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{{POV|date=February 2011}}

{{Infobox film
{{Infobox film
| name = An American Carol
| name = An American Carol

Revision as of 20:02, 27 February 2011

An American Carol
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Zucker
Written byDavid Zucker
Myrna Sokoloff
Produced byDavid Zucker
Stephen McEveety
John Shepherd
Todd Matthew Burns
StarringKevin Farley
Kelsey Grammer
Jon Voight
Dennis Hopper
Leslie Nielsen
Jillian Murray
Sammy Sheik
CinematographyBrian Baugh
Edited byVashi Nedomansky
Music byJames L. Venable
Distributed byVivendi Entertainment
Release date
  • October 3, 2008 (2008-10-03)
Running time
83 minutes[1]
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$7,013,191

An American Carol is a 2008 American comedy film directed by David Zucker and starring Kevin Farley. In some foreign countries the film is known as Big Fat Important Movie.[3][4] Presented from a conservative-leaning perspective but more about the concept of loving America instead of hating it, the film is a parody of liberal filmmaker Michael Moore that "lampoons contemporary American culture, particularly Hollywood."[5] It uses the framework of A Christmas Carol but moves the setting of the story from Christmas to Independence Day. The screenplay is written by Myrna Sokoloff and Zucker. The supporting cast includes Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, Trace Adkins, Gary Coleman, Jillian Murray and Leslie Nielsen.[6] The film was released on October 3, 2008.

Plot

Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley), a parody of Michael Moore, is campaigning to end the celebration of the Fourth of July. Malone holds pronounced anti-American views and truculently argues that America's past and present are both offensive, and therefore should not be celebrated. Josh Malone, Michael's nephew, is an officer in the United States Navy and is about to deploy to the Persian Gulf. His uncle, however, regards him with disgust. At an awards ceremony hosted by Paris Hilton, Malone receives the Leni Riefenstahl Award for his documentary Die, You American Pigs.

The film starts off with Michael at a special premier in Cuba for his new documentary about health care in the United States and how it is far inferior to the health care system in communist Cuba, which he declares to be an "island paradise" As his film closes, he informs those waiting in the long line to a Cuban medical clinic that he is "off to America," causing many, if not all, to flock to his tiny boat, causing an annoyed Michael to shoo and beat them with a paddle. Michael narrates saying that the masses were thanking him (not trying to board his boat).

On the evening of July 3, Malone is watching a speech from President John F. Kennedy. However, when Malone accidentally takes part of his speech to mean avoiding war at all costs, the disgruntled long-dead President steps out of a television set, corrects Malone, and tells him that he will be visited by three spirits.

The next morning, Malone is then visited by General George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer), who tries to make him rethink his view of America. Arguing that sometimes war is necessary for the greater cause, Patton shows him an alternate world where slavery still exists because Abraham Lincoln chose not to fight the Civil War. He then shows the filmmaker how British Prime Minister Chamberlain (Oliver Muirhead) appeased Adolf Hitler (Benton Jennings), even allowing Malone to attempt to communicate with Hitler, who blatantly ignores him. After this, Patton shows a college classroom, setting it to a musical tune and having the professors sing about how their views on peace and life have not changed since when they were hippies in 1968, and will give good grades to students who agree with their views. The students openly admit to Patton that their parents merely are 'glad that they were out of the house". Calling it 'indoctrination' rather than 'education', Patton leaves after making a comment to some parents who walked in the room that this was "what you (the parents) spent your life savings on".

However, Michael refuses to even reconsider his extremely leftist views and a despondent Patton apologizes for his failure before the altar of a Manhattan church to his 'father'. To Malone's shock, he learns that the General was addressing not God, but the ghost of George Washington (Jon Voight), who reveals that this is the very church where he prayed for his country every day of his Presidency. When Michael comments about the large amount of dust there, Washington opens a door and reveals that it comes from the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Shaken but still unmoved, Malone is visited by the angel of death (Trace Adkins), who takes him to a future Los Angeles which has been taken over by radical Islamists. Victoria's Secret has switched to selling burqas and the Hollywood Sign now reads Allahu akbar.[7] Later, he is taken to the ruins of his hometown in Michigan, which has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb planted by Al Qaeda. In a makeshift morgue, Malone learns that he will be killed in this attack, leaving nothing behind but his trademark hat and "big ass". Malone pleads for his life with the Angel, promising to change.

Later, Malone arrives at an anti-Fourth of July protest rally and publicly renounces his former views. The outraged protesters call him a traitor and charge the podium intending to murder him. He is rescued, however, by American servicemen and pulled inside of a country music concert where he is formally welcomed to "the real America". After barely preventing a terrorist bombing there, he runs to the docks in time to see his nephew Josh off to the Persian Gulf. He tells Josh how very proud he is of him and promises to look in on his wife and family during his deployment. Even then Malone can't help but to cause the disabled children on the dock to fall overboard.

As the film concludes, Malone is a changed man who loves his country and realizes how precious freedom is while sticking to his liberal views. Taking Patton's advice to advocate American values in film, he begins filming a JFK biopic, which he intends to be more accurate than Oliver Stone's movie.

Cast

Michael Moore response

The character Michael Malone is a parody of the American documentary filmmaker, author, and political commentator Michael Moore.[8] On September 5, 2008, Moore was a guest on Larry King Live and was shown a clip from the film where Malone (while lying down on his bed, drinking a Big Gulp and watching archival footage of JFK's inaugural address) is startled by Kennedy, who materializes out of Malone's television screen, and confronts him on his misguided views of American history. Moore said that he was vaguely familiar with the film, and then jokingly said he thought it was Viggo Mortensen that would be portraying him. When King asked him his opinion, Moore shrugged and said, "I hope it's funny."

Promotion by conservative media personalities

An American Carol was strongly advertised by notable Republicans and conservative personalities such as Rush Limbaugh,[9] Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Mark Levin. On October 3, 2008, actors Kevin Farley and Kelsey Grammer appeared on the Fox News program The O'Reilly Factor to promote their film, in which show host Bill O'Reilly made a guest appearance. An American Carol has also been described by newspapers such as the Dallas Morning News as being "for the right wing".[10] The American Conservative reported, "The movie has been promoted by bloggers on National Review Online. The Leadership Institute, an activist group that maintains contact with College Republicans nationwide, urged its charges to see the movie on opening weekend, even handing out tickets to its interns."

Reception

Critical

The film was not screened for critics, as director David Zucker said the studio did not believe it would get a fair hearing due to its conservative political viewpoint.[11]

Based on 40 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, An American Carol currently has a 12% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 3/10.[12] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs,[13] the film holds an overall approval rating of 0%.[14] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 20, based on 12 reviews.[15] An openly Conservative contributor to Ain't it Cool News said the film featured "ingenious comedy that we remember from Airplane!" as well as "funny and inventive."[16] Kathleen Parker of Washington Post Writers Group called the film "'An American Carol' may not be The Best Movie You Ever Saw, but it’s something. It’s radical in its assault on the left wing; it’s brave given the risk of peer ridicule and the potential for career suicide. And it’s funny — if you like that sort of thing. Generally, I don’t."[17] Finally, Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the movie one star out of five, called it "jaw-droppingly awful," and "about as not-funny as a comedy can get."[18] Lou Lumenick of the New York Post wrote, "Even if it weren't three years too late to parody Moore (ineptly played by Kevin Farley), Moore's ridiculous tribute to Cuban health care in Sicko is far funnier than anything in this desperately laughless farce from David Zucker."[19]

Commercial

An American Carol which opened on 1,639 screens nationwide, finished ninth at the box office that week, with a gross of $3.8 million, or a per-screen average of $2,325.

For its second weekend, An American Carol had a 58.8 percent drop in box office receipts and dropped to #15, grossing $1,505,000 at 1,621 theaters or $928 per screen.[20]

The film faded in the box office in its third weekend dropping 73.8 percent and finishing #21 at 599 theaters grossing $365,000 or $609 per screen.[21] In its fourth weekend, it dropped to #41 at 109 theaters grossing $60,000 or $550 per screen.[22]

As of October 2009, An American Carol has grossed $7 million after having a production budget of $20 million.[23]

Reaction to box office results

Zucker, in an interview with National Review Online, had suggested a sequel as his next possible project, but now says he is done making conservative comedies.[24][25] Zucker laments that the audience for this type of film is the type that waits for it to be available on DVD.[24]

Home media

This film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 30, 2008 by Vivendi Entertainment.[26]

It includes a full length audio commentary by David Zucker and Kevin Farley along with several scenes and footage cut from the theatrical release. Some of these included:

  • An extended scene of Malone watching Entertainment Tonight in which it is mentioned that he made a 2004 documentary called "Centigrade 9/11" (a parody of Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11) which actually rallied up enough supporters to help George W. Bush win a second term as president, even though Malone insists it was supposed to help prevent a landslide victory for Bush.
  • A deleted section of a scene in which Patton reveals that Malone is the biggest slave owner in Alabama, where after Gary Coleman tells Malone not to worry about the bacon stains in his car, Coleman throws his rag to the side in multiple takes, telling various famous African-Americans, such as Shaquille O'Neal or Barack Obama, to take over. This scene is billed as "Outtakes" on the DVD menu suggesting Coleman improvised his own lines.[27]
  • An extended scene of the "1968" production number, in which Malone and Patton put on their own act.[28]
  • Trace Adkins approaching Malone in the graveyard dressed as the Grim Reaper.
  • A deleted section of the Columbia University rally where Malone and Jimmy Carter speak at, in which Ted Kennedy attends, and while in a bathroom, Malone imagines himself speaking in favor of liberalism; Patton tells JFK to take care of his brother, which JFK does, and Ted invites him to take a ride in his car, an older model Oldsmobile 88 which is overflowing with water and dead fish (a reference to Ted's Chappaquiddick incident).
  • Malone accidentally tears and burns an American flag during the concert scene.
  • An extended version of a section during the finale.
  • A post credits scene which appeared in the theatrical release but was deleted for the home media release of the film.

See also

References

  1. ^ An American Carol Movie Overview
  2. ^ The Numbers
  3. ^ ScreenDaily.com
  4. ^ DVD Times
  5. ^ An American Carol - ComingSoon.net Film Database
  6. ^ An American Carol (2008)
  7. ^ The phrase had earlier been used by Aziz in an earlier Taliban scene.
  8. ^ VillageVoice
  9. ^ Breitbart TV
  10. ^ Dallas News
  11. ^ Goldstein, Patrick (2008-10-06). "Gasp! Right-wing media bashes 'American Carol'!". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  12. ^ "An American Carol Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  13. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes FAQ: What is Cream of the Crop". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
  14. ^ "An American Carol: Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  15. ^ "An American Carol (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  16. ^ "Dr. Hfuhruhurr Returns With An Early Review Of AN AMERICAN CAROL! - Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news". Aintitcool.com. 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  17. ^ http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:ouVN6GirnqcJ:www.sj-r.com/opinions/x55307146/Kathleen-Parker-Ghosts-of-America-s-past-make-their-points-in-Carol+%22kathleen+parker%22+washington+post+american+carol&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1
  18. ^ Rea, Steven (2008-10-04). "Conservative 'Carol' is flat and unfunny". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2009-01-15. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) [dead link]
  19. ^ "An American Carol Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  20. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 10-12, 2008". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  21. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 17-19, 2008". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  22. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 24-26, 2008". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  23. ^ "An American Carol (2008)". Box Office Mojo. 2008-11-12. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  24. ^ a b "Comedy has become a liberal genre - The Boston Globe". Boston.com. 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  25. ^ http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/10/10/american-carol-filmmakers-are-not-saying-there-conspiracy
  26. ^ "Home". Vivendient.com. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  27. ^ An American Carol DVD Deleted Scenes
  28. ^ An American Carol DVD Blu-ray Disc Commentary
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