We saw it and enjoyed it. I was giggling most of the way through, as were most of the other folks in the audience. It has potential to be a ‘cult classic’ in that I’m sure it will improve with additional viewings with like-minded friends and everyone can shout out the lines like you’re watching Monty Python or an Evil Dead flick.
The plot did have problems, as others have stated upthread, but the problem wasn’t that something was ‘missing.’ The problem was that there was too much crammed into one movie. The screenplay needed serious and disciplined editing. There were three or four complete movies stuffed into one - was it Princess Bride? was it Dickens? was it Shaun of the Dead (*loved* the zombies, btw)? was it Bollywood? Pick one story. Keep it simple. Tell it well. Do it again five more more times for sequels.
Saw it yesterday here in my small (22,000 population) Texas town 56 miles south of Dallas. Our cinema is a small fourplex with about 250 seats per auditorium. There were 27 people including me at the 1:25 showing I attended. The price of admission here is $2.25 before 6PM, so the cut for the producers was minuscule for this showing.
It even fleetingly passed my mind to drive up to Dallas and pay full price in order to put my mouth where my money is to show my support for a film finally espousing Conservative Views. However, those same Conservative Views looked upon the $20-$25 of gas needed to make a 112-plus mile round trip to Big D and back as a silly waste of money that would not add anything to the total box office of An American Carol.
Now, on to the film and be warned there is a “Spoiler Alert” within as there are a few in the following.
Of the actors, several stood out. Let me touch on just a few. Kevin Farley nailed his Michael Malone/Moore role, but the character's coming around in the ending didn't ring true to me as I suspect the real Mike Moore would never, ever attempt in any way to stop any terrorist bombing of Americans in real life.
PS Kevin, don't waste time expecting "SNL" to call.
Kelsey Grammer’s Georgie Patton was both campy and close to home to anyone who has a more than passing knowledge of the real George S. Patton verses the bastardized Hollywood left version that never really existed. Grammer's effort is well done, but I fear it will not be viewed as such for I feel Kelsey's 20 years as Dr. Frasier Crane will forever haunt him in any role as much as his Patton character haunts his nemesis in this flick. If I could somehow make a Zucker type campy film, it would be a takeoff on the Hope-Crosby Road Pictures with Kelsey playing Bob Hope, but that is for another day when I win a 300 million lottery to produce that sucker.
Of course, Zucker regular Leslie Nielsen (Gadzooks, is this guy older that Barry Sullivan? Sorry, very, very old school 1960ish inside Hollywood joke!) was his usual crazy, funny, zany self.
Chriss Anglin’s JFK was a home run hitting it out of the park with his showing “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty” quote was a pledge of American values completely outside the realm of today's anti-American Democrat Party.
Even though I am not a Bill O’Reilly fan at all, he was excellent playing a non-bloviating self and Vicki Browne's Rosie O'Connell was dead on in harpooning the real whalelike Rosie O'D!
Fred Travalena was unrecognizable as Jimmy Carter but then again, Jihadmmy himself is mostly unrecognizable as an American President in his nowadays love of anything unAmerican.
I have to add Gail O’Grady as a guilty pleasure as one of God's greatest creations I ever laid eyes upon even in her uglied up, dressed down part as one of the Michael Moore character's liberal cohorts.
I agree, Lil, as you said, “The problem was that there was too much crammed into one movie.” However, what was there was very well done in my opinion.
The humor was very much in the Airplane/Naked Gun Zucker style and so very much hit the nail right on the head in targeting the Loony Liberal Left. I found myself not alone in laughing out loud many, many times as our merry band of 27 sounded at time several score loud.
Yet in all this zany madcap fun, there was a few moments that bought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eyes.
One was at the ending when a visualization of American fighting men from past wars was shown.
There was much said about David Morse playing George Washington in the HBO miniseries “John Adams” earlier this year. I watched it on DVD and had to agree Morse's acting was excellent in showing the stern, stoic Washington as history records.
Yet Jon Voight’s portrayal of George Washington absolutely floored me. In a sea of outragious comedy, seeing Voight in character was a stunning moment. The stark dignity and overwhelming humanity of the first view of this character was heart stopping. In the very brief scene his speaking of the dust within the chapel being the remains of the victims of 9/11 brought a chill to my spine and tears to my eyes.
Anyone who could watch this and not be similarly moved must be either a typical Obama Loving Liberal Democrat or Jihad Terrorist but it is so hard to tell the two apart.
But then again, isn't that the real message this film brings out?
And I could not agree more!