I just wrote a very long and detailed post for this, but my internet window closed unexpectedly… Lucky for you it will probably be shorter this time.

Directed by David Zucker (The Naked Gun)

Starring Kevin Farley (Chris’s brother), Leslie Nielsen, Kelsey Grammar, Jon Voight

IMDB Synopsis: “An anti-American filmmaker who’s out to abolish the July Fourth holiday is visited by three ghosts who try to change his perception of the country.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Naked Gun. Not only do I love it, but I think it is brilliant. Brilliant dumb comedy, but brilliant nonetheless. When you are making fun of movies and movie conventions, the dumb jokes are fitting. When you are trying to create a biting satire on liberal-america, specifically on Michael Moore, then smart dumb humor is exactly what you want. Unfortunately David Zucker forgot to bring both to this movie. Because of the Naked Gun and Airplane!, I am always willing to give a David Zucker movie the benefit of the doubt. No matter how terrible it looks I will always give it a chance. Even after a recent track record that reads Scary Movies 3 and 4, and producer of Superhero Movie, I am still willing to believe that Zucker has some brilliant humor left in him. 

When I heard about this movie coming out, I was even a little excited about the fact that he had escaped the clutches of the Scary Movie franchise, and was working on something original. Then I heard it was a retelling of A Christmas Carol, this time with a Michael Moore-type character being visited by three ghosts from the american past to teach him the true meaning of America. The concept sounds like it could be really funny to me.

Now I would like to say that I do not hate Michael Moore. Yes, I find him obnoxious and arrogant and I know that his films only present one side of the story, but all films are biased in one way or another (especially documentaries) and films that claim to be objective are even more biased. Watching films like his with an intelligent curiosity is the best way to approach them. I also do understand the fear that the dim-witted masses will believe everything they see in one of his films without questioning it. That being said, he is making films that he believes in, and he apparently has an audience for it. And for his critics, it is impossible to form an intelligent opinion on his films, one way or the other, without watching them for yourself… Aaaannnyyyway… Michael Moore is fat, arrogant, and obnoxious… and ripe for mocking. I was very much looking forward to seeing Moore taken down a peg or two by a sharp, biting satire.

I think that where the film went wrong was that they decided to attack the content of his films, rather than taking jabs at the means and manner in which Moore produces them. Instead of identifying the contradictions in Moore’s schtick and amplifying them to the point of absurdity (which could have been hilarious and smart) the movie offers no intelligent or insightful (or even funny) comments on Moore. Instead it comes off as brash, close-minded, broad, and obnoxious. Ironic that my description of the film mocking Michael Moore, is practically identical to a description that I could give to one of his films. Perhaps that is what Carol wanted to do. To give conservatives their own “Michael Moore.” I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that I just did not find it funny. Maybe my politics have clouded my funny receptors (technical term), but I doubt it. I feel like it was more that the filmmakers spent so much time grinding their ax that they forgot to make it funny. 

I’m not saying it is completely useless. Some may like it, especially if they agree with the ideas in it. My opinion, however, is that it failed as a political satire by trying to be too silly and broad, while it failed as a comedy because it was trying to be too political. I’m sorry to say that if you want to see a political satire that is both sharp and funny, you’re better off renting Canadian Bacon (Written and Directed by Michael Moore). 

3/10 - Gets a three because:

1. Leslie Nielsen

2. Effort

3. Jon Voight is a better George Washington than David Morse