An American Carol Movie - 1 Star (Orlando Sentinel Review)

[JPZenger]

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/movies/04caro.html?ref=movies&em

Orlando Sentinel Review of the movie An American Carol by Roger Moore, Film Critic

"165 years after Charles Dickens called for civic reform, compassion, humanity and charity to be watchwords in human life with A Christmas Carol, Hollywood's most rabid conservatives have rallied to make An American Carol, a comedy that equates dissent with "treason," that presents Bill O'Reilly as a model of political restraint ... Pity those crippled kids in the movie can't get good health care or stem cell research because those aren't conservative values, but I digress...It's a polemic, a screed, a combination comic rant and sentimental flag-waver that doesn't work as either.

Too mean? How about shooting ACLU lawyers, "zombies" waiving their writs trying to protect "privacy" in the face of the ongoing terrorist threat? Or labeling Hitler a liberal? Uh, Dave, seriously, check the tailpipe on your Mercedes. Fumes must be getting into the passenger compartment. Hitler was a racist, anti-Semite, uniform-loving, flag-waving fascist, a k a an ultra-ultra-conservative.

Malone, maker of such documentary hits as Die You American Pigs, who so wants to direct a fiction feature (Fascist America), visits a South where no Civil War freed the slaves (from their conservative masters, BTW), a pandering Neville Chamberlain listening to Hitler sing "Kumbaya" and speaks to rallies of college kids and movealong.org protesters who chant "Peace now, we don't care how" and such. Most cringe-worthy, he hears the Yankee-accented Washington lecture him about "freedom of speech, which you abuse."

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Here's an excerpt from the New York Times review:

"Cheap shots and mean spirits abound ... But it’s the laziness of the writing that most offends."

Newsday gave it 1.5 stars.

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The movie was never allowed to be reviewed by any critics before it opened. Reichwing columnist Kathleen Parker was allowed to see it and here is her description of some of the most hilarious parts of the movie:

" Malone, brilliantly played by Farley, has joined forces with a left-wing group, MoveAlong.org, to ban the Fourth of July. He also has been hired by terrorists to make a propaganda film to help recruit a diminishing supply of suicide bombers. And you thought suicide bombers weren’t funny.

The joke begins when two would-be terrorists enter a New York City subway station and are met at a security checkpoint by two NYPD officers. Just as they’re about to be searched, in rushes a squad of ACLU attorneys with a stop-search order. “Thank Allah for the ACLU,” says one of the terrorists — and we’re off! The vignettes keep coming so fast, it’s hard to keep up.

One memorable scene has “Rosie O’Connell” appearing on The O’Reilly Factor to promote her new documentary, The Truth About Radical Christians. The documentary shows two priests who hijack an airplane and storm the cockpit brandishing crucifixes. Next, we see two nuns festooned with explosives boarding a bus as passengers shout: “Oh no! Not the Christians!”

Another standout has Patton’s ghost showing Malone a modern-day plantation full of happy cotton pickers who thank Malone for being such a humane slave owner. Malone staggers at the sight only to learn that this is his plantation and these are his slaves — thanks to anti-war sentiment that prevented the Civil War. In a line that filmmakers are still debating whether to cut, a smiling Gary Coleman finishes polishing a car and tosses his rag to someone: “Hey, Barack!”
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What is amazing is that they convinced so many theaters to show it on the opening weekend. You know what they say: there's nothing funnier than slavery.

Conservative websites have been urging their faithful to come to the theater on opening day. Well, at least that will pay for Zucker's fee.

Zucker most recent film was Scary Movie 4 (he didn't do the early funny ones). He also directed the movie "H.U.D." which was "about the secret undercover crime-fighting work of the Department of Housing and Urban Development." I swear I am not making that up.

[JPZenger]

1. More Reviews Collected Here = 1/2 star from NY Post

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/4/182322/458

[VoodooGuru]

2. How many careers is this going to kill?

And how many people are going to see this just out of exceedingly morbid curiosity?

[Doctor_J]

3. None. Appearing in a fascist propaganda film will guarantee everyone

lifetime gigs on Fox "News" and hate radio.

[yurbud]

4. watched a big chunk of it after another movie I paid to see at the cineplex

a handful of jokes were almost funny, but the political stuff was just plain ignorant.

[Narkos]

5. James Woods? Dennis Hopper?

Jeez, that's very disappointing. I read an article recently about David Mamet making his way to the dark side. I guess these guys think they're self made men who owe the government and the country nothing except a piece of shit right wing propaganda movie. Great.

[snake in the grass]

6. Several years back...

...I read an interview with Hopper and it was clear that he is a total wingnut. I was so disappointed as I have admired a lot of his work during his career, especially his performance as Frank Booth in 'Blue Velvet'. This is to date the greatest portrayal of a psychopath in cinema history, very frightening and very disturbing. Evidently there is a bit of Frank Booth in Hopper.