Trace Adkins Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: An American Carol
Filed under: Comedy », Theatrical Reviews »
It is hard to believe that a comedy as singularly inept and downright unfunny as An American Carol came from one of the three minds behind one of the funniest comedies of all time, Airplane! (I'd argue THE funniest, but that's for another place and time), and harder yet to believe that it somehow weaseled its way onto 1,600+ screens this weekend. But here it is, as witless and tactless as anything 2008 has offered up to date, and in a year where the wonder duo that is Friedberg and Seltzer has shat out not one, but two similarly dreadful offerings, that's saying a lot.
Is 'An American Carol' a Parody or a Right-Wing Diatribe?
Filed under: Comedy », Celebrities and Controversy », Politics », Trailers and Clips »
You may have heard that spoof veteran David Zucker's newest project, An American Carol, is a takedown of Michael Moore. You can now have a look at the trailer, online at Yahoo!. And then you can riddle me this: Does An American Carol look like a clever parody of Moore's documentaries, or just a partisan attack on the filmmaker? Or, put another way, is the clip of Bill O'Reilly slapping around Kevin Farley's "Michael Malone" a commentary on the rivalry between the two, or right-wing wish fulfillment? One thing to note before answering is that O'Reilly appears in the film himself, while Moore does not.Moore is obviously fair game; I've enjoyed his films, and sympathize with (some of) his politics, but I'd eagerly watch a skillful spoof of the pudgy, faux-working-class provocateur. I think parts of the trailer are pretty funny ("Here I am on the island paradise Cuba!"). But if the point is just to pile on the guy, with a rah-rah patriotic, stop-hating-America message at the end, then I'm significantly less interested.
The thing is, the trailer really doesn't make clear what's going on. On one hand, prominent conservatives like O'Reilly and James Woods appear to deliver literal and figurative blows. On the other, "Michael Malone" gets accused of being a slaveowner, which sounds more like a parody of conservative attacks on Moore than of Moore himself. And is Trace Adkins poking fun at his image here, or is he for real?
We know that Zucker is himself conservative, and that the movie is political -- which is fine. But is it political in an incisive, worthwhile way, or in the brainless beatdown mode of Ann Coulter et al? What do you think?
'American Carol' Gets a Little Country
Filed under: Comedy », Music & Musicals », Casting »
With this latest bit of information, I can't say that my hopes are any higher for the indie satire, An American Carol, which seems to now be called, simply, American Carol. In February, I posted about the film that's coming our way from David Zucker and Myrna Sokoloff. I noted that Zucker has classics like Airplane! under his belt, as well as stinkers like some Scary Movie sequels.Kelsey Grammer is starring as a different sort of Scrooge -- one entrenched in current American culture. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that country star Trace Adkins has signed on to get ghostly in the project, which is also boasting cameos by Jon Voight, Leslie Nielsen, and Dennis Hopper. It's not Trace's involvement that has me unimpressed. It's this description: "The singer will play the Spirit of Christmas Future (aka the Grim Reaper), who uses his musical abilities to help Scrooge avoid a tragic end."
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
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Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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