"AN AMERICAN CAROL"
Starring Kevin Farley, Jon Voight, James Woods, Dennis Hopper
Released: Oct. 3, 2008

WATCH THE TRAILER

Funny, but the intensely patriotic vibes and intolerant connotations are nothing less than irritating.

"A CHRISTMAS CAROL" … the epitome of Christmas cheer, a heart-warming story about a miserly old man who loves no one and nothing more than cynicism. Visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, the man revises his view of the world and finds himself full of joy.

Obviously, a film titled "An American Carol" is going to steal the plot of Dickens' story. What's surprising — given Hollywood's liberal reputation — is that this one does so in the name of conservative politics.

Based in recent times, about a man with a complete disdain for everything American, this movie seeps patriotic subliminal messages. Except the subliminal part fails most of the time.

The movie's main character, Malone (played by Kevin Farley), is a satire of the infamous Michael Moore, and a zealot in the most extreme sense.

This film, directed by David Zucker of "Airplane!" fame, does raise valid criticisms of Moore and the occasional absurdity of the liberal movement.

It was definitely refreshing to hear those things criticized, because liberalism gets out of control and pretentious a lot of the time. It wasn't the criticisms that were irksome, but the movie's undertones of blind patriotism.

Malone decides that our most patriotic holiday, the Fourth of July, celebrates a new nation that is full of offensive people doing offensive things and should not be celebrated. His liberal ideas and actions put him at odds with the rest of his family, especially his nephew, a Naval officer about to be deployed to the Persian Gulf.

Against the war in the Middle East, Malone spends the movie attempting to establish a huge anti-Independence Day demonstration. The demonstration is a flop at first, and when he does get tons of supporters they're presented as dumb, one-dimensional mimickers, incapable of their own ideas.

The campaign to abolish the Fourth of July prompts the visit of the ghosts of JFK, George Washington, and General Patton to make Malone change his view on America. It's definitely funny to see those people brought back to life, although General Patton, the main ghost, was the by far the funniest, and the others weren't much more than cameos.

Interspersed with Malone's lessons from the spirits are Middle Eastern terrorists trying to commission Malone to make a suicide bomber trainee video. Malone is convinced that they want to star in his new documentary.

As a character, Malone is completely disgusting. He is constantly shot stuffing his face, once even eating a slice of pizza that a mouse had previously scampered all over. There are constant remarks on Malone’s odor, which Malone never takes seriously.

Then, of course, there’s his total lack of tact and just plain stupidity, which enables him to ignore all the clues the terrorists give off about their true identities.

In efforts that figuratively (and literally) slap some sense into him, Malone is shown British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain shining Adolf Hitler’s shoes during the signing of the Munich Agreement of 1938. And then he sees the amiable slaves at his own plantation in an alternate world where Lincoln was too scared to fight the Civil War.

The message? Liberal ideas, particularly those of peace, do not benefit the country. In fact, they are purely detrimental to everyone. Always. Period. Although the satirical commentary is definitely validated by the pretentiousness and blind faith in liberalism that is prevalent today, it's most certainly written from the viewpoint of very anti-liberal people, which makes it seem much less reliable.

Erika thought that the movie itself was a bit disappointing because of the lack of truly humorous events. She only found herself laughing at the antics of the terrorists, and at a group of injured and sick little kids (including a direct spinoff of Little Timmy from "A Christmas Carol"), whom Malone kept managing to further injure. In fact, she thought most of the happenings were just so ridiculous that they came off as stupid and a bit lame.

In the end, Lor thought that the film was decently funny. While the extreme anti-liberal connotations were just plain annoying by the end of the film and she kind of wanted to punch whoever had written it, it did make her laugh. However, the mostly physical comedy and lame plot killed it for her. She'd say it's fun for a laugh, but it wasn't worth the absurd price of a movie ticket.

"An American Carol" is no longer playing at the Goodrich Savoy 16, 232 W. Burwash, Savoy, or the Beverly 18, 910 Meijers Drive, Champaign. Look for it on DVD in the coming months.

"An American Carol" AT A GLANCE

• Starring: Kevin Farley, Jon Voight, James Woods, Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, Trace Adkins, Robert Davi
• Directed by: David Zucker
• Written by: David Zucker, Lewis Friedman, and Myrna Sokoloff
• Genre: Comedy
• Rated: PG-13
• Runtime: 83 min.
• Release date: Oct. 3, 2008
• Summary (from IMDb): A left-wing American filmmaker who's out to abolish the July Fourth holiday is visited by three ghosts who try to change his perception of the country.