Mark Reviews Movies: AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 30, 2021

The go-for-broke comedy of America: The Motion Picture does eventually achieve that goal. It ends up broke, with its mostly shallow gags, and broken, under the weight of so much randomness. The absurd spirit behind this animated free-for-all is admirable. The funniest thing about it, though, is the possibility that some poor high school student, assigned a report and somehow unaware of the history of the United States until that point in life, might decide to skip the history book and just watch this movie instead.

It opens with some familiar and accurate words: "We the people." Its first scene features the Second Continental Congress voting on a declaration to pronounce the American colonies' independence from Great Britain. That scene also revolves around the founding fathers playing a game of beer pong to decide whether to use "the people" or "rich, white men" as the opening phrase of the declaration. To be fair to Dave Callaham's screenplay, when it goes for satire, there's some pointed humor to this material. It's on-the-nose, too, but whoever said satire needed to be subtle?

There's nothing subtle about this movie, directed by Matt Thompson, as it imagines the founding fathers as a bunch of party-happy guys, fighting against the "fun police" of the British Empire over lots of rules and "something about taxation." Our hero, obviously, is George Washington (voice of Channing Tatum), who decides to put together a team of famous patriots and historical figures to fight the Brits and for the foundation of a new country. He's the only member of the revolutionaries remaining, by the way. The rest of them, after finalizing the Declaration of Independence, are brutally murdered by Benedict Arnold (voice of Andy Samberg), who proceeds to blow up the Pennsylvania State House where the meeting occurred.

George isn't present at the meeting, because he has an appointment for a night at the theater with his lifelong friend Abraham Lincoln (voice of Will Forte). In case it wasn't clear from the massacre of the congress, Callaham's goal here is more or less to throw as much of history into a blender as possible. Inaccuracies and anachronisms aren't just a quirk. They're seen as a virtue here, as well as the quickly repetitive foundation of the movie's humor.

Anyway, Honest Abe ends up being killed at the theater, although not by his actual and historically accurate assassin (who's running a souvenir booth—drum sting—in the lobby). His murderer is Benedict, who's also a werewolf.

A slight correction, perhaps, is in order at this point. The funniest thing about this movie—outside of the hypothetical scenario involving the ignorant and misled high school student—is the title screen's pronouncement that this is "based on actual history." It's technically true, in the broadest and loosest meanings of the words "true" and "technically." These people did exist, after all, and the American Revolution did happen. It's the broadness and looseness of the interpretation of that statement that's funny.

The rest of the plot involves George putting together his team: beer-brewing frat guy Samuel Adams (voice of Jason Mantzoukas), woman scientist Thomas Edison (voice of Olivia Munn), horse-loving Paul Revere (voice of Bobby Moynihan), and "not 'Chief'" Geronimo (voice of Raoul Max Trujillo). They're set to fight Benedict (hiding out at an unknown address in Gettysburg) and, arriving on the Titanic and floating on a hovering throne, King James (voice of Simon Pegg)—instead of George III, for reasons that only Callaham possibly could know, since this particular inaccuracy doesn't even have a joke to go along with it.

All of this is hit-or-miss or just downright out-of-left-field, and the characters, story, and backdrops are filled with so many jokes that it's almost impossible to keep up with the setups, let alone the punch lines. In addition to the onslaught of gags, the plot is also an excuse for an assortment of action sequences—a couple of chases (with horse-drawn carriages running like fast cars), a few bloody fights, and a climactic battle that blends science-fiction, fantasy, and the sight of doomsday device in the form of a pair of flying tea bags.

There's some amusing poking at the formula of generic action movies, while the animation looks and feels like a polished and beefed-up variation of the cartoons of the 1980s. Some of the political jabs (involving guns and racism and broken promises) are cleverly prodding. The final punch line, with another fight after the war has been won, is particular cutting.

Overall, though, America: The Motion Picture is a mixed bag of smart and far less smart ideas, as well as jokes that work or kind of work or seem to just exist for no particular reason. That's clearly the point, so there's little to offer but a shrug and a declaration of a job done—not well, but done, regardless.

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