READER FRED LA SOR EMAILED LAST NIGHT THAT HE SAW AN AMERICAN CAROL:

I just saw An American Carol. You need to understand, I almost never go to movies — the last one I saw was Mystic River, more than 2 years ago (and that is one of the reasons I don’t go very often — seemed like a pointless movie if the violence and profanity were removed.) An American Carol has some genuine funny parts, and the silver-haired audience sitting around me enjoyed those parts as much as I did. Come to think of it, my hair is silver too. Some of the slapstick was a little over the top for me, but I don’t take slapstick well. The general theme of the movie is laudable, and I liked the vehicle it was hung on (a July 4th picnic where a grandfather tells his grandkids a parable of sorts). I purposely went to see it on opening day — something else I virtually never do — and was disappointed that in northern Nevada (Carson City) the theater was less than 1/4 filled. I hope it does better in other parts of the country. I encourage conservatives to give it a go. Even if you don’t like it, patronizing An American Carol is better than the typical Hollywood fare.

I saw a rough cut at the RNC and thought it was quite funny; I especially liked Kelsey Grammer as George S. Patton.

UPDATE: Reader Linda White emails: “I, too, was compelled to attend the opening day of An American Carol – the 3:30 pm matinee in Franklin, TN. I arrived during the previews so I couldn’t really tell how many folks were in the audience. I’m not sure political themes translate particularly well into slapstick comedy, but the message was clear: the external threat is being increased by home-grown ‘hate-America-first’ crowd. Also, there were a few script lines early on that were funny, but the audience didn’t seem to ‘get it’. Nevertheless, the audience spontaneously applauded the movie as it ended. Voight was really good as Gen. Geoge Washington. I’ll buy the DVD when it comes out.”

And Alex Nunez writes: “I wouldn’t place too much stock in An American Carol’s theatrical performance. It’d be great to see a big box-office number, but where I expect this to do really well is DVD. The studio’ll push it hard on every righty radio show and have ads on the blogs. Watching at home is so much less of a hassle that nowadays, I’m much more likely to click on Amazon and drop 15-20 bucks on a DVD I now own forever than I am to go to the multiplex for what’s become a pretty expensive evening. If Zucker and co. are smart, this’ll be on store shelves by December and in a lot conservatives’ stockings on Christmas day. Money has no identity, hence, if it makes a killing on DVD after a potentially lackluster theatrical run (I’m not trying to jinx it here, I’m just saying), it’ll be just as successful in the eyes of the people who financed it and help encourage the production of more films like it down the line.”

Good point. It takes a lot to get me into the theater these days, and I don’t think I’m alone. But I buy a lot of DVDs.