AN AMERICAN CAROL (David Zucker). 89 minutes. Opens Friday (October 10). Rating: N
An American Carol is well timed for a political comedy – like Oliver Stone’s Bush send-up, W., which hits screens this week.
[rssbreak]
But it would have helped if the movie were actually funny. Directed by spoofmeister David Zucker (of Airplane! and Naked Gun fame), the farce of a movie resets Dickens’s Christmas classic in America on the 4th of July, with a Scrooge-?like anti-?American movie director (a too-?obvious Michael Moore effigy) campaigning to do away with In de pe n den ce Day to protest against the corrupt warmongers running the country.
Enter the ghosts of George Washington (Jon Voight), General George Patton (Kelsey Grammer) and the Angel of Death (country star Trace Adkins ) to teach him a lesson about patriotism.
Lame sight gags and even lamer satirical jabs at the left abound. If only Leslie Nielsen had whipped out his whoopee cushion.
