Tagline: Laugh like your country depends on it.
An American Carol movie storyline. At a July 4 barbecue, gramps tells the kids the story of Michael Malone, a documentary filmmaker and Michael Moore look-alike who hates America and wants to abolish July 4th. He refuses to celebrate with his nephew Josh, who’s shipping out soon to the Middle East.
That night, Michel has a vision of his hero, JFK, who predicts that three ghosts will visit Michael. Sure enough, General Patton, George Washington, and country music star Trace Adkins visit Michael show him the fruits of patriotism, just wars, and pacifism. Meanwhile, Arab terrorists want Malone to help them with a propaganda film. Is he the next Leni Riefenstahl or will he see the light?
An American Carol is an American comedy film directed by David Zucker and starring Kevin Farley. In some other countries the film is known as Big Fat Important Movie. Presented from a conservative-leaning perspective, the film is a parody of liberal filmmaker Michael Moore that “lampoons contemporary American culture, particularly Hollywood.”
It uses the framework of A Christmas Carol but moves the setting of the story from Christmas to Independence Day. The screenplay is written by Myrna Sokoloff and Zucker. The supporting cast includes Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, Trace Adkins, Gary Coleman, Jillian Murray and Leslie Nielsen. The film was released on October 3, 2008.
About the Story
Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley), a parody of Michael Moore, campaigns to end the celebration of the Fourth of July holiday. Malone holds pronounced anti-American views and truculently argues that America’s past and present are both offensive, and therefore should not be celebrated.
On the evening of July 3, Malone watches a speech from President John F. Kennedy and mistakenly interprets the speech to mean avoiding war at any cost. President Kennedy rises out of the television set, corrects Malone regarding the intent of the speech, and informs him that he will be visited by three spirits.
The following morning, Malone is visited by General George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer), who shows him an alternate United States where slavery still exists because Abraham Lincoln chose not to fight the Civil War. Shaken but still unmoved, Malone is visited by the angel of death (Trace Adkins), who takes him to a future Los Angeles completely taken over by radical Islamists. He is then taken to the ruins of his hometown in Michigan, which has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb planted by Al Qaeda. In a mortuary, Malone learns that he will be killed in this attack, leaving nothing behind but his trademark hat and “big ass.”
Facing his death, Malone pleads for his life with the Angel, promising to change. However, all is not well after Malone’s revelation, for Aziz, a Middle Easterner he had interviewed, is actually a terrorist who will bomb a 4 July rally along with his underlings Ahmed and Fayed. However, when Fayed and Ahmed learn they are going to be detonated along with the planned bomb, they figure their slim chance of survival is by seeking out Malone.
Later, Malone arrives at an anti-Fourth of July protest rally and publicly renounces his former views. This triggers an outraged mob from which he is rescued, however, by American servicemen. Meeting up with Malone, Ahmed and Fayed defuse their own bomb, thus sparing the people at the anti-Independence Day rally and resulting in the capture of the terrorist Aziz. Safe inside a country music concert, the three are formally welcomed to “the real America” by Trace Adkins (this time as himself).
A reformed Malone then goes to a Navy base to see his nephew Josh off to the Persian Gulf. He tells Josh how very proud he is of him and promises to look in on his wife and family during his deployment. In the final scene, Malone now decides to make films he feel people would appreciate, as well as Fayed and Ahmed as part of the crew, who have been pardoned for foiling the bombing. Malone is last seen working on a biographical film about President Kennedy.
An American Carol
Starring: Trace Adkins, Kevin P. Farley, Jillian Murray, Kelsey Grammer, Chriss Anglin, Robert Davi, Serdar Kalsin, Cocoa Brown, Julian Berlin, Mary Castro, Vicki Browne
Directed by: David Zucker
Screenplay by: David Zucker, Myrna Sokoloff, Lewis Friedman
Production Design by: Patrick M. Sullivan Jr.
Cinematography by: Brian Baugh
Film Editing by: Vashi Nedomansky
Costume Design by: Rachel Good
Art Direction by: Aaron Haye
Music by: James L. Venable
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for rude and irreverent content, and for language and brief drug material.
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: October 3, 2008
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Views: 140
