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America: The Motion Picture
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = America: The Motion Picture
| image = America_the_motion_picture.jpg
| caption = Official release poster
| director = Matt Thompson
| writer = Dave Callaham
| producer =
| starring =
| editing = Christian Danley
| music = Mark Mothersbaugh
| studio =
| distributor = Netflix
| released =
| runtime = 98 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget =
}}
'America: The Motion Picture' is a 2021 American adult animated comedy film directed by Matt Thompson (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Dave Callaham. The film stars Channing Tatum (who also produced), Jason Mantzoukas, Olivia Munn, Bobby Moynihan, Judy Greer, Will Forte, Raoul Max Trujillo, Killer Mike, Simon Pegg, and Andy Samberg. It is an R-rated, animated parody of George Washington and his fight against the British. Netflix released the film on June 30, 2021. It received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized it as unfunny.
Overview
Style
The film makes massive use of anachronism, ahistoricism and Americentrism for comic effect. Dozens of dates and the roles of various historical figures are changed. Many facts, battles, notable inventions and technologies are changed, reinvented, or created from whole cloth. Many prominent events and figures from the war period and American history through to the 20th century are inserted into the film's 1776 setting.Plot
In January 1776, just after signing the Declaration of Independence, Benedict Arnold appears, murdering all its signatories, destroying Independence Hall, and stealing the Declaration. He then goes to Ford's Theatre, where George Washington and his childhood best friend, Abraham Lincoln, are watching a play. Arnold turns into a werewolf and kills Lincoln and destroys the Declaration. Before his death, Lincoln asks Washington to bring the American Revolutionary War to an end and to name the recovered country "America."At Lincoln's funeral, Washington meets Martha Dandridge, who urges him to continue the revolution after the two have sexual intercourse. In order to build a strong team, Washington teams up with party animal Samuel Adams, female Chinese scientist Thomas Edison, Native American hunter Geronimo, and equestrian champion Paul Revere. They manage to track down Arnold at the Vietnam bar. Although the enemy has fled, they conclude that the events in Vietnam were not a failure. They ask for help from master blacksmith John Henry, who is to make a silver bullet for them to kill Arnold. To get the silver, they go to Boston to steal the supply of silver spoons from the Titanic. On board the ship, they learn that the British are bathing people in tea to come over to their side. They also discover plans of a secret British superweapon but fail to retrieve them because they sink the ship prematurely. Sam then proposes to the others they will say the Titanic had hit an iceberg and that they were never there.
Arnold kidnaps Martha, who is to become the future wife of King James. Washington manages to find out about a Gettysburg address where Arnold meets the king at a secret meeting. The place turns out to be an ambush in which Clyde, Revere's horse, dies, sacrificing himself. King James appears at the Gettysburg address in the form of a hologram and offers Washington a battle the next morning at Attrition field, to which Washington agrees. Soon after, Arnold kills the king to take over the world himself. The next day, the British army stands up against the American army hastily assembled by Washington. On the side of the British, there are, among others, Elizabeth Tower in the form of a Transformer, London buses in the form of AT-ATs and Arnold flying in a crown-shaped ship. The side of the Americans consists of a hundred-foot tall Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, as well as Indians, Mexicans, African Americans, Asians, and Arabs, ravers and Revere who had fused himself with what was left of Clyde with nano-cybernetic technology by Clara Barton.
During the war, the British were trying to turn all revolutionaries British by tainting the clouds with tea and causing a tea rain. Edison, thanks to the power of science, manages to use the British weapons against them, turning tea into beer. When the beer rain falls, the British transform into American frat bros, and it also cures Martha from being one of the British, transforming her into a living Statue of Liberty. A final confrontation occurs against Arnold, who becomes a Mega Wolf until he is eventually defeated with a silver bullet from Henry, who kills him with America's pastime.
Six months later, on July 4, 1776, Washington inaugurates the grand opening of America at the monument of his name. As George plans for I. M. Pei to build another memorial for his best friend to stare at his monument, the spirit of Abe comes back. It gives him the Declaration, repaired with tape, while Samuel becomes George's uncle for his newborn son Denzel. The inauguration is disrupted as the crowd engages in a fight with each other, arguing over racism, abolitionism, women's rights, giving back the land to the natives, right to keep and bear arms, same-sex marriages, religious beliefs, free health care, and fair trials, making Washington nervous about the future of the country.
Cast
* Channing Tatum as George Washington
* Jason Mantzoukas as Samuel "Uncle Sam" Adams.
* Olivia Munn as Thomas Edison.
* Bobby Moynihan as Paul Revere
* Judy Greer as Martha Washington
* Will Forte as Abraham "Abe" Lincoln. Forte reprises his role from the 'The Lego Movie' films (20142019) and 'Michelangelo and Lincoln: History Cops' (2014).
* Raoul Max Trujillo as Geronimo
* Killer Mike as John Henry / Blacksmith
* Simon Pegg as King James
* Andy Samberg as Benedict "Cosby" Arnold.
* Carlos Alazraqui as Clyde
* Dave Callaham as I.M. Pei / LGBTQ Rights Activist
* Jeff Fastner as Ben Franklin
* Kevin Gillese as John Wilkes Booth / Titanic Guard
* Zebbie Gillese as Transporter / Bros / Manchester the Soccer Ball
* J. Larose as Native American Rights Activist
* Megan Leahy as Clara Barton
* Amber Nash as Women's Rights Activist / Anti-LGBTQ Rights Activist
* Eric Sims as Thomas Jefferson
* Mike Schatz as Fredrick Xavier Kinko / Hancock Supporter
* Matt Thompson as John Hancock / Colonist / Stand Your Ground Rights Activist
* Lucky Yates as Baseball Announcer / 2nd Amendment Rights Activist
Production
In March 2017, producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller announced that they would produce an R-rated animated Netflix original film called 'America: The Motion Picture' alongside Will Allegra, Matt Thompson, Adam Reed, Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan from a screenplay by David Callaham and directed by Thompson.
Critical reception
The website's critics consensus reads, "'America: The Motion Picture' is definitely outrageous and possibly patrioticproblem is, it's also not very funny." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Amy Nicholson of 'The New York Times' described the film as "a raunchy, aggressively inane cartoon that flips the bird both onscreen and thematically to a strain of patriotism that insists that the slave owners who started this country were sober-minded heroes whose vision of democracy remains flawless, bro." Inkoo Kang of 'The Washington Post' gave the film a score of 1.5/4 stars, writing: "The gulf between stupid-smart and just plain stupid feels immeasurably vast when watching 'America: The Motion Picture', which is clearly aiming for the former but lands squarely in the latter." Brian Lowry of CNN described the film as "a movie that's loud and annoying more than truly provocative, peppered with pop-culture references that prove cleverer than its rewrite of US history."
Steve Greene of 'IndieWire' gave the film a grade of C, describing it as "a goofy mishmash of riffs on prominent historical figures", and added: "Most of the time, its knowingly stupid, which makes watching it 90 minutes of occasional fun and frequent indifference." Melanie McFarland of 'Salon.com' wrote: "Rarely have I seen a movie so confident that its viewers not only revel in American benightedness but are eager to identify with it", and described the film as "not only a waste of time but an insult to ignoramuses." Bill Goodykoontz of 'The Arizona Republic' gave the film a score of 2.5/5 stars, writing that it "goes all in on its deranged version of the founding of the nation", but added: "It wears you down over time, but especially early on it's too satisfied just to be shocking and irreverent."
Michael Nordine of 'Variety' was more positive in his review, writing: "Though loyalists and sticklers for historical accuracy may not consider it their cup of tea, 'America' will likely win over anyone who knows not to take it too seriously." Randy Myers of 'The Mercury News' gave the film a score of 3/4 stars, writing: "Even when you think its only acting rude and juvenile just because, its much smarter than that, particularly whenever it skewers American attitudes (both conservative and liberal)."
References
Buy America: The Motion Picture now from Amazon
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