America: The Motion Picture

America: The Motion Picture

The rowdy and blasphemous “America: The Motion Picture” will probably make people think of how fake patriotism was satirized in the hilarious “Team America: World Police,” but for me, it was more reminiscent of a Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy you know, the guys behind “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun.” Like those old laugh factories, it’s one gag after another using the formula of “if a joke doesn’t land, wait five seconds and maybe the next one will.”

Fans of any or all of that are likely to enjoy this movie, as well as Matt Thompson’s work as a director on his first feature after years of great animated television with shows like “Sealab 2021,” “Frisky Dingo,” and “Archer.” This is R-rated humor attacking grade school history with a sledgehammer. It plays like something eighth graders would make if they challenged each other to turn history homework into an action blockbuster. You know what would make all this history more exciting? Machine guns and Robocop.

“America: The Motion Picture” begins with the death of Abraham Lincoln (voiced by Will Forte), not at the hands of John Wilkes Booth but Benedict Arnold (Andy Samberg), who is also a werewolf. (You already know if this is your kind of movie from that sentence.) After seeing his best friend in office get beheaded by Benedict Arnold Javert fucking Wolfman, George Washington (Channing Tatum) swears vengeance.

To take down King James (Simon Pegg), who works for Arnold in this movie that I’m still not sure I believe exists even though I watched it twice, President BFF forms his own team of historic Avengers including raucous Sam Adams (Jason Mantzoukas), sharp-tongued Thomas Edison (Olivia Munn), awkward Paul Revere (Bobby Moynihan), heroic Geronimo (Raoul Trujillo), and even a blacksmith voiced by Killer Mike because why the fuck not. Judy Greer, “Archer” vet and everything else vet, voices Martha Washington, who gets pregnant with George’s child seconds after they have sex because he’s that much of an American hero.

Thompson is known for using an espionage structure in “Archer” to satirize societal norms and macho stupidity, and the same goes for writer Dave Callaham in “America,” where they take aim at false patriotism but also the failed potentiality of this nation. Producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller bring their trademark kinetic energy from films like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” even if parts of it feel weirdly dated; jokes about Blue Man Group, “The Transporter,” Kinkos, and Lynyrd Skynyrd make it seem like something that was written in a notebook many years ago, and a rewrite could have tightened it up immensely.

Sometimes it feels like “America” wants to be loud instead of funny often it’s both, but there were points where I got so exhausted by how aggressively obnoxious it was being that I wouldn’t blame anyone for tapping out (and I wonder if it would’ve been better served as a series; as much as I love “Archer,” even that would grow wearying after 98 minutes).

But funny wins over loud often enough. Mantzoukas is just hysterical, one of our best comedic actors who knows exactly how to play off his bro energy against other characters; here he gets paired with Sam Adams (the Founding Father), which gives him plenty of opportunities to lean into his American machismo.

More than anything else, though, what stood out to me about this movie was how fully everyone seemed to get what Thompson is going for they all embrace the dumbness while still understanding the weightiness of playing some of history’s most important figures. What’s more American than an action scene set at a baseball game with beer cans flying everywhere? One that features a Robocop centaur, obviously.

Watch America: The Motion Picture For Free On Gomovies.