I just got back from watching An American Carol, the new film by David Zucker. It stars Kevin Farley, the brother of the late Chris Farley of “in a van down by the river” fame, and is a typical Zucker-esque film. Over all, I’m not a large fan of the style of humor that Zucker has, since it tends to rely more on slapstick and horrific puns; however, the Zucker brothers have always managed to pull it off to make better than average movies (Airplane!, The Naked Gun series, etc.). David, who is now a conservative, manages to pull it off very effectively without his still-liberal brother, Jerry. (Jerry, in fact, wants to make it clear that he has nothing to do with this movie.)
The movie is blatantly right-wing, and gets bonus points in my book because of that. Liberals are going to hate this movie with a passion. It has everything in it that could possibly offend them. In fact, it reminds me of a Stephen Colbert episode in reverse…
It will be interesting to see what reaction all the liberals who say conservatives have no sense of humor will do now that they are the ones being lampooned. The reviews I’ve read so far are not promising. But then, consistency never has been a liberal strong point.
For the record, if Public Transit ever did become a movie, I’d love for David Zucker to direct it.
That said, the movie isn’t perfect, even for someone who is in the tank for the right wing. Instead of an A+, I’ll have to give it an A-, borderline B+ even. Again, a lot of this has to do with the fact that I’m not a huge fan of the style of humor, and I’d give the same marks for Airplane! for instance. So if you loved Airplane! then you’ll love this movie, assuming you’re not Michael Moore.
One final note. The irony of the movie extended beyond the movie itself. Indeed, it began during the previews for coming attractions. We got to see previews for Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Sexdrive. In other words, the typical liberal fare that constitutes “humor.” The contrast between that and the humor of An American Carol is something that David Zucker would have loved to have planned, I’m sure. Instead, he got it for free. The rest of Hollywood will miss this; but for some reason I doubt “fly-over country” will…
