# An American Carol **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513 "2008-10-05T02:06:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/1 "2008-10-05T02:06:25Z")
The last couple of weeks have not been fun. Ike destroyed my Taekwondo school, Work has been annoying beyond belief and I’m having physical issues. I’ve been stressed worse than I ever thought possible. Then I went to see this movie. Laughter is truly the best medicine. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. Go see this one, folks. It is absolutely hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/2 "2008-10-05T02:10:08Z")
I wish it was not explicitly Michael Moore. Even though I don’t have much love for him I just think it would be a better movie if the main character was more generic. Being Moore I’m afraid it’s going to be all preachy/messagey. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/3 "2008-10-05T02:27:09Z")
I’m going to see it next weekend. Might buy tickets for some friends to go too. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/4 "2008-10-05T02:44:02Z")
Many, many others would beg to differ. [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/4/182322/458/169/620211](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/4/182322/458/169/620211) ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/5 "2008-10-05T02:47:30Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > Many, many others would beg to differ. > > [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/4/182322/458/169/620211](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/4/182322/458/169/620211) ROFL! The Daily Kos? You might as well quote Soviet-era Pravda! Actually, Pravda might have more credibility… ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/6 "2008-10-05T04:27:22Z")
I saw it today, too. Like Cisco, I think the movie would have been better if it were about some more generic liberal and not specifically Michael Moore. I did enjoy the skewering of the more wiggy factions of the Left; they need to be made fun of and their antics and single-issue politics make it easy to do. I also think it’s funny that this is the most legit part for Paris Hilton and Gary Coleman. Robin ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/7 "2008-10-05T08:19:02Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Many, many others would beg to differ. [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1...458/169/620211](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1...458/169/620211) [/QUOTE] > [@RikWriter](#): > > ROFL! The Daily Kos? You might as well quote Soviet-era Pravda! Actually, Pravda might have more credibility… If you had RTFA in the Daily Kos link, you would’ve seen that it mentions that even the _New York Post_–that bastion of Murdochian right-wing sensibilities–ripped this movie a new one. If a right-wing comedy can’t even get the New York Post to say something positive about it, I would say it’s utterly failed in its main objective. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/8 "2008-10-05T12:28:24Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > If you had RTFA in the Daily Kos link Then I would have added to the daily take of the daily fuckhead who runs the daily Kos. And I don’t intend to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/9 "2008-10-05T13:10:47Z")
I guess it’s kind of a compliment to have somebody make a whole movie to satirize you. Does it make fun of Michael Moore’s actual faults (bombast, stupid stunts, not being a scrupulous with the facts as he should be), or does it make up something stupid? ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/10 "2008-10-05T14:52:42Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > I guess it’s kind of a compliment to have somebody make a whole movie to satirize you. So W is Oliver Stone’s compliment to President Bush? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/11 "2008-10-05T16:15:27Z")
Looking at [Rotten Tomatoes](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_american_carol/), even the positive reviews are not glowing. To quote from [one “positive” review](http://www.7mpictures.com/inside/reviews/anamericancarol_review.htm): > [@](#): > > Still, the movie has a message, and that message gets in the way of the comedy at least half of the time. I’m a lefty who enjoys some conservative humorists like P.J. O’Rorke (although he seems to have abandoned the Republican party for the Libertarians). The Right deserves it’s own comedy. But this one does not look like it’s going to draw in anyone who doesn’t agree with the filmmaker’s agenda, and get chuckles from anyone who doesn’t believe Michael Moore hates America. If this is what the right-wing needs to salve the pain of the election, slap it on. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/12 "2008-10-05T16:16:51Z")
From the (highly conservative) _New York Post_ review: > [@](#): > > 1/2 \* (on a scale of 4) > > A Michael Moore-like film maker shares a portable toilet with JFK, Gen. George Patton and Bill O’Reilly (as himself) in “An American Carol,” which surely has two of them - not to mention Charles Dickens - rolling in their graves. > > Even if it weren’t three years too late to parody Moore (ineptly played by Kevin Farley), Moore’s ridiculous tribute to Cuban health care in “Sicko” is far funnier than anything in this desperately laughless farce from David Zucker… > > Also embarrassing themselves in “An American Carol” are Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, James Woods and Paris Hilton - the latter as herself, struggling to deliver a joke involving Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl… ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/13 "2008-10-05T16:25:29Z")
Someone on the Daily Kos site very fairly compares it to that other right-wing film [“Team America: World Police”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/). I laughed my ass off at that one, even as people I admire were being ripped (MATT DAMON!). ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/14 "2008-10-05T16:30:28Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > From the (highly conservative) _New York Post_ review: Still going to go see it and pay for my friends to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Camus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba8739/32.png) [@Camus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/15 "2008-10-05T16:49:21Z")
From some of the reviews which mention a ghost of America past visit to “still-smoldering” remains of the WTC, it sounds like the main character shouldn’t have been a Michael Moore stand-in, but the Colorado professor who described the people that died on 9/11 as “little Eichmanns.” There are people out there who really do believe what that parody of Michael Moore believes and I don’t know why the filmmakers don’t just use them. Other than their desire to make a lot of fat jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/16 "2008-10-05T19:24:05Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/17 "2008-10-06T00:23:39Z")
Note to conservatives: Although many like his films, most liberals think Michael Moore is an ass just like you do. He is not and never has been a liberal icon. ---
**Author:** ![Charogne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@Charogne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charogne)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/18 "2008-10-06T00:38:52Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Note to conservatives: Although many like his films, most liberals think Michael Moore is an ass just like you do. He is not and never has been a liberal icon. ``` I have to admit I'm curious why this is... He's fast and loose at times with details, seems to be the prognosis, but more so than Limbaugh/O'Reilly/Coulter/Savage and their ilk? Perhaps his most controversial statements have to do with Saudi Arabia and its links to the 9/11 attacks. Does this explain why he seems to be most unpopular in the oil states? ``` ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/19 "2008-10-06T00:43:46Z")
> [@Charogne](#): > > I have to admit I’m curious why this is… He’s fast and loose at times with details, seems to be the prognosis, but more so than Limbaugh/O’Reilly/Coulter/Savage and their ilk? Perhaps his most controversial statements have to do with Saudi Arabia and its links to the 9/11 attacks. Does this explain why he seems to be most unpopular in the oil states? Yes, he is far more fast and loose with the facts than a typical conservative pundit such as Limbaugh or Hannity. He MIGHT be comparable to Savage, who is usually melodramatic, full of himself and full of shit, but the difference is that Savage never made a series of movies he tried to pass off as documentaries. Coulter I tend not to pay much attention to, but she strikes me as what Michael Moore would be if he were a skinny woman with less talent for self-promotion. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513/20 "2008-10-06T00:46:32Z")
> [@Charogne](#): > > I have to admit I’m curious why this is… He’s fast and loose at times with details, seems to be the prognosis, but more so than Limbaugh/O’Reilly/Coulter/Savage and their ilk? Perhaps his most controversial statements have to do with Saudi Arabia and its links to the 9/11 attacks. Does this explain why he seems to be most unpopular in the oil states? See the stunt he tried to pull at the Academy Awards when he won for 9/11. He is a full of himself blowhard, and liberals as a rule don’t like those kinds. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-american-carol/466513.md?page=2)