An American Carol

PG-13

Released Oct 3, 2008

1 hr. 24 min.

Comedy

List

12%

49 Reviews

Tomatometer

48%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Documentary filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley) makes movies about America's shortcomings and is now embarking on a campaign to abolish July 4th. However, he meets John F. Kennedy (Chriss Anglin) on the eve of the holiday, who tells Malone that he will soon be visited by three ghosts. The spirits of a country singer (Trace Adkins), Gen. George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer) and George Washington (Jon Voight) visit Malone and try to instill a sense of patriotism and love for his country.

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Critics Consensus

An American Carol suffers not so much from its perceived political bias, but from the fact that it simply is not very funny.

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Joseph C

While the comedy can fall flat at times. I actually really love the scene with George Washington giving a speech on freedom

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/09/23

Full Review

christopher walter f

Very funny movie for the time it was made. A lot of the critics are upset over the premise going up against their world view but I hate to tell these critics, but comedy goes against the norm. Kevin Farley's portrayal of a Michael Moore type character was spot on. Trace Atkins was an unexpected surprise. It is not the most memorable movie but at the same time anyone who doesn't have the mentality of an easily offended 4 year old girl will have a good time watching and laughing throughout this movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Funny - that’s all that matters

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/22

Full Review

Steve C

Loved seeing Hollywood's closeted conservatives find their voice. We'll done.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/20/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Exactly what I was hoping for and expecting from this crew. Slapstick comedy with a rightwing lean to it. If you lean left and can't laugh at yourself now and then, avoid this like the plague. If you lean right, it's a rather entertaining and enjoyable movie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Barely watchable since it is so preachy. I think some of the actors got duped by the name Zucker being on this one, or they needed a check, as there is no good reason (even if your politics align) to be in such a sad stab at Michael Moore. And I really really dislike Michael Moore, he's got one of the top spots on my list of "failed filmmakers", and I was ready for someone to do battle with him, but this was not done well. You have so much material to work with on Moore, and this was the best funny you could do? I was completely let down. In the end Moore was just a vehicle to make some vague projections about how things should run in our country, but no military man would believe Frasier Crane as the ghost of General Patton! Rude! This one is important if you are looking for something to meme to make a point about your politics in the worst ways, like--if you need a baby's diarrhea to spell such things out for you...

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

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David Zucker

Director

Kevin P. Farley

Michael Malone

Kelsey Grammer

Gen. George Patton

Trace Adkins

Grim Reaper

Robert Davi

Aziz

Jon Voight

George Washington

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Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

The mean spirit of Zucker's satire hardly jibes with the liberal spirits of the original tale.

Nov 29, 2018

Full Review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

This movie is seriously unfunny, and it's not just my admittedly left-wing politics that are in the way of my getting the joke.

Rated: 0.5/5

Oct 18, 2008

Full Review

Susan Walker

Toronto Star

Utterly asinine, sophomoric, tasteless, the movie has much in common with Zucker's Airplane!, The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and Scary Movie sequels, minus the laughs.

Rated: 1/4

Oct 13, 2008

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

It fails. Miserably.

Rated: 0/4.0

Sep 2, 2020

Full Review

Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

It often takes mockery and even silliness to make one see the best and worst of a situation or themselves or just have to have some fun and it always seems to be funnier when done on film and by David Zucker.

Nov 6, 2019

Full Review

Megan Basham

WORLD

American Carol is [Zucker's] first attempt to merge his newfound worldview with his work. Unfortunately, he swings at so many progressive targets, the punches he does land aren't backed by enough force.

Oct 10, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

Documentary filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley) makes movies about America's shortcomings and is now embarking on a campaign to abolish July 4th. However, he meets John F. Kennedy (Chriss Anglin) on the eve of the holiday, who tells Malone that he will soon be visited by three ghosts. The spirits of a country singer (Trace Adkins), Gen. George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer) and George Washington (Jon Voight) visit Malone and try to instill a sense of patriotism and love for his country.

Director: David Zucker
Executive Producer: Myrna Sokoloff, Kenneth Hendricks, Diane Hendricks
Screenwriter: Myrna Sokoloff, David Zucker
Distributor: Vivendi Entertainment
Production Co: MPower
Rating: PG-13 (Language|Brief Drug Material|Rude and Irreverent Content)
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 3, 2008, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 26, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.0M

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