An American Carol

Anyone seen this?

It's OK. It has some LOL moments. I saw it at a matinee but, overall, I'd give it a "wait for DVD" rating.

I was wondering when a thread on this movie was going to appear here. Might be more appropriate for the Red Room than Media Central, or perhaps there should just be threads in both places.

I was wondering about that. It could get heated if someone developed thin-skin-itis.

Based on the previews it looks like a waste of time. There's little point in parodying Michael Moore.

Did the trailer have the song "I'm You're Boogie Man" playing while characters are having things fall on them/or running into things? If so, I'll have to pass.

I could see parodying Moore, not that I am one who has particular venom for him. But this movie sounds to me a lot like all those movies that starred Farley's brother: it's a subjectively humorous skit extended to 20 times the greatest length such a skit can maintain being amusing. Even if you find that kind of thing funny, it strikes me that the movie is almost 80 minutes too long.

That said, obviously I'm not going to pay to see this movie, so I can't really comment any further than how the idea of the movie sounds to me. If you think the idea of 83 minutes of "Michael Moore is a fat, klutzy, slobbish American traitor" jokes sounds like it can keep you amused then it's probably a good choice to see the movie.

The only positive thing I will say about this movie is that it opened higher than Bill Maher.

^ Sure, there's a lot of that in the movie but it's pretty formulaic in its message. 1) Big Dumb Jerk shows how wrong he is. 2) Things happen to show how silly his whole worldview is. 3) Big Dumb Jerk has an epiphany and tries to make amends.

Farley shows his dead brother's style of comedy all throughout. I never thought Chris was particularly funny but this isn't too far off that formula, either.

Kelsey Grammar as Patton? I didn't think he could do it but he does a passable job of expressing outrage at the way society's going.

Comments on this post
Pardot agrees: For an honest, spin free opinion, even if my guess is that you're probably giving a better review than I would if I saw it.


I've always been a fan of the Three Stooges, too.

Hold up, so you're saying you've completely forgotten about Jim Belushi?

"Toga! Toga! .... 2000."

I didn't even realize it was out.

Yeah, no one can parody Michael Moore like Michael Moore does!

So does it set up a false dichotomy between a strawman version of the worst of Moore's behavior, and flag worshiping zombie stuff?
That's what the ads make it look like.

Actually, it goes kinda easy on him.

You couldn't pay me to see this movie.

Oh, the movie has a certain MST3Kish potential to be laughed at rather than laughed with, or perhaps simply the potential to be gawked at like a 50 car pile-up IMO. While you couldn't pay me to see it in a theater with true believers, get a few drinks in me and put the movie on basic cable and I could see getting perverse enjoyment out of it.

So I take it isn't as good as Team America World Police.

Not nearly as harsh.