I am not a big Zucker fan, and went to this with rather low expectations; I figured it would have a couple laughs, lots of stupidity. My wife feels the same and didn’t much want to go at all.

It really exceeded both our expectations. One of the very first jokes in the movie occurs as a group of Afghan terrorists creep up on an unsuspecting village, preparing to attack. I have not laughed that much in a theatre in years. Lots of jokes hit the mark – if you’ve see the trailer, you know that at one point the Michael Malone character is filming a documentary on Cuba (“Here I am in the island paradise of Cuba…”). That entire scene is a riot. There were more hits than misses among the jokes throughout the night.

But this picture was also surprisingly moving – in particular Jon Voight as George Washington will bring tears to your eyes. And while the movie is anything but subtle, it’s not preachy, if only because it’s hard to preach when you’re looking to insert at least one slapstick gag every 45 seconds. It is a fundamentally decent movie about Americans as fundamentally decent people, and its simple messages – this war is not a game that some of us can sit out; our actions have consequences – are presented without rancor. For all the obnoxiousness of the fictional Michael Malone (read Michael Moore, obviously) the movie doesn’t have the hatred and nastiness of, well, a Michael Moore flick. It sees liberals as misguided, immature, foolish – but not venal, and always redeemable.

A winner that exceeded our expectations by a long shot.

Check it out.

Very entertaining.

My wife (the slowly recovering Democrat) and I both loved it. And she cried at the Jon Voight scene.

Go see it.

The theater was pretty full for the first show (6:30) and plenty of grey haired Repubs in the audience, but surprisingly a good number of college age kids.

One girl did walk out in the middle though, I guess no one told her they would be making fun of her professors.

And Bill O’Reilly stole the show in the port-a-potty (see now you HAVE to see it to know what I’m talking about).

and I was kind of disappointed, myself.

The first twenty minutes were really funny. The middle third? Not so much. It’s like they forgot they were making a comedy. The last third got somewhat better though.

Moe’s right, though, the zombies were hilarious. The signs at the anti-war demonstration were great as well.

As an aside, in one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen a theatre make, they showed the trailer for Stone’s ‘W’ before it, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a trailer boo’d.

The theatre was packed. This was a missed opportunity, I really wish they’d made a better movie.

Sure, it is not going to win an Academy Award for best screen play. But trying to make something FUNNY that is also political and patriotic-

not exactly as easy as following some executive around a city for a few months..

Sure it was campy and silly and goofy, like all Zucker movies are. But kids will like it, it celebrates the family and American values, has some historical truth to it and is ACTUALLY LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY!

not to mention if you go see it you help support our brave brothers and sisters fighting behind enemy lines in Hollywood.

the only way we get other conservative movies made- is by supporting this one first!

if you go see it you help support our brave brothers and sisters fighting behind enemy lines in Hollywood.

the only way we get other conservative movies made- is by supporting this one first!

I wore speciallist’s “Liberalism is not Mainstream” t-shirt to the showing in Ann Arbor — home of U-M and Michael Moore.

A small audience for the 7:55 showing, but pretty good laughs. Opening trailers for W and Nixon/Frost had to be the DUMBEST decision in history –

We are still laughing at lines as they come back to mind. When Malone tells John F Kennedy, “Now you sound like Reagan” and Kennedy says “Thank you” it is so subtle that most will miss it.

LOVED THE ZOMBIES — I see a video game in the future —

And yes, I got a tear in my eyes several times throughout the movie –

We saw this movie at the 7:30 showing at a DC metro multiplex. It was playing in one of the smaller screens at a 16 screen facility. We got there early, and it was a good thing we did. By 7:15, all the seats were taken — looks as though the theater management did not expect a very large turnout, or they would have booked it into one of their larger venues.

I had little idea what to expect going in, as I had only seen the one trailer, and heard promos on Fox News, as well as Rush and Hannity’s radio shows. As of late this afternoon, there was not a single review posted at Rotten Tomatoes on the film. I believe the producers decided to not screen the film for critics. This was a wise decision, not because of the quality of the movie, but rather because most movie critics are far left-liberal. It is unlikely a group that raves over ‘Redacted’, ‘In the Valley of Elah’, ‘Lions for Lambs’ and ‘Stop-Loss’ would have anything favorable to say about this film.

The lack of reviews did not scare me. First, I felt it was my duty as a conservative to support this movie. After complaining about all the left-wing drivel coming out of Hollywood dating back to the time of Michael Medved’s ‘Hollywood vs. America’ I believe that conservatives need to send a strong signal of support for a conservative-themed film. If we dont buy tickets and see this one, it is unlikely others will be made. Secondly, I figured that even if the movie was horrible, I have already survived watching the godawful ‘New York Minute’ with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, as my daughters were of an age at the time to want to see it. For those who have been spared the agony of that flick, that bottom line is if I can make it through 2 hours of that, I can watch anything.

Thankfully, my wife and I found American Carol very entertaining, and enjoyed it quite a bit. To be sure, it is no classic, but it is an entertaining and engaging film and you will enjoy the 90 minutes you spend on it.

The movie is very politically incorrect. Several times my wife and I looked at each other and said ‘Did they really say/do that?’ because many of the jokes are so un-PC. They spare no sacred cows in this one, and liberals and others who are part of the ‘easily offended’ caucus will hate the movie. If it does well, I expect it to be the target of protests by CAIR and other groups by next weekend.

Overall, the movie is quite funny. Some parts are laugh-out-loud funny, while others are a bit uneven. The film’s heritage as a descendant of the Zucker ‘Airplane’ and ‘Naked Gun’ pictures is quite clear. A slight criticism I have is that some of the physical comedy is very reminiscent of those 80s movies, and as such, is a bit dated for today’s audience.

The performances were strong. Kevin Farley is well cast as the Michael Moore clone, and the always-dependable Robert Davi actually is the strongest character in the show as the terrorist mastermind. Kelsey Grammer is fine as General Patton, although some suspension of disbelief is required. For me, there is only one Patton, the great George C. Scott in one of the outstanding performances ever. Jon Voight’s role is small, but very powerful, and leads to a moment of serious reflection in the film. James Woods has a brief and funny cameo, and Trace Adkins plays himself, which is fine, as he has a colorful personality and strong presence.

Beneath of the comedy is a strong, patriotic, pro-American message. Many points are hammered home again and again, both through comedy and exposition. Sacrifice, service, country, patriotism, and our shared American heritage are on center stage. It is a tremendous breath of fresh air to see our military portrayed as the good guys and heroes. If only there were a Frank Capra or John Ford around these days to make serious films on the exploits and heroism of our GWOT. Unfortunately, they are not around, and as a consequence, an entire generation is being robbed of its proud heritage. Perhaps a decade or two from now, some future patriotic director will tell their true story.

Overall, I would rate the movie at about 2 1/2 – 3 stars. It is a pleasant diversion, a fun way to spend an evening, and a great way of sending a message to Hollywood that there is a vast market out there for films that portray our country in a positive light.

Whoever thought that a well-known producer in Left-leaning Hollywood (Zucker)could make a funny film that extolls the virtues of patriotism, and blasts the misguided beliefs of pacifists and liberals. My husband and I went to see the movie, and were not disappointed. He also thought that the zombie scene with Dennis Hopper was the funniest. I was pleasantly surprised about the anti-terrorist humor, because that seems to be so out-of-bounds, and classified by society to be “Islamophobic”. It really took courage to make, produce and act in this film, and if you care about the survival of conservative thought in Hollywood, I strongly encourage you to patronize this film.
Mom in Wisconsin

a little too much slapstick.

I have to say that I thought An American Carol was not a good movie at all. I laughed maybe once, and I sat through the rest of it barely even tempted to smile.

That said, it was a start. I hope it does well enough that we can get some better, smarter, wittier movies in the same vein in the future.

…but it’s only playing in 1600 theaters, none of which is around here.

according to bill o’reilly’s article in human events, no “American” distributor would touch this film, so they have some french outfit doing it.

i figure the box office totals for this weekend could easily have been 50% higher at least, if this had been a true “in theaters everywhere” release.

just another example of voter-suppresion.

through w/e 3-5:

Ranking
This/Last Theaters Title w/e Gross total$

1/- Bev Hills Chihuahua 3215 29.3M 29.3M
…. of course, peeps taking kids ….
8/4 Fireproof (Cameron) 852 3.9M 12.4M
9/- An American Carol 1639 3.6M 3.6M
10/- Religulous (Maher) 502 3.4M 3.4M

The 2 positive values films in 8th and 9th would’ve done better if in more theaters, but unfortunately so would have the moronic Bill Maher film (thankfully, limited to 500 theaters)

unfortunately we only have results through the 5th so far…

American Carol falls out of Top 10 already….

Rank # wk
this/last #theater Title thi$-wk/total$
1/1 3218 Bev.Hills 17.5M/52.5M
11/8 875 Fireproof 3.1M/16.9M
??/9 1639 AmerCarol no new fig. rpt’d/last w/e 3.6M