

#America the motion picture movie
Lincoln’s funeral is attended by JFK and both Presidents Roosevelt, but the most amusing thing about it is a throwaway gag whose pure goofiness stands out among visual jokes that too often rely on movie references. As a geyser of blood spurts from his neck, Lincoln makes Washington promise to free the colonies. The buds are out at Ford’s Theatre one night, seeing the Red White Blue Man Group, when Abe is brutally murdered by Benedict Cosby Arnold, who turns out to be not only a traitor but a werewolf. Thus does screenwriter Dave Callaham establish part of the movie’s storytelling conceit, in which all people found in history books are assumed to have lived at the same time, and probably to have played a lot of beer pong together. Tatum gives voice to George Washington, who in the days before the Revolution is best friends with Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte). Its producers include Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who might reasonably feel that, after turning LEGO blocks into a hit franchise, there’s no idea so dumb they can’t make it fun. The pic stars such comedic heavy-hitters as Channing Tatum, Judy Greer and Andy Samberg. Release date: Wednesday, June 30 (Netflix)Ĭast: Channing Tatum, Jason Mantzoukas, Olivia Munn, Bobby Moynihan, Judy Greer, Will Forte, Raoul Max Trujillo It might’ve been perfectly at home at the late, unlamented Quibi.
#America the motion picture series
Though it’ll likely leave some customers satisfied in its current form, it would be much easier to take as a series of very short, instantly forgettable episodes that pop up in one’s stream unpredictably. A throw-everything-against-the-wall collection of silly jokes that reimagines American history as a bro-tastic action flick, Matt Thompson’s animated film makes Drunk History look like a Ken Burns production. Then there’s Netflix’s America: The Motion Picture, which has the running time of a conventional feature, but feels less like an actual movie than most hour-and-a-half narratives you’re ever likely to see. Plenty of “limited series” are just very long movies chopped into episodes at the other end of the spectrum are longform music video/artfilm hybrids and featurettes, like Almodóvar’s The Human Voice, that fit neither a theatrical nor broadcast-TV business model. Among its many annoyances, the streaming revolution has at least expanded accessibility to work in formats that wouldn’t have been commercially viable a decade ago.
