Movie Review: An American Carol

I can't remember the last time I went to a movie and didn't have to force myself to laugh at a political or social joke. Most movies coming out of Hollywood these days are laden with leftist themes or are such that any political or social joke is contrived and so small that few people in the audience get it anyway.

Not so with An American Carol by David Zucker. We already knew up front what this movie was about. It takes Michael Moore to task for his anti-American views and through the use of comedy, puts his skewed visions in perspective. But it is not just Moore who is confronted here. Leftists in general are looked at. ACLU Lawyers who are portrayed as zombies and ambulance chasers. College professors who never made it out of the 60's. Student protestors who, like parrots, repeat chants of anything they are told.

The story is loosely based on Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol in which a misguided soul is visited by three spirits in order to find redemption. In An American Carol, it is Michael Malone who needs redemption for wanting to banish the 4th of July. We are taken back in history to watch certain events like Neville Chamberlain ceding territories to the Nazis in exchange for "peace in our time." We are taken into an alternative future in which the American Civil War was never fought and slavery was still an institution.

And we are taken into a serious present where actor Jon Voight, playing George Washington, shows Michael why we Americans honor our military veterans and why it is sometimes necessary to take up arms and make a stand.

And this is not just some "B" comedy with no-name actors. Kevin Farley plays the lead, Kelsey Grammer plays the spirit of George Patton. Robert Davi plays the terrorist leader. You'll also see Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Kevin Sorbo, Paris Hilton, David Alan Grier, Gary Coleman, Zachary Levi and the aforementioned Jon Voight. There are even cameos by Bill O'Reilly, Trace Adkins and Leslie Nielson.

I heartily recommend this movie to everyone, whether Conservative or not. The point of the movie is easy to see and the jokes are funny enough that you may find yourself discussing them with friends for a while.

Two thumbs up!