ann-88

I saw this at the AFR Film Festival in DC this evening. I wasn't expecting much having read a lukewarm online review from someone who saw it when it was screened at the Republican Convention. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised. I doubt this modern day conservative retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol will ever find an audience, as it will be ignored/roundly dismissed by the MSM critics, but it is a solidly funny satire and delivered more than its share of laughs (at the expense of Michael Moore, the ACLU, Fidel's Cuba, today's college professors, Rosie O'Donnell, Jimmy Carter, and anyone who frets about the treatment of those incarcerated at Gitmo.) As the "Michael Malone"/Michael Moore character, Kevin Farley not only looks the part but gives a credible and easy-to-watch performance. He actually makes the character likable, even when he's saying or doing something obnoxious. The characterization could have been much "meaner" but Farley walks the fine line between hard edge satire and keeping Malone open to his big screen redemption.

The film even had moments that were unexpectedly moving, especially the segment when Mr. Malone receives some somber "feedback" from the father of his country and when Malone sees "ghosts" in the audience at the end-of-the-film Trace Adkins concert.

Favorite bits: the trailer of Rosie's Radical Christianity documentary and the chorus of college profs singing about the glories of 1968.

If you're an unreconstructed conservative you're going to love this film. Left of center libs (the five or six who actually go to the movie) will walk out of it after about five minutes sputtering obscenities. You'll have to judge whether or not you want to spend your time and money depending upon where you fall between those two extremes.