Review of An American Carol (2008) by Greg B — 03 Oct 2008

[font=arial][size=-1]What a brilliant hoax! A scathing parody of right-wing "sensibilities" that frequently goes over-the-top, as in the best of the "Airplane!" and "Police Story!" movies from Zucker and company. So much so that many extreme fringe conservatives will actually think that it is Michael Moore that is being lampooned! And for the first half-hour I was completely taken in as well. But it soon became clear just how perfectly the sophomoric humor and the sophomoric attitudes blended and interplayed to splendid effect.

The marketing is also brilliant. First they promote it to the Rush Limbaugh/Bill O'Reilly types who hate Michael Moore. I suspect the producers will be laughing up their sleeves as they pocket tons of money from the liberal-bashers for the first weekend (maybe two). Then, when people start to realize that it's really the conservatives who are being made fun of, a whole different and even larger audience can flock to the theater to laugh their collective a**es off. After that, I predict that the "hoax", if successful, will lead to a long life as a cult-classic, much to the chagrin of some of the actors who probably didn't realize what they had gotten themselves into.

Of course, I could be wrong. It may be that, hard to believe as it might be, the producers genuinely thought they were actually promoting something resembling a rational point of view. But that would just be all the more ironic and, consequently, all the funnier.

I look forward to reading the other reviews and seeing how many others actually "got it." Somehow I suspect that it's likely to go over the head of much of the initial audience and that many of those who do "get it" will be royally p*ssed. And, of course, the real fringe-right ideologues probably never will. The real joke is ultimately on them. Gotta love it![/size][/font].