David Zucker has made a living out of limply parodying movies, and this is no different… except he’s doing it with a political slant. His newest offering is An American Carol, a film which makes fun of Michael Moore by presenting a fat, flabby character based on him and then claiming he hates America. The main thrust of the movie seems to be some sort of right-wing extremist fantasy in which their fake Michael Moore character wanders around allowing himself to be slapped by right-wing icons like Bill O’Reilly, Trace Atkins, and even the ghost of General Patton… inexplicably played by Kelsey Grammar. In the end, their fake Michael Moore is taught the real meaning of patriotism, which I guess is refusing to think about anything your country is doing and singing meaningless rah rah country songs about how much you love the flag.
That said, the first trailer for this conservative wet dream is here and it’s actually fairly well done. Honestly, why hasn’t this been done before? Even if you like Michael Moore’s movies you have to admit they're ripe for parody. I think if they’d have left out cameos by idiots like Bill O’Reilly and made this a straight parody without the slant this might even have been worth watching. It may even still be worth watching, if you can keep from throwing up in your mouth at the shallow, empty-headed, flag pin wearing patriotism being espoused within it. A lot of the credit for the way this trailer works has to go to Chris Farley’s brother Kevin Farley, who gets a starring role as Moore. He’s not Chris, but he’s got a lot of his brother’s great comedic timing.
Watch the first trailer for An American Carol below:
