bill oreilly Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Our brothers and sisters over at TV Squad have busted through the boob tube and brought with them the following juicy bits of must-see eye candy:

• The Sarah Connor Chronicles is close to being terminated?
  
• Would you watch a show about Robin and his family, pre-Batman? It'd be like Smallville ... only not interesting.
• What's going on with Meet the Press? Will Tom Brokaw literally fall asleep while on air ... or are we talking about the wrong office pool?
• Stephen Colbert is joining Spider-Man in an upcoming story-arc of the Amazing Spider-Man. Nation ... now that's something we'd be interested in reading, but only if Colbert writes his own dialogue.
• In his new book, Bill O'Reilly claims Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David "tanked the final episode [of Seinfeld] on purpose." Well happy new year to you too, Bill!
• BONUS: Newspapers around the world confusing SNL version of Sarah Palin (played by Tin Fey) with the real Sarah Palin. HA!

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?