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Wouldn’t it be cool if the American Revolution had lots of swearing and pop-culture references? That’s about as far as the creators of the animated comedy America: The Motion Picture have considered their film’s premise. Overall, that vulgar approach runs its course about five minutes into the 98-minute movie. Despite using several celebrity voices and recognizable characters, the film suffers from a lack of coherent and clever writing.
America: The Motion Picture is directed by Matt Thompson, a longtime producer and writer on FX’s Archer. Instead of recruiting Archer writers, who are well familiar with satirical and crass comedy, the screenplay comes from Dave Callaham. Known for his work on blockbuster action movies including The Expendables and Wonder Woman 1984, Callaham throws in plenty of action, but his sense of humor is juvenile — especially compared to the sophisticated wit and layered approach of Archer. The parody elements of America: The Motion Picture are barely a step above notorious lowbrow spoofers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer.
America: The Motion Picture opens at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which has been reimagined to take place over beer pong. The triumphant moment is interrupted by the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold (Andy Samberg), who slaughters all of the Founding Fathers in attendance and destroys the document. Arnold is plotting with Great Britain’s King James (Simon Pegg) to quash the colonial rebellion and has seemingly succeeded.
Luckily, one Founding Father is not at the signing. George Washington (Channing Tatum) is instead out at the theater with his best friend Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte) — one of several later historical figures anachronistically inserted into the story. They’re at a performance of Red, White and Blue Man Group, when Arnold shows up, turns into a werewolf, and kills Lincoln, who fulfills his historical destiny of being assassinated at the theater.
Anguished over his friend’s death, Washington vows to take up the revolutionary cause that Lincoln believed in and he puts together an Avengers-style team to take on Arnold, King James and the British army. That team includes Sam Adams (Jason Mantzoukas), a beer-brewing frat bro with racist ideals; Paul Revere (Bobby Moynihan), a weird loner whose only friend is his horse; Thomas Edison (Olivia Munn), a Chinese immigrant with scientific weaponry that rivals Iron Man’s; and Geronimo (Mayans M.C.‘s Raoul Max Trujillo), a Native American tracker and wanted criminal.
What follows is a lot of violence and raunchy humor, all of which seem designed primarily for shock value; but there’s nothing shocking about the kind of thing a fifth-grader might doodle in their American History textbook. The jokes mistake simply mentioning the existence of something for making a humorous observation. When he arrives in America, King James travels on the Titanic and talks like Star Wars‘ Emperor Palpatine, but there’s no joke there other than that both the filmmakers and viewers are familiar with Titanic and Star Wars.
Throughout the rest of the movie, there are weak puns like a theater showing Our American Cousin Vinny, random references to pop-culture figures ranging from obvious — like John Wick or The A-Team — to fairly obscure ones — the Jason Statham Transporter movies. Merely making a reference is enough for Callaham and Thompson to expect laughs, and the celebrity voice actors frequently repeat jokes to no avail. The only genuinely amusing bit in the film involves King James’ plan to use specially modified tea to literally turn the entire world British, but even that joke gets stretched far beyond its limited humor capacity.
Created in an animation style similar to Archer, Thompson features distinctive-looking characters as well as stages huge action sequences with the proper scale and intensity. If America: The Motion Picture were the kind of straightforward action movie that Callaham has written in the past, the visuals would have no trouble conveying the scope and intricacy of battle. The character design is effective as well, finding a balance between old-time images of historical figures and the exaggerated blockbuster action heroes that the movie requires them to be. The version of Thomas Edison in America: The Motion Picture wouldn’t be out of place in a more straight-faced steampunk adventure.
That’s not what this movie is, though, and instead of embarking on a rousing adventure, the characters repeat the same inane catchphrases — like calling the British “the fun police.” Callaham and Thompson make occasional efforts at historical revisionist social commentary, but America: The Motion Picture is no Hamilton. There’s nothing here that could really be considered satire. As far as faux-patriotic adult animated movies go, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police is still far more incisive and funnier.
Starring the voices of Channing Tatum, Jason Mantzoukas, Olivia Munn, Andy Samberg, Simon Pegg, Raoul Max Trujillo, Bobby Moynihan, Judy Greer, Killer Mike and Will Forte, America: The Motion Picture is now streaming on Netflix.
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