An American Carol- A Movie Review

Inspired by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where the miser Scrooge is taught the true meaning of Christmas by the visitation of three spirits, David Zucker of “Airplane!” and Naked Gun movie fame, takes on the story of left wing filmmaker Michael Malone, a Michael Moore lookalike, who wants to abolish the Fourth of July.
Those familiar with Dickens’ tale will recognize that Malone’s nephew also stands in for Bob Cratchit in Zucker’s adaptation. Tiny Tim is there with a vengeance! As you might expect from a David Zucker movie, there are quite a few laugh out loud moments and I don’t want to give any of them away. There is a bit with a pizza box that was pretty memorable!
But, there’s also a serious thread that runs through the movie…that of patriotism and love of country. The movie runs from extreme silliness to extreme seriousness and back again. There’s classic slapstick comedy and heart tugging poignancy.
There is some mild vulgarity, not enough to bother any but the most prudish among us…and they probably shouldn’t be watching movies anyway!
There is no nudity, but plenty of thought provoking material. It’s got an all star cast. The acting is top notch and cameos abound! Voight and Grammer are particularly good as Washington and Patton.
I recommend An American Carol. It’s entertaining, funny and thought provoking. Conservatives will like it better than liberals, I think, but enough of the humor will surprise and ring true enough to elicit laughs from all but the Scroogiest libs!
All in all, I’d give it four out of five stars.
Here’s the trailer: