I really wanted to love “An American Carol,” David Zucker’s barrage aimed at the Hollywood left.
There are far too few movies that show any respect for American audiences, much less America. I was looking forward to a movie with a patriotic heart for a change.
But only a few scenes into the movie, I began to feel like I was sitting through an after-school special or a lecture in an American government class (back before American government was taught by socialists).
To be sure, there are laughs in the movie. The send-up of Rosie O’Donnell and the left’s attempts to paint Christians as being the equivalent of Muslim terrorists was hilarious, especially the “re-creation” of a nun blowing up an HO-scale bus. Also, the scene with Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo singing “Kumbaya” while Neville Chamberlain polishes their shoes was priceless.
Even some of the slapstick was funny. I’m not usually a pie-in-the-face fan, but the diner scene where leftist filmmaker Michael Malone was discussing making a movie with two jihadis, one of whom had an overly loose tongue and kept getting shoved into various entrees for his honesty, was giggle-worthy.
The actors were all good, especially Kelsey Grammer as Gen. Patton. And there were several bits that were real rib ticklers, like the Leni Riefenstahl documentary award scene, and the attack of the ACLU zombies.
But there wasn’t enough of that acerbic humor to sustain the movie. Good satire needs bite, the sort that often comes from a writer or director who’s genuinely ticked off about something. But “An American Carol” felt more like a tongue-in-cheek essay that was just thrown out there because Zucker had nothing better to do.
It’s the same reason I don’t like his other movies. They’re funny, but ultimately you get the sense that Zucker is thinking too much about whether he can make enough money to pay the bills on his mansion without genuinely ticking off anyone important.
If I had to award a grade, I would give “American Carol” about two stars out of four.
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