An Anemic Carol

Saw this EPIC FAIL coming from a mile away:

Two ideologically driven movies squeezed into the bottom of the top 10. Vivendi Entertainment’s “An American Carol,” David Zucker’s flag-waving, proudly right-wing comedy, secured the ninth-place berth with $3.8 million, while Lionsgate’s “Religulous,” Bill Maher’s skeptical lambasting of the world’s religions, was right behind in 10th place with $3.5 million. However, because “Religulous” was playing in less than one-third the number of theaters that offered “Carol,” it scored a much higher per-theater average, earning $6,972 to “Carol’s” $2,234.

That’s a pretty lame opening, especially after RushBo was pimping it aggressively last week. On the bright side, Zucker can attribute the weak box office to rabid homophobia and get back to pretending that he’s accomplished anything worthwhile since the 1980’s.

MORE: I’d heard that Zucker had exploited 9/11 in his EPIC FAIL, but I had no idea how egregiously (and clumsily)…

[M]ost early reviews point to a scene in which the ghost of George Washington (played by Jon Voight) takes [Michael] Malone [(played by Kevin Farley)] to the ruins of the World Trade Center at Ground Zero to lecture him on the freedom of speech, “which you abuse,” Washington tells him. When Malone fires back that he’s just making movies, Washington wonders, “Is that what you plan to say on Judgment Day?”

Is the movie really saying that freedom of speech can be abused? That there’s some connection between that and the attacks of 9/11?

No, not at all - although kinda, Farley hedged.

“It’s a point in the movie where it’s like the end of ‘A Christmas Story,’ where it always gets really serious with the angel of death. So we have Jon Voight, who says freedom of speech is something we should not abuse. We really try to drive the point home. It’s a pretty heavy-handed scene,” Farley said, explaining why they have the scene at the WTC site. “[That location was chosen] because basically it had the biggest impact. We wanted to have a big impact about the points of the movie.

“Before 9/11, [David Zucker] was a Democrat, and I think that he switched over after 9/11 because of how he felt they viewed it,” Farley continued. “Rather than saying, ‘We caused 9/11,’ Republicans are saying, ‘How can we prevent 9/11 from happening again?’ So I think [that scene] is about supporting the troops and supporting their mission. We make a clear point we are supporting [both]. We too often make a distinction between supporting the troops and supporting what they are doing. [The film says] that appeasement leads to more wars. We should celebrate our troops and their mission.

I guess we all know now who Sarah Palin’s debate coach was after that illogical mess of an answer, right?

Posted by Kevin K. on 10/06/08 at 10:07 AM • Permalink

Zucker, like Dennis Miller, is one of these namby-pamby chickenshits who crapped his pants after 9/11 and became “OMG TERRORISTS BIG REPUBLICAN AUTHORITARIAN DADDIES COME SAVE ME FROM THE MUSLIM HORDES CUZ I’M AFEARED! PLEASE! I’LL BE YOUR TOOL I PROMISE!”

And in the process, they continue to prove that there are only two truly funny conservatives out there: Florence King and P. J. O’Rourke.

I’m stupider, just for having read that interview.

Zucker, like Dennis Miller, is one of these namby-pamby chickenshits who crapped his pants after 9/11…

Egg-zactly. I give credit to the former pants-crappers who have disowned their cowardly behavior (like Andrew Sullivan). I give even more credit to those of us who managed to not soil ourselves in the first place. Those who are still festering in their poopy diapers deserve nothing but derision and box office failure, and it’s gratifying to see them receive both.

Hmmm...weird.  They had ‘Phone Booth’ (which Zucker produced in 2002) on the other week and the terrorist (Keifer Sutherland) got away with it!  You’d think Zucker would’ve had him taken down.