| An American Carol | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | David Zucker |
| Written by | David Zucker Myrna Sokoloff Lewis Friedman |
| Produced by | David Zucker Stephen McEveety John Shepherd Todd Matthew Burns Diane Hendricks |
| Starring | Kevin Farley Kelsey Grammer Leslie Nielsen Trace Adkins Robert Davi Geoffrey Arend Serdar Kalsin Jon Voight |
| Cinematography | Brian Baugh |
| Edited by | Vashi Nedomansky |
| Music by | James L. Venable |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Vivendi Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 83 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[2] |
| Box office | $7 million |
An American Carol (released asBig Fat Important Movie[3][4] in other territories) is a 2008 Americansatiricalcomedy film directed byDavid Zucker and written by Zucker, Myrna Sokoloff andLewis Friedman. Using the framework ofCharles Dickens' 1843 novellaA Christmas Carol, the film follows liberal filmmaker Michael Malone (a parody ofMichael Moore) as he is visited by three spirits to teach him the importance ofIndependence Day. The film satirizesliberalism in the United States, with focus on Moore's documentaries. It starsKevin Farley as Malone, alongside anensemble supporting cast that includesKelsey Grammer,Leslie Nielsen,Trace Adkins,Robert Davi, andJon Voight.
Theatrically released on October 3, 2008, byVivendi Entertainment,An American Carol received negative reviews from most critics, who found the film's humor and satire to be ineffective. It also was a failure at the box office grossing only $7 million against a $20 million budget. The film marked the final onscreen appearance byDennis Hopper before his death in 2010.
Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone campaigns to end the celebration of theFourth of July holiday. Malone holds pronounced anti-American views and truculently argues that America's past and present are both offensive and therefore should not be celebrated. He has finished another film entitledDie, You American Pigs! and just won theLeni Riefenstahl Award at the MooveAlong.org awards. They rush Malone off the stage before he can give his entire speech and his trophy is remarkably small, insignificant—and turns out to be a keychain. Then they start televising the program and give out the Award for "Best Film Director" overall. Malone is already working on another anti-American film calledFascist America.
On the evening of July 3, Malone watches a speech from PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and mistakenly interprets the speech to mean avoiding war at any cost. President Kennedy rises out of the television set, corrects Malone regarding the intent of the speech, and informs him that he will be visited by three spirits.
The following morning, Malone is visited by GeneralGeorge S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer), who shows him an alternate United States whereslavery still exists becauseAbraham Lincoln (founder of theRepublican Party) chose not to fight theCivil War. Malone later seesGeorge Washington (Jon Voight) who gives a passionate speech about God's gift of freedom and the price many people pay for others to have it. Malone is visited by the angel of death (Trace Adkins), who takes him to a futureLos Angeles completely taken over by radicalIslamists. He is then taken to the ruins of his hometown inMichigan, which has been destroyed by anuclear bomb planted byAl Qaeda. In a mortuary, Malone learns that he will be killed in this attack, leaving nothing behind but his trademark hat and "big ass." Facing his death, Malone pleads for his life with the Angel, promising to change. But Aziz, a Middle Easterner Malone had interviewed, is actually a terrorist who will bomb a 4 July rally along with his underlings Ahmed and Fayed. When Fayed and Ahmed learn they are going to be detonated along with the planned bomb, they figure their slim chance of survival is by seeking out Malone.
Later, Malone arrives at an anti-Fourth of July protest rally and publicly renounces his former views. This triggers an outraged mob from which he is rescued by American servicemen. Meeting up with Malone, Ahmed and Fayed defuse their own bomb, thus sparing the people at the anti-Independence Day rally and resulting in the capture of the terrorist Aziz. Safe inside acountry music concert, the three are formally welcomed to "the real America" by Trace Adkins (this time as himself). A reformed Malone then goes to a Navy base to see his nephew Josh off to thePersian Gulf. He tells Josh how very proud he is of him and promises to look in on his wife and family during his deployment. In the final scene, Malone now decides to make films he feels people would appreciate, as well as Fayed and Ahmed as part of the crew, who have been pardoned for foiling the bombing. Malone is last seen working on a biographical film about President Kennedy.
Paris Hilton,Simon Rex,Zachary Levi,John O'Hurley andMary Hart make cameo appearances.
In February 2008,Kelsey Grammer was initially announced as the star playing a contemporary take on Scrooge.[5] In July 2008, the film was picked up for distribution by Vivendi.[6]
An American Carol was strongly promoted by prominentRepublicans andconservative personalities such asRush Limbaugh,[7]Sean Hannity,Glenn Beck andMark Levin. On October 3, 2008, actors Kevin Farley and Kelsey Grammer appeared on theFox News programThe O'Reilly Factor to promote the film, particularly in light of the guest appearance of show hostBill O'Reilly in the film.An American Carol has also been described by newspapers such as theDallas Morning News as being "for theright wing".[8]TheAmerican Conservative reported, "The movie has been promoted by bloggers onNational Review Online. The Leadership Institute, an activist group that maintains contact withCollege Republicans nationwide, urged its charges to see the movie on opening weekend, even handing out tickets to its interns."[9]
Based on 49 reviews collected byRotten Tomatoes,An American Carol has an 12% approval rating from critics, with anaverage score of 3.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "An American Carol suffers not so much from its perceived political bias, but from the fact that it simply is not very funny."[10] OnMetacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 20, based on 12 reviews.[11] The film had no advance screenings for critics. DirectorDavid Zucker said the studio did not believe the film would get a fair hearing due to its conservative political viewpoint, and had been "advised that most reviewers don't agree with the politics".[12]
Dr. Hfuhruhurr, a conservative film critic forAin't it Cool News, said the film featured "ingenious comedy that we remember fromAirplane!" and was "funny and inventive."[13]Kathleen Parker ofThe Washington Post Writers Group described the film as "[not] 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."[14] Michael Brendan Doherty ofThe American Conservative considered the movie to be funny "in parts", but concluded that "Far from lampooning the Left, "Carol" insults conservatives by presuming that they are so simple as to be won over by fat jokes and flatulence. But the audience, imagining itself to be persecuted by Hollywood, is so grateful to be flattered by Zucker and company that they chuckle obediently at every cheap laff."[9] Steven Rea ofThe 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."[15]
On September 5, 2008, Michael Moore was a guest onLarry King Live and was shown a clip from the film where Malone (while lying down on his bed, drinking aBig Gulp and watching archival footage ofJFK'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 thatViggo Mortensen should be portraying him. When King asked him his opinion, Moore shrugged and said, "I hope it's funny."
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 inbox office receipts and dropped to #15, grossing $1,505,000 at 1,621 theaters or $928 per screen.[16]
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.[17] In its fourth weekend, it dropped to #41 at 109 theaters grossing $60,000 or $550 per screen.[18]
As of October 2009,An American Carol had grossed $7 million after having a production budget of $20 million.[19]
In an interview withNational Review Online, Zucker had suggested a sequel as his next possible project, but later said that he was done making conservative comedies. Zucker stated that the audience for this type of film is one who waits for it to be available on DVD.[20]
The film was released on DVD andBlu-ray Disc on December 30, 2008, byVivendi Entertainment.[21]
It includes a full length audio commentary byDavid Zucker andKevin Farley along with several scenes and footage cut from the theatrical release.
