littlemissattila.new.mu.nu

October 12, 2008

More on An American Carol . . .

It's still playing at 1600 theaters nationwide, though as Eric observes, they are not necessarily going to be the most convenient theaters in your particular town.

The Wikis put it this way:

An American Carol made $3.8 million in its opening weekend, placing it ninth among movies that week. Since it was shown in 1,639 theaters, it had a per-screen average of $2,325 ($3.8 million divided by 1,639). By comparison, the film's diametrically opposite competitor released around the same time, Religulous,[10] was the tenth-ranked movie, grossing $3.5 million in just 502 theaters, an average of $6,972 per screen.[11] However, the Religulous receipts were collected over a five-day period (the first two days in New York City and Los Angeles only), while those for An American Carol were collected over a three-day period.[12][13]
For its second weekend, An American Carol had a 58.8% drop in box office receipts and dropped to #15, grossing $1,505,000 at 1,621 theaters or $928 per screen. Religious only had a 35.5% drop in box office receipts and dropped to #13, grossing $2,200,000 at 568 theaters or $3,873 per screen.[14]

No word on how many days were covered under "weekend #2" for that second set of numbers.

But the competing ideas go a bit beyond whether Zucker's slapstick is funnier than Maher's . . . whatever it is that he's doing. Neither film is a big-budget flick; neither was meant to be a blockbuster.

If you want a blockbuster these days, you generally give it an anti-American theme rather than an anti-religious one. And you spend a lot of money, and bill it as a serious narrative.

October 11, 2008

An American Carol in The Big Easy!

I just got off the radio with Greta of Kiss My Gumbo, the New Orleans radio show/blog that discusses politics and culture in Louisiana (or, as I call it, "the other L.A."). Greta's show on 790 WIST in New Orleans goes live on-air on Saturday mornings, and as a consummate egomaniac I assume she scheduled it for 9:30 Central just to make her West Coast correspondents get up early.

("Greta! Do you realize what 9:30 a.m. your time means, translated into Pacific Time?"

"I think it's two hours earlier, Joy. That's only 7:30 a.m."

"But you know how I am about mornings!")

We talked about An American Carol, and what a creative challenge that movie must have been for David Zucker, whose usual style is pure slapstick (most famously [infamousy?] in Airplane! and The Naked Gun). Making a film in which anti-Americanism is the target is not the same kind of creative project as those comically scattershot productions, but Zucker found a premise for tying the current story up into a delicious cream puff of pro-military patriotism: what if filmmaker Michael Moore, like Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," were nudged by supernatural spirits into seeing the error of his ways?

What, indeed?

The film's star is Kevin Farley, who had to gain so much weight to play "Michael Malone" that his family got worried and threatened him with Medical Attention until he confessed what he was up to—just getting ready to spoof an anti-American "documentary" filmmaker who likes to play it fast and loose with the facts.

A lot of the lefty blogs and reviewers have been thrilled to see that An American Carol "only" opened at #9 last weekend. (Because it was "beaten by Beverly Hills Chihuahua," which made more money, but somehow oddly at the same time it was "beaten by Bill Mahar's Religulous," which made less money on opening weekend [and opened at #10] but appeared on ~~more~~ fewer screens. So the methodologies for measuring success depend upon whether one is comparing Zucker's film to a bit of fluff by a smarmy pseudo-libertarian, or a talking dog that opened on many, many more screens than either of the other two movies. Confused? Me too.)

Because we all know that the film industry does not have any sort of leftward tilt; it's all about making money. That's why Mel Gibson had to work so hard and get such creative financing for The Film That Dare Not Speak Its Name—you know: the one that made a fortune, and launched several careers, and yet uniquely, in the history of the film business, kicked ass at the box office while inspiring no imitators whatsoever. Nothing about the lives of the apostles. Nothing about the Old Testament. Nothing about the other characters in the gospels. Instead, a feature version was made of Go, Speed Racer, because one can never go wrong by making a movie based on a television show from the 1960s.

I'm still definitely recommending An American Carol, although one does have to show up a few minutes early, double-check that the theater gave the correct showtime for the movie, and verify the title on the ticket stub, since teenage pranks by cineplex employees seem to have kept a few people away from this movie.

Like the Steve Martin/John Candy classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (directed and written by John Hughes, and just as chockablock-full of cameos as Zucker's Carol itself), this movie is that rare beast: a comedy with a real—and important—point to make. So don't be bothered if you can't buy your tickets online, and the movie's name doesn't appear on the marquee outside—just politely confirm with one of the staffers at the cineplex that American Carol is playing there, at such-and-such a time, and get your ticket. (And double-check that the ticket indeed says "An American Carol" on it.)

But please do not be discouraged by having to take a few precautions or spend a few extra minutes to see this film. After all, An American Carol achieved a major release, which never happened to a lot of other well-done films with a center-right take on the issues of the day, such as Indoctrinate U (Evan Coyne Maloney's takedown of bias within academic institutions); Ben Stein's Expelled (a meditation on why we are not allowed to discuss Intelligent Design as part of scientific inquiry—and a peek into the dark side of Darwinist extremism); Mine Your Own Business (a documentary about how those in the developing world are being kept in poverty by environmental True Believers); In the Face of Evil (the story of Ronald Reagan squaring off against totalitarianism), and Is It True What They Say, Ann? (a sympathetic yet irreverent look at Ann Coulter).

There's no conspiracy to keep us out of theaters that are showing An American Carol. There is, however, a grand opportunity for us to go to the movies this weekend without having our love of country insulted, or the military put down in some backhanded fashion.

And we don't have to order it on DVD and wait for it to get to our homes. And we don't have to make our own popcorn when we see it.

If I were you, I'd take advantage. I've done so, and I might just do it again.

UPDATE: The podcast is up!

(X-posted at Right Wing News.)

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October 10, 2008

David Zucker on Larry King Tonight!

So, watch it.

It'll be on at 6:00 p.m. in God's Country, and 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast. You flyover people . . . just do the arithmetic.

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Newsbusters on An American Carol

Yeah, yeah: any pattern is a conspiracy. I've heard it all before.

Once again, we see the long knives sharpened against the right by employing innuendo and outright lies. This time it is against the movie An American Carol. On Tuesday, I reported that there was some concern that ticket sales for the movie were being diverted to other movies at certain theaters across the country. But I never said there was a "conspiracy" to do so.
The filmmakers also attempted to do some detective work to find out the veracity of the claims. But they didn't call it a conspiracy either. Apparently simply asking the question, though, is too much for Wonkette and Huffington Post to handle. They had to gin it up as some wild-eyed claim of a "conspiracy" on our part.
. . . . . . . . . .
In the blog's typical unprofessional style, Wonkette claimed the filmmakers are saying some great, leftist conspiracy is destroying the movie. The next day, an entry at the Huffington Post asserted the same thing. From there the lefty blogs took over to add to the din. Unfortunately for their hyperbole, the movie folks never asserted any such thing (for that matter, neither did I).
In fact, the folks that produced An American Carol went so far as to take down their page offering movie-goers a place to report incorrect ticket sales. I have been told by a spokesman from Mpower pictures that they had no intention of claiming there was some nationwide conspiracy being mounted against their film and that they will not be making any further public comments for the time being.
But there have been reports from many theaters that, among other things, fans have been handed tickets stubs from other movies instead of from the one they came to see. It was the responsible thing to do, in my opinion, to give fans a place to report the matter if they felt they had been one of those defrauded.
The concern here is if individual theaters or their employees were purposefully crediting ticket sales to films other than what should be credited.
. . . . . . . . .
This isn't the first time, though, such a thing has happened to politically charged products. Spike Lee has for decades complained about these sort of things, yet no one is attacking him for saying the same thing. And, we all have heard time and again the reports that books published by conservative radio and TV personalities have been hidden in books stores so that sales are hindered. Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, they have all seen reports of this sort of thing.
Even so, no one is claiming that the booksellers are secretly conspiring to hinder book sales. What we are saying is that there are many millions of people out there that are not above taking it upon themselves to defraud or hinder the sales of politically charged products like books and movies. This is the case with An American Carol. If lone employees or individual theater owners are pulling a fast one on the film, it should be exposed. But, no one is saying there is some vast left-wing conspiracy going on.

The differences being that if I can't find the book I want at a bookstore, I can simply buy it online, and consuming it will be the same experience. It's very rare for centrist/libertarian films to make it into theaters in the first place; we usually have to buy the DVDs online (as with Mine Your Own Business, about the problem of poverty in Eastern Europe, and how it is exacerbated by misguided Western pseudo-environmentalism), or go to the one venue where something like Indoctrinate U or Expelled will be playing, for one night, in an obscure auditorium right off of Diagon Ally. Wearing hats and dark glasses, lest someone take a picture of us watching one of Those Movies.

I wonder if the limitations on film distribution are related to the fact that revival houses are largely dead: killed by cable TV, VHS tapes, and then DVDs. One used to at least be able to see something that wasn't 100% mainstream at the Fox Theatre, or at the Nuart. Or at one of the Laemmle Theatres. (Okay. Those are still around.)

But doesn't it seem like we're less motivated as a population to go see movies as part of a shared experience in a public square, and more inclined to stay at home, watching films in our little cocoons? I acknowledge that the wine is better, here—and the snacks are cheaper. Also, when one's spouse is in a good mood the movie gets paused whenever I get up to pee—a rare occurrence in a cineplex. Nonetheless, I feel as if something has been lost culturally with the more homogenized fare we're getting in theaters, and the fact that we tend to only see quirky stuff from our overstuffed couches.

Maybe it's just me.

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October 09, 2008

I Dunno.

I really thought that An American Carol delivered the goods, if one were relaxed enough to go with the slapstick flow.

But it's true that an artist is rarely as successful delivering a message versus simply making art for art's sake.

Except for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. And 1000 Clowns. And Harvey, which did indeed have a point. Of course, that point was, "don't be didactic," which might be more zen than the average person can handle.

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Okay: I'm Hearing More and More Reports of Suppression of An American Carol.

Enough individual reports are coming in via e-mail that I'm really starting to think that the managers of these cineplexes are either complicit in the actions of their mostly teenaged employees, or that these kids are taking matters into their own hands on a really grand scale:

• People are unable to buy tickets online for this movie, and have to get them at the cineplex itself;

• When one goes to the theater, the name of the movie frequently isn't on the marquee, giving one a sort of "am I at the right place?" moment;

• There are no posters up for the movie at the theater, reinforcing that "wait; was this supposed to be that place across town?" feeling;

• on the sign inside the ticket booth, the movie isn't even listed. This actually happened to me, and I was about to suggest to my husband that we leave, when I saw another couple ask for tickets to the movie--they seemed to be getting them, so I thought, "well, I guess it has to be playing here . . ."

• The second theater in town where the movie was supposedly was playing didn't allow one to pre-purchase tickets, so I called to check on the time. This particular movie house was a four-plex, and I listened to the long outgoing message twice. It gave me all kinds of information I didn't need to know, like how to get to the theater. And it gave me showtimes for three movies--but not An American Carol.

• I'm getting email and comments about people who are being sold the wrong movie tickets. They ask to see An American Carol, and are handed a ticket that they don't look at very closely (how many of us actually read these things when we're trying to figure out whether there's time to get popcorn before we get our seats?). Later on, though, they look at the ticket and see the title of a completely different film.

It's my understanding that this is often done by theater management "by accident" because they get less money for current releases than they do for films that have been in the theater for a few weeks.

But I'm starting to wonder about this: was there some underground communication among the kids who work at these places? It's starting to look like the phenomenon is a lot more widespread than a few days ago, when I just started hearing people ask questions.

Let's try it this way, folks: how many of you went to see An American Carol, and your ticket stub actually had the name of that movie on it?

I know the kinds of kids who work at movie theaters. I worked at two movie theaters when I was in college. I know what the cultural zeitgeist is—hell; I was part of it.

I didn't really believe at first that this was more than isolated incidents, but the appearance here is that there is an active effort underway to suppress box office numbers for An American Carol.

Previous Entries on the American Carol controversy:

Is this Enemy Action? Please Tell Me 'No.'

An American Carol Made More Money Than Religulous.

Mainstream Critics Didn't Like An American Carol; What a Sur-Prize!

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October 08, 2008

Speaking of An American Carol

If you saw it and liked it, create a profile on Rotten Tomatoes and write a quick review with an honest ranking and your reaction to the film. Please!

That site is being overrun with leftists, unfortunately.

* * *

IF YOU DON'T, the proverbial terrorists will have won . . . (Not the real terrorists&mdah;just the ones who are fond of quoting Proverbs. The terrorists that really scare me, though, are the ones who carry the Psalms with 'em wherever they go . . . what's up with that?)

The most important thing, though, is to see An American Carol, and make your mind up for yourself.

UPDATE: Hey, whaddya know?—a lot of the mainstream critics hated it. Here's an article on that phenomenon in PJ Media, and the comments thread is a scream.

UPDATE 2: Following up on the ticket irregulariries post—
Despite my new readers' assurances that no one would actually manipulate ticket sales to make a political point, we certainly know that it's possible. In fact, we know that this is done, though the more-common motivation is plain old greed. This from a person who monitors this type of hijinks:

I do mystery shopping and merchandising, and sometimes I perform movie theater checks. I act as a typical moviegoer, and buy my ticket at the box office. Then I sit in the back of the theater and count the patrons at the moment the movie starts. I scan and email my ticket stubs, so they can verify that the ticket shows the proper movie.
Studios pay me (the company that hires me) to do this because theater owners/managers can and do fudge the ticket sales numbers. If you buy a ticket for a movie that opens this week, the theater sends most of the money to the studio. But if you buy a ticket for a movie in its fourth week, the theater gets to keep much more of the money. Thus, they train ticket sellers to monitor the number sold for the new movie. If it's not sold out, they may print you a ticket for the older movie, figuring that you won't notice. I've watched this being done.
Would they do this to tank a movie that they didn't like? Perhaps. It would likely be on instructions from the manager, and the ticket seller wouldn't know or care why. Ticket sellers are less politically aware than the average bookstore employee, and bookstore employees are known to hide or deny the presence of titles they don't like. But ticket sellers are often teens who are more concerned about the party they're attending after their shift, rather than the political party of the producer.
It could be happening. There's nothing wrong with checking your tickets and reporting any discrepancy to the AC folks.

UPDATE: Since you've been asking—Joy's coverage of potential sabotage to depress the box-office numbers of An American Carol:

http://littlemissattila.mu.nu/archives/275006.php

http://littlemissattila.mu.nu/archives/275114.php

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No One Is Going to Tell You This.

So I will: David Zucker's An American Carol made more moneyon opening weekend than Bill Maher's Religulous did.

And it did it without resorting to the all Maher's prevarication about religion—the type of falsehoods that made Moore such a fitting subject for satire in the first place. (No, I don't believe Moore actually eats pizza once the mice have gotten into the pizza box. Nor do I believe that he agreed to make a terrorist training video. Nor do I believe that Charlton Heston once made a pro- gun-rights speech in which his tie kept changing color mid-sentence, or that there are banks that will let you take a longarm out the door as a premium on the same day you open a bank account with them—unless you're a famous filmmaker who has somehow convinced them that this sort or "creative re-enactment" will make them look good.)

I'll tell you one more secret: one of the reasons a lot of the reviewers didn't get the humor in An American Carol is that it required a smattering of knowledge about not just American history, but . . . . gulp . . . military culture.

And here's something else: (1) Sarah Palin had a rally in the Golden State on Saturday [tallish place on the West Coast—known for liking movies], which drew thousands of people away from the theaters; before and afterward most of the right-leaning political junkies in the nation have been biting their nails for about ten days wondering if John McCain was going to defend himself on the subject of the economy, or simply let the opposition tie G.W. around his neck like a rather good-natured albatross.

Well, he did and he didn't, and there's tremendous relief out there. There is still nail-biting, because this campaign will be close—and we have another month to go . But now that McCain's exaggerated sense of honor seems to allow for self-defense against the attacks coming from the other side, I think a lot of people may be willing to take a few hours off from the campaign—or take a little time to make a pivotal decision that's now on the horizon.

The one thing every single centrist/center-right person I've talked to about An American Carol has told me is this: it's nice not to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's lovely to laugh without wondering when the country's going to be insulted, or the military. You laugh at some jokes, and you don't laugh at others (slapstick being a bit of a scattershot endeavor). But you aren't mentally crossing your arms, wondering when "it" is going to come: the suggestion that we couldn't ever have won Vietnam and shouldn't have tried, the implication that Ronald Reagan was a crazy man who brought us to the brink of nuclear war (while liberating millions of people), the imputation that the Civil War was only about economics, and not slavery. The idea that most military men and women are war criminals, or ready to be.

The obscene absurdity that it is never right to fight back, whatever the provocation.

I hope Religulous stays in the movie houses for a long time, as An American Carol reaches more and more people via word-of-mouth. Because beyond the glamour of opening weekend (and opening at a high-risk time, during a Presidential election), there is the fact that some people in Hollywood have decided that they would actually like to make money. And maybe even make it doing something other than features based on TV series from the 1960s.

Yeah, yeah: I hear you, Guys: "Maher's movie opened on fewer screens, so it made more money per screen." Well, that presupposes An American Carol was credited with every ticket sale it was entitled to, and that it was as easy to find a showtime or tickets for AAC as it was for the other movies that opened last weekend. And it was not.

No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But I'm skeptical enough that I'm not going to take the Maher people's numbers (or their reasoning) at face value.

Because there's one more little comparison to be made: Zucker is funny. And Maher, the psuedo-libertarian, really, really isn't. He's just smarmy and smug.

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October 06, 2008

THEATER FRAUD? Sabotage of An American Carol and Its Opening-Week Numbers?

Now this sounds like enemy action.

Help me out here, folks: are these honest mistakes, or is there intent behind them? And how widespread is the problem?

I'm starting to hear complaints about unorthodox treatment of An American Carol by employees of theaters that are carrying the movie. So far, rumors suggest above-average irregularities regarding the handling of this movie in cineplexes and other theaters—particularly as regards ticket sales.

Is the problem systemic, or confined simply to a few (statistically insignificant) theaters in a nationwide release? I'm hearing tremendous curiosity/concern from other centrist/libertarian/center-right movie fans about whether any of these incidents seem to have had some sort of intent behind them.

People are being sold tickets that are supposedly for An American Carol, but have the names of other movies printed on them.

Obviously, this type of "error"/error theoretically requires collusion between employees--a way of marking the ticket so that you are sent to the correct theater, even though you've been sold the wrong ticket. (E.g., if the box office is outside the cineplex, and the person who tells you where your particular mini- theater is happens to be is stationed inside the doors, out of sight of the box office.)

As the customer, you'll want to actually read your ticket to check and make sure you weren't an unwitting instrument of an "error" (or even an error) that inflated another movie's box office numbers and deflated that of the one you had intended to support.

If you suspect that this might have happened when you went to see the movie, please go double-check your tickets. If they have the wrong title on 'em, send me a picture of your "American Carol" ticket.

Here are some subtler things to be on the alert for, in terms of possible attempts to suppress viewership / the appearance of viewership / box office receipts for this film.

Examples:

• The theater suggested that the movie was rated R (its true rating is PG-13);

• Posters for the film are not visible inside or outside the theater;

• An American Carol is not on the marquee, even though the movie is playing there;

• The film title not listed behind the clerk in the box office, so you have to ask if that movie is playing at that theater, never mind that you checked on the internet and called in advance (this actually happened to me);

• Showtimes are given on the theater's outgoing message machine for every movie playing except for An American Carol (this is also out of my personal experience: somehow the local four-plex only had showtimes listed on the phoneline for three movies . . . . hm);

• technical oddities: image or focus issues, problems with sound, and the like.

Please check those tickets, check those movie houses where the movie is supposedly playing (but you have to ask about it if you want to see it), and document everything you can. Put those cell-phone cameras to use whenever possible.

UPDATE: The Freepers have it now. So far, I've been skimming through the lefty sites that are linking my allegations about potential fraud and irregularities regarding An American Carol. It appears that their arguments are as follows:

a) If ticket sales are recorded for the wrong movie, it's not significant enough to affect box-office receipts for this particular film, because it isn't happening enough. But it doesn't happen anyway, and I am probably a paranoid schizophrenic for believing that it did.

b) In my original post, I clearly stated that An American Carol would have opened this past weekend in the #1 slot had there not been incorrect recording of box office receipts, and other irregularities at some theaters/cineplexes where the movie is playing. So I'm delusional as well.

c) "We, the left, absolutely hide any books that appear to take a centrist or center-right view whenever we're working at bookstores. Clearly, this indicates that we would never take equivalent action if we got jobs at theaters.

Q.E.D."

(d) "Little Miss Attila has never gone to a movie in her life. Nor has she ever worked at a movie theater. Because, see—the system is different at my local cineplexes than it is at hers. Since we've determined that she's delusional, we cannot trust anything to do with ticket-selling or ticket-taking procedures at her local theaters."

(e) "Little Miss Attila is ugly, so any assertion of fact that she makes is obviously wrong, because ugly people are always incorrect."

(f) "Little Miss Attila is fat. This further underscores the point that no irregularities could possibly be taking place with respect to sales / promotional tactics for An American Carol, because that is also the sort of thing that fat people get wrong. Fat, and old."

(g) "Little Miss Attila owns a gun. Gun owners are always wrong about everything (see 'Palin, Sarah')."

Aw . . . . it's a fair cop!

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1 The people doing that should be charged, convicted, and imprisoned for theft. They should have felony criminal records.

Posted by: Christoph at October 07, 2008 01:04 AM (hawOV)

2 On Monday mornings, our rock station lists the box office winners. They led into their segment with this teaser: "You'll never believe who came in #1 at the box office this weekend. A movie most of you never even heard of..." They went through the list from the bottom up and announced that "Hollywood Chihuahuas" won the box office! They could hardly believe it and were snickering about it. I remember thinking that seemed really weird that American Carol seemingly tanked while Hollywood Chihuahuas reigned. It makes a lot more sense if Hollywood Chihuahuas was the recipient of tickets that should've gone to American Carol. Also, our local theater (a Cinemark 24-plex) did NOT list American Carol on their internet page - my son and I wanted to go see it and checked on Friday. I need to run over there and see for myself if the movie is supposed to be showing there. Thanks for the heads up!

Posted by: Redhead Infidel at October 07, 2008 04:35 AM (zlHbc)

3 * Beverly Hills Chihuahuas, not Hollywood Oops. Same diff.

Posted by: Redhead Infidel at October 07, 2008 05:22 AM (zlHbc)

4 Miss Attilla would have trouble getting cast in a snuff film.

Posted by: biff diggerence at October 07, 2008 05:27 AM (oKzTh)

5 Go ahead and send in pictures of your ticket stubs, you'll never defeat me. Sir.

Posted by: Pimple Faced Kid at October 07, 2008 05:32 AM (bNvJk)

6 ...or it could just be that most people don't have the slightest interest in seeing the movie. Nah, gotta be a conspiracy of leftist teenagers. Yeah, that's it.

Posted by: Tom65 at October 07, 2008 05:55 AM (GbVkN)

7 This is the single stupidest thing I have read this month. So far.

Posted by: The Needle at October 07, 2008 06:19 AM (7dctM)

8 There have been cases where bookstores deliberately conceal or refuse to display books with right-wing themes. It's not much of a stretch to get from there to here.

Posted by: Joanna at October 07, 2008 06:38 AM (Db2kZ)

9 Joanna, sometimes bookstores don't even order or stock books they don't want, or that the book buyer thinks are non-starters or offensive. This is not a conspiracy. Bookstores are for-profit enterprises: they are not required under any statute to order every darn book that gets printed. If you can't find the book you want, ask them to special order it. This is free enterprise, people, not leftist conspiracies.

Posted by: larkspur at October 07, 2008 06:44 AM (1SPcR)

10 Congratulations,you've set a new low in 'pathetic right-wing whining and conspiracy theorizing'. Help me out here, folks. What, you can't loosen your tinfoil hat on your own?

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 06:45 AM (R1ds/)

11 The leftist cineplex workers put extra salt on my popcorn so even before the movie started i had to go out to get soda and then I had to pee, but the leftist cineplex designers had deliberately built the women's restrooms too small so i had to line up for 45 minutes and by the time i got back into the theater the film was over. Obviously this anti-"An American Carol" conspiracy has been planned for decades.

Posted by: bargal20 at October 07, 2008 06:48 AM (Pqjdk)

12 There have been cases where bookstores deliberately conceal or refuse to display books with right-wing themes. Oh for pete's sake, i can walk into any bookstore and see the latest right-wing crap which passes for a book, front-and-center as I walk into the store. And in three months, those same books will be in the cutout bin just outside the front of the store, where people can easily steal them if they want and the employees wouldn't care because nobody wanted to buy those books in the first place. It's not much of a stretch to get from there to here. For you, it's not much of a stretch to get from, 'right wing nutjob' to 'loony conspiracy theorist'.

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 06:49 AM (R1ds/)

13 This is the single stupidest thing I have read this month. So far. don't shoot your wad just yet, The Needle. It's early in October and four weeks til McCain Gets Squashed Like A Roach Day. Plenty of nutty goodness to come before it's all over.

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 06:52 AM (R1ds/)

14 As if they weren't destroying America already with their skate boarding and loud music, the Pizza-Face Teenage Mafia, who are in the tank for Obama, strike again.

Posted by: libarbarian at October 07, 2008 06:54 AM (tCYT+)

15 The people doing that should be charged, convicted, and imprisoned for theft. They should have felony criminal records. you bleeding heart pussy. They should be sent to Gitmo for life.

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 06:54 AM (R1ds/)

16 The right-wing can be defeated by pimple-faced teenage movie ticket vendors? Wow. Why is Obama only ahead by 8 points in the polls if you people are such pushovers?

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 06:56 AM (R1ds/)

17 Despite the sick claims of the 16 year-old leftists who sold Miss Attila her theater ticket last weekend, Miss Attila looks nothing like a future Trig Palin in drag. The cartoon Miss Attila at the top of this blog looks exactly like the real Miss Attila.

Posted by: bargal20 at October 07, 2008 06:57 AM (Pqjdk)

18 when, precisely, did the GOP transform itself from 'the party of personal responsibility' to 'the party of pathetic whining and excuse-making'?

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 07:01 AM (R1ds/)

19 In all seriousness, Miss Attila, allow me to let you in on a little secret from the heart of the Vast Media Conspiracy, of which I am a part: While there are a fair number of lefty Democrats in the business, the true religion of the media business is not leftist politics but rather, MONEY. Politics ain't even a close second. If An American Carol, or Expelled, or any of the other epic flops the right has put out over the last several years had any moneymaking potential, I guaran-fucking-tee you that nothing would have stopped them from doing so. Look at 24. Joel Surnow, the show's producer, is an avowed Republican. The show glorifies the Bush/GOP view of the presidency and terrorist-fighting in an age where the US is perpetually threatened by evil terrorist plots, including the regular use of torture in ticking-time-bomb scenarios which never occur in real life. The show is tremendously popular. I myself enjoyed the show - despite my discomfort with the above themes - until the fourth season when I finally got sick of the glorification of torture... not to mention that it had become a pathetic shtick. It seemed when the writers could not think of any novel way for Jack to extricate himself from a sticky situation, he tortured somebody and they never ever gave him false information to stop the pain, which is what usually happens when someone is tortured. Lame, and lazy. If the right could come up with a film which appealed to American populist sentiments, like Michael Moore's films regularly do, then they would be smash hits and I guarantee you that Hollywood producers would line up to get a cut of that action, to hell with their personal politics.

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 07:11 AM (R1ds/)

20 Doesn't seem far fetched to me. But then, I've had my car keyed because of a McCain sticker...as have so many others. Libs wonder "Why do they hate us?" when terrorists kill Americans...but they don't wonder "Why do they mistrust us?" when redstaters accuse libs of brownshirt tactics.

Posted by: vivi at October 07, 2008 07:25 AM (kujfG)

21 My teenage sister works at a movie theatre. She peeked in the American Carol theatre sever times over the weekend and never saw more than a dozen people watching the movie.

Posted by: Deebaser at October 07, 2008 07:40 AM (P3VeX)

22 Maybe people didn't want to go see a comedy that features ground zero? That isn't exactly what comes to mind when I want my lulz.

Posted by: Deebaser at October 07, 2008 07:41 AM (P3VeX)

23 My teenage sister works at a movie theatre. She peeked in the American Carol theatre sever times over the weekend and never saw more than a dozen people watching the movie. Clearly, she was checking to make sure she had done her part to sink AC's ticket sales.

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 07:43 AM (R1ds/)

24 The stupid burns hotter than the sun. If there is a person out there who is so cataclysmically idiotic that they can't find a cineplex playing the movie (I count are 4 in my local paper alone), make their way to the location, purchase a ticket for the proper movie and enter the proper theater, they need to be wearing a helmet. They're only a seagull's shit away from becoming a talking chimp.

Posted by: comsympinko at October 07, 2008 07:58 AM (Ht9QK)

25 If the right could come up with a film which appealed to American populist sentiments, like Michael Moore's films regularly do, then they would be smash hits and I guarantee you that Hollywood producers would line up to get a cut of that action, to hell with their personal politics. Gibbon's The Passion at a worldwide gross of $611,899,420, is a good example of lefty Hollywood going for the bucks over ideology. Wait, what?

Posted by: Just Saying at October 07, 2008 08:11 AM (PD1tk)

26 I'm sure some folks intended to go so see AC, but were distracted by the talking chihuahua. Happens all the time.

Posted by: Tom65 at October 07, 2008 08:16 AM (GbVkN)

27 When you buy a ticket at the local cineplex, you can go to whichever movie you want. There's no such thing as "selling you the wrong ticket". Even if there was, is it too difficult to walk back to the box office and get it corrected? Apparently.

Posted by: Pope Ratzo at October 07, 2008 08:49 AM (Em/FB)

28 This happened to me and my husband this past Sunday, Oct. 5th at 1:15 pm at Muvico in Estero, FL. We clearly stated we wanted tickets to An American Carol and were excited to see it. We asked the guy if it was crowded and he said no with delight. I then noticed our ticket said for Appaloosa! I knew it wasn't by accident, In all my 49 years of going to the movies (a lot) this has never happened. How coincidental that it happened with this political satire movie! I complained to the manager who looked to be all of 25 at the most and she said it was an error. Of course. Be forewarned and tell others -- the Liberals want this movie to fail!!! It is well worth seeing -- laughed constantly. If this movie doesn't make people realize just how nutty the and far left the Democratic party has gone, then nothing will!

Posted by: April at October 07, 2008 09:05 AM (vrl6S)

29 I've worked in the movie business my whole career. I've worked on some great films, and some dogs. I've never heard a more pathetic, whining excuse for a failed movie than yours. Time to grow up if you want to play in the bigs. You were beat by a chihuahua. Deal with it.

Posted by: Green at October 07, 2008 09:09 AM (p7vLy)

30 Is little miss atila a moron or something? Can't be that more Americans would rather see a talking dog than a political movie? yeah. Must be a 'conspiracy'. I think William Ayers had something to do with this.

Posted by: Timpundit at October 07, 2008 09:11 AM (AgR20)

31 also, the Community Reinvestment Act and Clinton's penis are at fault.

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 09:22 AM (R1ds/)

32 larkspur, rÂ€nato, etc: Sneer all you want, but there are documented cases of liberal bookstore employees hiding conservative books, and even boasting of it. For instance, here are a few quotes taken from the Borders Books employees union website about 4-5 years ago: "We're 'finding' [note those quotation marks] that most of the few copies we're getting are damaged and need to be sent back. So sad. Too bad, Bushies! Regnery needs to be more careful. I'm hearing from people at two other stores that this seems to be common." "You guys don't actually HAVE to sell the thing! Just "carelessly" hide the boxes, 'accidentally' drop them off pallets, 'forget' to stock the ones you have, and then suggest a nice Al Franken or Michael Moore book as a substitute. Borders wants those recommends [sic], remember?" "I don't care if these Neanderthals in fancy suits get mad at me [fancy suits?]. They aren't regular customers anyway. Other than 'Left Behind' books, they don't read. Anything you can do to make them feel unwelcome is only fair." Charming.

Posted by: pst314 at October 07, 2008 09:25 AM (OA547)

33 A Conservative's Weekly To-Do List Monday: Blame minorities Tuesday: Blame Clinton (or Carter if you feel like kickin' it old school) Wednesday: Blame illegal immigrants Thursday: Blame the media Friday: Blame feminists Saturday: Blame environmentalists Sunday: Blame evolution, atheists and abortion

Posted by: r€nato at October 07, 2008 09:25 AM (R1ds/)

34 Ugly, stupid fat and crazy is no way to go through life, dear.

Posted by: Foreigner at October 07, 2008 09:28 AM (dbXEu)

35 Hilarious. You know with a proper regimen of drugs and therapy your paranoia can be treated.. Face it, no one wants to see this turkey of a movie, except Kool-Aid swilling wingnuts like you.

Posted by: Gus at October 07, 2008 09:47 AM (Xb3iy)

36 Was Hillary Clinton seen flying over the theaters in a black helicopter?

Posted by: Magic Dog at October 07, 2008 09:52 AM (DMHwf)

37 When I go into stores that sell books, I stack left wing books over the right wing trash. You'll never find a copy of any Man Coulter book on the top of the stack in my Costco. Wow, it feels really good to get that off my chest. I won't stop though. Evah! I heard Scarah Palin's reading list consists of Starbuck's cups and Bazooka Joe comics, is that true?

Posted by: Tim O at October 07, 2008 10:17 AM (jPfKm)

38 "This happened to me and my husband this past Sunday, Oct. 5th at 1:15 pm at Muvico in Estero, FL." Congratulations, April. The first step towards getting help is admitting that you have a problem. Coming forward and admitting what an idiot you are--what guts, what courage, what intestinal fortitude it must take! Please join me in wishing April and her husband all the best in their struggle against paranoid delusional lunacy. And always remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean everyone's not out to get you.

Posted by: comsympinko at October 07, 2008 10:24 AM (Ht9QK)

39 Forty One!!!11!

Posted by: comsympinko at October 07, 2008 10:43 AM (Ht9QK)

40 Oh Teh Stupid! Make it stop!

Posted by: Twinky Winky Palin at October 07, 2008 11:37 AM (diuxU)

41 When you get a troll convention, you must be on to something. Nothing to see here. Move along. Next you will tell us that the Left has gotten its teeth into education and the the judiciary. Like that would ever happen! I think we have the cast for a real snuff film. We can use one of those Bush detention camps that the Left is always talking about. The ones where all the Leftist are safely ensconced out of earshot and alway from computers. Good thing you installed that viral tracking software a few years ago, AG. We must have missed a few. Million. Obama is up in the polls. The same ones that had Gore and Kerry a shoe-in eight and four years ago, respectively. If it ain't broke. . . third time's a charm. . . Etc.

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 11:50 AM (u/4DC)

42 Let me see if I have this clear: 1) It's legitimate, if you work in a retail bookstore, to hide books that might have a centrist or center-right slant, so they will not be purchased. 2) It's insane and paranoid to suggest that any theater employee would stoop to similar tactics.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 07, 2008 11:50 AM (TpmQk)

43 The only documented cases I have seen of "changed tickets" are like the comment above where the film was Apaloosa. In other words, a film that is running in its second, third, or fourth week. It is not uncommon for movie theaters to divert money to movies in their second, third, or fourth weeks instead of the ticket being purchased for a movie in its first week. The motive here is simply greed. The theater takes a higher percentage of the ticket price the longer a movie is in the theater. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of those people who bought Beverly Hills Chihuahua tickets wound up with Apaloosa tickets, too. The theaters make more money that way. Now, this doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough that people notice on occasion. Given that An American Carol was playing on 1700 screens and that movie theaters--even chains--operate fairly independently, it would be tough for any kind of "conspiracy" to take place. A more likely scenario is this: 1) People didn't want to see it because political movies generally don't do well. Ask the makers of "Rendition" and "Stop-Loss" about that. 2) Of those few who did see it, the political nature of the film made them more likely to notice the fairly common practice of printing the "wrong ticket" for a first run movie. 3) Low box office numbers reflected #1. 4) As a result of #3, the political nature of the film and because of some people's need to perpetually feel like victims, people put #2 and 3 together and: 5) Instant conspiracy theory!

Posted by: Alex Knapp at October 07, 2008 12:14 PM (lhJxs)

44 Bookstores want to sell books. Movie theater operators want to fill the seats and sell popcorn. If you can't find the book, ask for it. If the employee won't help you, ask to see the manager. Stop whining and get down to business. It is hard to see how theater employees could "stoop to similar tactics". They can't hide the theater. If your local multiplex isn't showing the movie you want, you and your friends should call and ask for it. If they think they can sell seats, they're not going to let their employees - who apparently, to your mind, have really impressive discretionary powers - monkeywrench it. If you buy a ticket for AAC and the ticket reads Appaloosa, open your mouth and say, "Hey, this is the wrong ticket". Jeepers.

Posted by: larkspur at October 07, 2008 12:19 PM (1q3Wo)

45 "If you can't find the book, ask for it. If the employee won't help you, ask to see the manager..." And if the manager won't help you, contact the company. And if the company won't help you, write your Congresscritter." And if your Congresscritter won't help you, write a comment to a blog. And be called paranoid by trolls--even though it won't matter any more because the product is no longer available because no one could find it. If you find yourself in the Gulag, don't blame the party. Sage advice.

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 12:48 PM (u/4DC)

46 Obama is up in the polls. The same ones that had Gore and Kerry a shoe-in eight and four years ago, respectively. If it ain't broke. . . third time's a charm. . . Etc. Show me some polls from this time or any other time in 2000 or 2004 that show something like this or this or this or this in Gore or Kerry's favor. Or are you just making stuff up? Hint, don't waste your time because you won't find any.

Posted by: Pimple Faced Kid at October 07, 2008 01:09 PM (bNvJk)

47 Like this one? October 07, 2004 A new Associated Press poll finds that Kerry leads President Bush by 4%. Likely Voters Bush 46% Kerry 50% The poll was taken October 4-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. I wouldn't make anything up. That's the Leftist pollers' job. Research proves research works.

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 01:22 PM (u/4DC)

48 "Gore surges into 10-point poll lead as Republican campaign falters" Princeton Survey Research Associates for Newsweek magazine. "The Gallup poll gave Al Gore a two-point lead on Oct. 2, the night before the first presidential debate. The next night Mr. Gore jumped to an eight-point lead, even though the bulk of that evening's interviews were conducted before the debate was over. By Oct. 4 the Gore lead had grown to 11 points." Or even after the fact like Rolling Stone's-- "I. The Exit Polls The first indication that something was gravely amiss on November 2nd, 2004, was the inexplicable discrepancies between exit polls and actual vote counts. Polls in thirty states weren't just off the mark -- they deviated to an extent that cannot be accounted for by their margin of error. In all but four states, the discrepancy favored President Bush.(16) Over the past decades, exit polling has evolved into an exact science. " Yeah, an exact science. Like AGW. Why do we even bother to hold elections? Obama, hear our cries and spare us the cost of the election! Just move in NOW! Ascend!

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 01:34 PM (u/4DC)

49 As it happens, I go into bookstores a lot. If it's an indie/used bookstore, there's always something cool to drool over or maybe buy. But if it's a chain store, and I want anything on current events that's even vaguely libertarian/thoughtful (say, I've got a hankering for Virginia Postrel's latest, or a specific Thomas Sowell volume), I am SOL, because they stock mostly left-leaning crap and a few books by the most simplistic, non-analytical, boring "right-wing"/populist writers they can find. Why on earth would I order the book I really want and then have to go back to retrieve it? I do what any sentient being would: I come home and order it from Amazon that evening. Literature, one can get at a bookstore. History, also. And past releases of lots are at those lovely, dangerous, second-hand bookstores. Current editions/recent releases of economics, political thought, cultural trends? Unlikely I'll find what I want. I browse at Barnes and Noble, but I buy from Amazon.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 07, 2008 01:56 PM (TpmQk)

50 Wow, what a seething mass of trolls we have here. When you get a troll convention, you must be on to something. Exactly.

Posted by: Desert Cat at October 07, 2008 02:28 PM (6go9w)

51 The beautiful thing was, I wasn't even trying. I mean, what if I tried to get under their tissue-thin skins? Wouldn't be fair: I can see their internal organs from here. There are a couple of you leftards who have fatty livers; I'd go get that checked out, while it can still be arrested. And one of you smokes even more than Big D, so you really ought to cut back a bit, mmkay?

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 07, 2008 02:39 PM (TpmQk)

52 "Hint, don't waste your time because you won't find any." Besides, your Kool-Aid will get warm! Global warming, you know. Now drink up! Go check the MSNBC website and see what you really should be talking about! Obama loves me, this I know. His sacred website tells me so! Bill and Bernadette who????

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 02:47 PM (u/4DC)

53 Why did Darrell hijack the thread? We were discussing the idiocy of the idea that there was a nationwide conspiracy by theater employees to deny the honest moviegoing public the chance of a lifetime to pay $10 to see a desperately unfunny "political comedy" written by a psychopath. I thought all you wingnuts stayed on message.

Posted by: comsympinko at October 07, 2008 03:03 PM (Ht9QK)

54 Wow. You right wingers do really see boogeymen and conspiracies around every corner. If the movie was any good, it would have performed thusly. Conservatives are notoriously terrible at humor (see Half Hour Comedy Hour). So the only people going to see this are the people who still think GWB is doing a good job and that is a quickly shrinking pool. But go ahead and scream at the sky. It is your right as an American. But don't cry foul when your product already stinks.

Posted by: fadgeophile at October 07, 2008 03:07 PM (Qmm20)

55 BTW - Your AAC Fraud site (LOLzers!) is 404 Not Found.

Posted by: fadgeophile at October 07, 2008 03:11 PM (Qmm20)

56 Yeah and all those sold-out 2 AM showings of "An Inconvenient Truth" where no one was present in the theater (via deals with theater owners and higher-than-normal splits) didn't inflate its opening numbers. Build a better mouse trap and they will come! Even if you hide it in the back of the drawer. I apologize for horning in on the trolls' sacred right to lead and inform public opinion. I forgot you had the monopoly, nutroots!

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 03:19 PM (u/4DC)

57 "BTW - Your AAC Fraud site (LOLzers!) is 404 Not Found." Ahhh, the nutroots strike back! The monopoly is safe! Take down all opposing opinions!

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 03:26 PM (u/4DC)

58 Out of curiosity, do you know how asinine you sound and just don't care...or do you believe you're making some sort of sense here? P.S. - Who is the drawing at the top-left supposed to be?

Posted by: Bubba at October 07, 2008 03:43 PM (1ILln)

59 "The fact is, the movie isn't that far-right. Just patriotic, and a big tough on Michael Moore." This is irrelevant. The point you're missing is that it is supposed to be a comedy that practically all reviewers state isn't funny. There is no problem with mismatched names on tickets if you consult anything before choosing what to see and anything you do check tells you not to see this film.

Posted by: s3n at October 07, 2008 03:47 PM (uVNS1)

60 No, hum a few bars. . . The next VP of the United States. Or LMA. You choose. We alll win! Permission to go bat-shit crazy. You've earned it!

Posted by: Darrell at October 07, 2008 03:47 PM (u/4DC)

61 This DID happen to me on Saturday. I saw American Carol, but was sold a ticket to Eagle Eye, instead. I didn't notice until I was in line for popcorn, and I didn't think anything of it until I heard this rumor today. This was in Florida.

Posted by: Productive Slacker at October 07, 2008 04:03 PM (ZaGFX)

62 I have two questions: 1) Among those of you who came here to criticize An American Carol, how many of you have seen it? Be honest, now. Or are you just taking some reviewer's word for it? 2) Were the movies that Zucker made before he drifted rightward funny? Was there humor in Airplane!? How about Naked Gun? Kentucky Fried Movie? The Police Squad TV series? 3) Don't even start with me about The Half-Hour News Hour: comedy writers can sometimes write drama, but drama writers [such as the ones Surnow, bless his heart] recruited for The Half-Hour News Hour] were drama writers who thought they could be funny. After all, how hard could it fucking be? (Well--ask the guys who created the X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen. That worked out real well, huh? Lasted all of 15 minutes. For comedy, hire comedy writers; it's a lot harder than it looks, whether it's slapstick-style or something subtler, like . . . . oh, let's say Warner Brothers cartoons.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 07, 2008 04:12 PM (TpmQk)

63 1) I'd really like to see where I used the word "conspiracy" in this blog entry. Perhaps someone could point that out to me. Nationwide release; evidence of incorrect tickets (whether via error or an attempt at petty fraud) at ten theaters doesn't constitute a conspiracy. No how, no way. Sure; the producers and distributors would like to know if this is part of a more widespread pattern. But I didn't use the word "conspiracy" at all. Neither, to my knowledge, did Mpower or Vivendi. Perhaps you have me mixed up with Mrs. Clinton, who liked to use that word twice in a single sentence? Otherwise, I am perplexed as to how you made that inference from my post. 2) "The movie isn't funny. I know, because I haven't seen it." Okay. Does that work with sushi? How about broccoli rabe? Peach cobbler? Just askin'. 3) Larkspur seems to feel that I'm somehow aggrieved if I don't find what I want at my local bookstore. Absolutely not: these people either want my money, or they don't, and it doesn't matter a damn because I love to browse. They get my dough on magazines of every sort, music, calendars, art books, or on material by the Sedarises. But I'm not going to buy some sort of lowest-common-denominator populist/"right-wing" non-intellectual crap because that's suppsedly what I want. I come home and order it here, and it shows up several days later. In the meantime I've got consumer magazines, a copy of Foreign Affairs, and whatever odd volume I picked up by David Foster Wallace. Everyone wins. There is nothing to be unhappy about there. Nothing at all. Though the local store would have got more of my dough if they had stocked more Postrel and Sowell. But I'm a libertarian, and it's a private business, and they ought to do as they like.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 07, 2008 11:22 PM (TpmQk)

64 Of over a dozen theaters within 25 miles from my home only one is showing American Carol. I will drive the 40 minutes to see it. There are two types of movies and books currently kept in the shadows by the America hating media/business complex: those critical of Muslims and those critical of the movement to destroy America which is led by liberals and dems. Note how much enjoyment some of the freaks here get out of what is, effectively, censorship? They are today's book burners -- the American Brown Shirts. They froth at the mouth with joy because they've made it difficult for Americans to see a frickin movie!

Posted by: onlytruth at October 08, 2008 03:29 AM (Ms/pN)

65 Or are you just taking some reviewer's word for it? No, we're just taking every single reviewer's word for it.

Posted by: kiki at October 08, 2008 04:02 AM (jcGST)

66 Its called "losing". Your side is "losing". Get used to it. It's not a conspiracy- its just that your ideas and image suck. Losing. Get used to it.

Posted by: jm at October 08, 2008 08:18 AM (73vmE)

67 onlytruth, I think I can safely say that neither Attila Girl nor I think that the topics discussed here concern censorship. Thank you, AG, for continuing to allow me to comment. I appreciate the opportunity.

Posted by: larkspur at October 08, 2008 08:20 AM (quAN7)

68 -laugh- The McCan't/Darth Stalin sheep are upset ... because their movie sucks? So of course, like good Republinazis, they blame anything else besides themselves. Look. 'An American Carol' sucks, plain and simple. It isn't worth two turds on a shingle. Okay? Got it? That, along with its disturbing racism, homophobia, and rank, vile use of 9/11 to generate laughs, should tell you all you need to know about it. Sorry, Repukes: your movie sucks, your canditate for president sucks, your philosophy sucks. And the American people know it. Move on.

Posted by: Shawn Michel de Montaigne at October 08, 2008 10:16 AM (mPnJU)

69 "This is not political." Larkspur, if clerks hide books and boast that they are suppressing political speech they disapprove of, how is that not political?

Posted by: pst314 at October 08, 2008 10:16 AM (OA547)

70 It's highly amusing that you leap to this fancifully constructed tale of a Grand Conspiracy without taking into account that the real reason for its tanking at the box office is that it's a Wretched Steaming Pile of Crap -- very poorly conceived, very poorly written and really, REALLY not funny.

Posted by: Sean at October 08, 2008 10:21 AM (WX8EQ)

71 "If the movie was any good, it would have performed thusly. Conservatives are notoriously terrible at humor" Yeah. The guy who made "Airplane!" -- one of the most popular comedies of all time -- is notoriously terrible at humor. Personally, I'm amused by all the lefties commenting on how godawful terrible the movie is. Did y'all see it or are you just talking out yer asses? Also -- "ometimes bookstores don't even order or stock books they don't want.... Bookstores are for-profit enterprises: they are not required under any statute to order every darn book that gets printed" No, but movie theaters are frequently bound by contract to run certain movies, or movies from certain studios. Also, _chain_ bookstores _are_ bound to stock certain books that the chain headquarters tells them too.

Posted by: Stephen R at October 08, 2008 11:51 AM (+WnBv)

72 What a perfect Christmas gift the DVD will make for all our liberal friends! It will make a wonderful bonus, too, for all our employees--instead of cash this year. Got to save that to pay for all the new taxes, like carbon sequestration, that are already in the pipeline. Play games with fraudulent votes or movie placements/ ticket sales--and call yourselves winners. Maybe your moms can buy you another fake trophy to put on your bookshelf to go with the ones she got you to boost your self esteem when you sucked at t-ball, little league, soccer, school, etc. Get it on iTunes immediately or some other pay-per-view universal access site and see if people will support it. "Religulous" is playing near me: "American Carol" is not. Bet that's the case for a whole lot of people.

Posted by: Darrell at October 08, 2008 12:24 PM (6nrLF)

73 1) Censorship is, by definition, something conducted by the government. 2) The phenomenon of centrist/libertarian/center-right points of view being locked out of entertainment and media is much more complex, and can partially be attributed to certain "gadflies" who say silly, outrageous things to get noticed. But part of it is that at every lunch meeting or party someone makes that "joke" about what an idiot Bush is, or how silly it is to go on the offense against Islamic extremists who want to kill all Jews and Americans, and all one can manage is a weak smile. That tells the ediotor/casting director/producer that either one is some sort of humorless stiff, or that one's point of view is THAT MINORITY POSITION--the one we don't want on this project. Which is why most Hollywood conservatives (unless they work in the action genre, which is an exception for several reasons) are in the closet.

Posted by: Attila Girl at October 08, 2008 12:37 PM (TpmQk)

74 Wow, is the crazy right REALLY that crazy? paranoid? silly? D: All of the above

Posted by: Justin at October 08, 2008 02:58 PM (20rf5)

75 One child left behind.

Posted by: Darrell at October 08, 2008 03:07 PM (6nrLF)

76 Aw, conservatives just aren't funny--on purpose. This is much funnier than the movie, and it's free.

Posted by: TiddlyWinks at October 10, 2008 12:16 PM (H1is9)

77 Obama sucks the humor from your Leftist 'souls'. Your wallets are next. You are the "From" in "From each according to". You are not the "To"in the corollary.

Posted by: Darrell at October 10, 2008 12:44 PM (lESZc)

78 Darrell, you really need to chill out before you accidentally choke to death on all of the foam around your mouth. I don't think it's interesting, and sad, that people of your ilk are so egotistical about the 'rightness" of their own worldview that they can't do anything but ascribe negative motives (like "hating the country" or being 'fascist") to anyone who disagrees with them. Somehow, I'm able to have conservative friends (and family), and I manage to argue with them without accusing them of wanting to destroy America or of being unpatriotic. THOSE conservatives are worth listening to- the ones who can't argue ANYTHING without turning it into an ad hominem attack are not. I wonder, personally, how you manage to get around in a world where about 50% of people disagree with you without wandering around in a barely-manageable rage all the time. The other thing I think it's worth addressing is the reality disconnect here. Yes, my personal bias is to feel it's ludicrous to suggest what Attilla (great name, by the way- it always makes me stand up and trust someone's views when she gladly associates herself with a notorious tyrant, pillager, and rapist), but I would be able to stomach it a bit more of actual FACTS seemed at the very least relevant to the people arguing here. Again, I speak of Darrell, who says ""Religulous" is playing near me: "American Carol" is not. Bet that's the case for a whole lot of people," despite the FACT (you know, something verifiable with data), frequently mentioned already here, that "An American Carol" is playing in NEARLY THREE TIMES the theaters that "Religulous" is. Or the FACT that conservatives were in charge of the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches of our government for SIX YEARS (and had a large enough majority in the latter to make it impossible for Democrats to do anything for another two), Fox News Network and Rush Limbaugh have been pulling in ratings for many more than that, and yet you still find a way to blame Liberalism for everything wrong with this country? Oh, right- it's Liberal Hollywood's fault- so why does everybody in this supposedly oh-so-Conservative country keep going to the movies and watching TV? When "facts" are considered something to deny, ignore, and avoid by people, their arguments tend to lack heft. (Oh, another fact- there is documented evidence, from the perpetrators themselves, of "caged voting" and voter roll purges in the last two elections, performed not by Democrats, but by Republicans. And yet you go on about how we've "stolen" votes in an election which hasn't even taken place yet. How do you sleep at night?!?!)

Posted by: AC Walkere at October 11, 2008 01:55 PM (BRsgq)

79 "Yeah. The guy who made "Airplane!" -- one of the most popular comedies of all time -- is notoriously terrible at humor." Well, it's not like the man who made one "Blazing Saddles" had anything great since the mid-eighties. Likewise, I'd say David Zucker started going downhill once he stopped working as part of ZAZ. The film sucks on its own behalf, not as part of some conservatives-can't-be-funny meme.

Posted by: Noah at October 11, 2008 04:50 PM (wzCqT)

80 I find this whole site funny. Why are the far far-left called liberal. They are anything but. Liberal is supposed to mean open-minded. The left is worse than the christian right. They do not possess the ability to laugh at themselves and their idiosyncracsies because they are so enlightened. Do not ever say an african- American likes fried chicken and if an african- american is one who disagrees with their enlightened point of view they are uncle toms, i ought to know, but if they achieve success and they are left they are visionaries. What I love is the muslim faith is totally contrary to what the left stands for,but they are too big of pussies to say anything because they know that say if Bill Maher were to take them on for their beliefs ,he would be the recipient of either a tidy car bomb or mass protests to the point he would have to run and hide. I respect those people for that. However if your judeochristian and express any views contrary to them, you are villified because lefties know nothing will get done about it. If you are not tragically hip or enlightened like they are ,you will either be shouted down on a college campus or you will not get to speak. Like the old John Birch Society, the lefties are masters of censorship, and to me are the new Fascists of the world. They are not liberal

Posted by: lloyd mongo at October 14, 2008 12:51 AM (+FgTw)

81 American Carol cannot be seen in Bellingham WA, and I could NOT even find it in Seattle. I've been wanting to see it but this goes to show the liberals are the most intolerant group I've ever met. Case in point: If you ask the Gay groups what color on their rainbow symbol(conveying diversity) represents those that disagree with having sex with the same gender...they say..."Um....." My dollars will go elsewhere!!

Posted by: Randall Stradling at October 17, 2008 10:40 AM (m8ssH)

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An American Carol: Funny Even in NYC

h/t: Hot Air.

So make up for the so-so opening weekend by watching it this week; it'll be less crowded anyway!

Posted by: Attila Girl at 04:23 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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October 05, 2008

Not Good Enough, I'm Afraid. Please See American Carol One More Time This Week.

If you didn't see An American Carol Friday or Saturday night, you may redeem yourself by seeing it tonight.

If that isn't possible, you must see it within this coming week, because we are not, to say the least kicking ass. (Well, okay: we're officially at #7, but that's hardly what we accomplished with Passion of the Christ.)

Or you will have forfeited any right to complain that "Hollywood" never takes your point of view into account, and never makes movies that don't either overtly or covertly bash the troop.

Perhaps you feel good that Beverly Hills Chihuahua took top honors this weekend? Or that Bill Maher's Religulous made more money on fewer screens?

The movie is not 100% comedy, by the way: there are serious moments. When Jon Voight (who, by the way, spoke at the Palin rally in Carson yesterday) plays George Washington, he plays him 100% straight, and there isn't a laugh in that scene at all: just Michael Malone complaining that the church is dusty, and Washinton opening the doors so one can see the wreckage of the World Trade Center outside.

Because Malone, as the film's "Scrooge," has to have a moment of epiphany. That's when it starts, and the slapstick continues as the truth begins to sink in.

But as with "A Christmas Carol," An American Carol is about redemption.

So redeem yourself. Go see the movie within the week. If you do not, I'll know about it. I've never told any of you this, but I have eyes in the back of my head . . . it looks kind of funny, actually, and I have to be careful about how I comb my hair.

Go. Now. Thxbai.

UPDATE: Let me know if I need to reduce or crop the image; the entry's displaying fine on my browser, but one never knows.

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