As one of the principals in creating the Gamium Review System, I find myself upset that I did not create a score between WIN and MEH, for this film deserves it. Due to the fact that I laughed a minimum of ten times, and only winced twice, I'll nudge it over to the WIN side. But realize that it's a hint of WIN. Lets call it a WINMEH. As a political film, it did good (if you're right wing). As a comedy film it may have worked. An American Carol attempts to be both, and somehow falls in the middle. (Kinda like a WINMEH)

Details, and spoilers, below the fold.

OK, imagine an episode of Saturday Night Live. Not the new ones, one from the Dan Akroyd era. Funny stuff. There's a bit with the Coneheads, one about the Bassomatic 76... lots of fun, disjointed clips.

Now imagine that all these clips were strung together to make a story. A story is written with a main character which sits between the clips, tying them together.

Now imagine that this main character is a parody of somebody you recognize. Let's make him Al Gore. We make a 20-30 minute prelude about who Al Gore is, to make sure you're paying attention.

After that, we play a SNL clip, and then splice in some story with Al Gore.

You'd get a fair facsimilie of An American Carol.

Now, I realize that they are parodying A Christmas Carol, which was a series of "glimpses" provided by the various spirits, tied together into a major package. The difference being (1) the Christmas one wasn't supposed to be a comedy, and (2) the Christmas one didn't have to make a very terrifying group of people into something funny.

The terrorist bits were pretty funny. Everyone in the terrorist cell is named "Ackmed Muhammed." Making fun of the popularity of names over there (It would be like having a platoon of Marines respond to "Joe Smith."). The people in Afghanistan, the non terrorists, are shown to be interested in their government, and willing to stand up to terrorists. The terrorists need a new video to promote their cause, so they hire the movie's Michael Moore clone.

The Michael Moore guy eventually meets up with General George S. Patton, who guides him through a tour of Patriotism Past, Present, and Future. This bit takes up the bulk of the movie, and is full of many sight gags and funny moments...

...for example, during the "voting" scene, a terrorist is told that one of the civvies isn't interested in voting for president, but there is a proposition for immigration reform. For the Mexicans, he say, who came to do the jobs the Taliban just won't do. Behind him, a truck drives by with 10 guys hunched in the back with loud mariachi music playing...

...but I couldn't help feeling that the points being made would be overshadowed by the attempts at humor. The ACLU is shown to be a bunch of Zombie Lawyers who attempt to take the 10 Commandments down out of a courtroom, and some Zombie Lawyers who stop a police officer from checking the bag of two terrified looking Middle Eastern Looking people (who turn out to have really been terrorists, with a bomb, who would have been stopped if the ACLU hadn't stopped the cops because they "profiled.")

Now, Zombie Lawyers are pretty funny. And I personally don't love the ACLU. But having Patton and a platoon armed with shotguns mowing down ACLU Zombie Lawyers, with the judge getting in on it... it just felt overdone. Those who dislike the ACLU will like it. Those who like the ACLU will think it's horrible. Those who like Zombie Shoot-Up movies will think the only thing that could have made those scenes more awesome would be if they had been Zombie SHARK Lawyers.

Many of the gags in the movie felt like this. Some will love them, some will assume they were penned by Satan, and others will accept them as funny. A scene with Mr. Michael Moore's Clone coming home with Patton to see a plantation full of slaves (No Civil War, all the good jobs move to the South where the money is, Slavery flourishes because nobody wanted to fight the civil war) is pretty interesting. Hits you, makes you think, even if you don't agree. Lots of slaves working and singing a slave song. MM complains that they should stop singing that dirge. The head slave tells the others to lighten up. They sing a bright song to make the Master happy. A slave throws a washrag off screen. "Here you go President Mandela!" At least here the editors changed from the original line, "Here you go Barak!"

This movie is basically a Michael Moore movie, but written with a right slant. It's long and windy, with nuggets of actual content appearing at random. Some will piss you off. Others will confuse you. In a way, it's a self parody.

But the simple fact is that for a comedy... it just wasn't FUNNY ENOUGH. As a political movie about where Patriotism has gone... it lacked. George Washington had a walk on cameo. Wow. As a Naked Gun style comedy... it severely lacked in the sight gags. Naked Gun movies always had something going on in the background. Some silly, or out of place, or rediculous, SOMETHING in the background. About the only sight gag of this style I saw was, when the Michael Moore guy leaves his office, there's a bucket of LARD with a spoon in it on his desk, which is covered in food boxes.

Basically I spent $12 tonight (late show at a local, small town theater) to see a series of funny shorts surrounded by a very annoying backstory that seemed to take away from the show. The Naked Gun like jokes felt stale, but there are many, many good laugh out loud funny bits (there's a bit referring to Detroit that is awesome). There are quite a few tasteless physical jokes, but then again, this is a Naked Gun style movie. But there's nothing par with OJ Simpson falling into all those traps on the boat at the beginning of Naked Gun 1.

For a movie billed to "Prove that America wants more Positive American Movies," I'm afraid the actual sales for tickets to be much lower than expected. If these guys are smart, they'll come out with a few shorts, taken out of the movie, on YouTube. Or at least edit a half hour out of the movie. I know you're parodying Michael Moore movies, but come on... you don't have to be as boring as one.

The New York Times gets pissy because they didn't get to preview the movie (come on guys, you had the article written as soon as you heard "right wing." You didn't need the preview to dislike the movie!), but they're focused on the wrong bit. It's not that the movie is a broadside against liberal ideals, it's that it tries to take too many shots in too many different directions and fails to hit the mark enough times to make the movie less than funny.

If you want to make a point, make a fun movie to make the point.
If you want to make a comedy, make a comedy.
But if you blend the two together wrong, you lose the value of both. And end up with a WINMEH.

POSTSCRIPT:

Note to the people who do like the movie and think I'm full of hot air. There were bits I loved. And the overall idea of the story I loved. The execution just lacked. The timing and pacing was off. It felt slow in parts. Some jokes didn't play long enough, some too long. For an example of a good job, watch What We Call The News. It's funny, it makes it's point, it even lampoons popular people. But most importantly, it follows the advice given to Joe Biden by "a very wise man" (his son) before Mr. Biden's speech at his son's military deployment ceremony: “Dad, keep it short. We're in formation.”