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An American Carol

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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
CinematographyBrian Baugh
Edited byVashi Nedomansky
Music byJames L. Venable
Distributed byVivendi Entertainment
Release date
October 3, 2008
Running time
83 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20,000,000[2]
Box office$7,003,000

An American Carol is a 2008 American comedy film, directed by David Zucker and starring Kevin Farley. Presented from a conservative perspective, the film is a parody of liberal filmmaker Michael Moore that "lampoons contemporary American culture, particularly Hollywood."[3] 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.[4] 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 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. On the evening of July 3, President John F. Kennedy steps out of a television set, slaps Michael silly, 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 also shows the filmmaker how British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeased Adolf Hitler (Benton Jennings).

However, Michael refuses to even reconsider his leftist views and a despondent Patton apologizes for his failure before the altar of a Manhattan church. To Malone's shock, he learns that the General was addressing 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 on 9/11.

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 burkhas and the Hollywood Hills are emblazoned with verses from the Koran. 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 enormous rear end. 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.

As the film concludes, Malone is a changed man who loves his country and realizes how precious freedom is. 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.

Michael Moore response

The character Michael Malone is a parody of the American documentary filmmaker, author, and political commentator Michael Moore.[5] 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

Even before the scheduled release of the movie, An American Carol had been strongly advertised by notable Republicans and conservative personalities such as Rush Limbaugh,[6] 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". [7] 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.[8] Though the Los Angeles Times pointed out that An American Carol received bad reviews from conservative newspapers such as the New York Post and the Washington Times.[8][9][10]

The film currently has a rating of 13 percent at Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 "T-Meter" critics (Average Rating: 3.0/10) with a zero percent freshness rating from the ten reviews by RT's "Top Critics". There is a score of 20 out of 100 at Metacritic based on 12 reviews.[11][12] Ain't it Cool News called the film an "ingenious comedy that we remember from Airplane!" as well as "funny and inventive." [1] Kathleen Parker of Washington Post Writers Group called the film "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." [2] Finally, Steven Rea from 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."[13]

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. It just beat a film sometimes compared to it during its release, Religulous,[14][15][16][17] which finished tenth with $3.5 million, but was only shown on 502 screens, for an average of $6,972 per screen.[18] However, the Religulous receipts were collected over a five-day period (the first two days in New York City and Los Angeles only), while those for An American Carol were collected over a three-day period.[19][20] [21]

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. Religulous only had a 35.5 percent drop in box office receipts and dropped to #13, grossing $2,200,000 at 568 theaters or $3,873 per screen.[22]

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.[23] In its fourth weekend, it dropped to #41 at 109 theaters grossing $60,000 or $550 per screen.[24]

To date, An American Carol has grossed $7 million after having a production budget of $20 million. [25]

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.[26][27] Zucker laments that the audience for this type of film is the type that waits for it to be available on DVD.[28]

DVD and Blu-ray release

This film was released on DVD and Blu-ray discs on December 30, 2008 by Vivendi Entertainment.[29]

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.[30]
  • An extended scene of the "1968" production number, in which Malone and Patton put on their own act.[31]
  • 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, while Patton tells JFK to take care of his brother, to which JFK does, and Ted invites him to take a ride in his car, which is overfilling with alcohol.
  • 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.

Cast

References

  1. ^ An American Carol Movie Overview
  2. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/AMCRL.php
  3. ^ An American Carol - ComingSoon.net Film Database
  4. ^ An American Carol (2008)
  5. ^ http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-01/film/airplane-director-david-zucker-talks-about-the-left-and-his-new-movie-an-american-carol/
  6. ^ http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=187903
  7. ^ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-carol_1003gl.ART.State.Edition1.2699bd1.html
  8. ^ a b Goldstein, Patrick (2008-10-06). "Gasp! Right-wing media bashes 'American Carol'!". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  9. ^ Lumenick, Lou (2008-10-04). "Laughless Moore Jab Falls Flat". New York Post. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  10. ^ http://whatwouldtotowatch.com/2008/10/03/an-american-carol-a-brave-new-world/
  11. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/americancarol
  12. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_american_carol/
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-carol_1003gl.ART.State.Edition1.2699bd1.html
  15. ^ http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/16170
  16. ^ http://www.news10.net/life/entertainment/story.aspx?storyid=48910&catid=54
  17. ^ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/10/partisanship-at-the-theaters/
  18. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2008&wknd=40&p=.htm
  19. ^ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jb68x_tOGx8QHjI0Cr6C-Vy79OGgD93KG9980
  20. ^ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117993541.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
  21. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSTRE49C89N20081014
  22. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2008&wknd=41&p=.htm
  23. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2008&wknd=42&p=.htm
  24. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2008&wknd=43&p=.htm
  25. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=americancarol.htm
  26. ^ http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/10/20/comedy_has_become_a_liberal_genre/?page=2
  27. ^ http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/10/10/american-carol-filmmakers-are-not-saying-there-conspiracy
  28. ^ http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/10/20/comedy_has_become_a_liberal_genre/?page=2
  29. ^ http://www.vivendient.com/home.htm
  30. ^ [An American Carol DVD Deleted Scenes]
  31. ^ [An American Carol DVD Blu-Ray Commentary]

External links

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