classic Christmas story, and released in October -- feels divorced from both time and place, a witless holdover from when broad Airplane!-style spoofs actually worked, and the world hadn't yet been afflicted with
Date Movie and
Meet the Spartans. Another way it sticks out: It's ridiculously conservative. In terms of participants, An American Carol could serve as a veritable roll call for Hollywood Republicans, who didn't anticipate their politics slipping to the fringe as Barack Obama was resoundingly elected into office. The film bashes liberals with the zest and arrogance of a majority party, humiliating and debasing its
Michael Moore clone (
Kevin Farley) in every imaginable way. In so doing, it never considers the possibility of dissent; it expects all viewers to salivate at the opportunity to attack zombie ACLU lawyers with shotguns (a "treat" left to former liberal
Dennis Hopper), or get in line behind conservative windbag
Bill O'Reilly for the chance to slap "Michael Malone" in the face. With a sprinkling of nuance and/or intelligence, Malone's crusade to abolish Independence Day would be a funny idea -- and not far removed from something
Michael Moore might actually do. Too bad every attempt to execute that idea is moronic, from the film's poor parallels to Dickens (
Kelsey Grammer's General Patton serves as two of the three ghosts), to its offensive characterization of Muslims, to its jingoistic love for men in uniform, to its reliance on octogenarian
Leslie Nielsen for would-be guffaws. Most narrow-minded is how the film repeatedly registers its contempt for documentaries, as though denying the very usefulness of exposing corruption. Writer-director
David Zucker's politics are his own business. But if they play a part in eradicating his comedic instincts, then it becomes a public concern. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide