One of my favorite New Beverly theater moments here in LA was hanging around outside the theater talking to Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, two thirds of the comedy geniuses who brought us Airplane! and Top Secret. At the time Zucker mentioned his new movie, An American Carol, but nothing he said indicated to me that he had lost his mind. Now that the storyline of the movie has come out, I fear he’s gone batshit insane.
The movie is about an ‘anti-American’ (read: Michael Moore) filmmaker who is shown the true meaning of America by three ghosts. Says Politico:
As with many of Zucker’s earlier films, his latest japefest is
loaded with sight gags and a litany of one-liners, but there are few
sacred cows. Along with many Muslim terrorists named Mohammed, even
severely handicapped children are subject to the film’s screwball
comedy. Jimmy Carter shows up for a brief razzing, but far more
relevant Dems, including Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, seem
conspicuous in their absence.
Instead, Zucker (with co-writer Myrna Sokoloff) mocks the usual
conservative targets: ACLU attorneys, liberal colleges and anti-war
protesters. The movie saves its most severe scorn for the main
character, a slovenly documentary filmmaker based on Oscar winner
Michael Moore. The attack is literally scorched-earth style: In a
climactic scene, Moore’s stand-in (here named “Michael Malone”) finds
political clarity at the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center while
the admonishing ghost of George Washington (played by Jon Voight) hovers
nearby.
I want to run that by you again:
In a
climactic scene, Moore’s stand-in (here named “Michael Malone”) finds
political clarity at the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center while
the admonishing ghost of George Washington (played by Jon Voight) hovers
nearby.
Holy shit.
Dennis Hopper, Kelsey Grammar (apparently playing Patton?), Leslie Nielsen and James Woods also star.
Politico ran this last week, but I missed it until a poster at Hollywood Elsewhere linked to it. Today the picture was picked up by Vivendi Entertainment, who plan to release the film ‘wide’ on October 3. I can’t wait to see this bizarre fucking thing for myself.