All American Christmas Carol (2013)

It is a performances centric movie

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A white-trash mom is visited by three ghosts intent on showing her a path to a brighter future.This film was watched as part of Eric Roberts Appreciation Day (April 18), and Roberts plays the Ghost of Christmas Present. As far as all the many different versions of this story are concerned, this is not the best one. Not even close. In fact, it is a wonder why they keep making such films at all with the story being done to death.Despite this, the cast is pretty decent. These may not be A-listers, but Roberts is a known face ,and even Taryn Manning probably has her following. Maybe this is worth watching once around Christmas time, but I doubt anyone is going to make it a Christmas tradition like they would with "Scrooged" or "Muppet Christmas Carol".

I have always loved Charles Dicken's classic, A Christmas Carol. I have seen literally dozens of adaptations of it and I still find it to be one of the greatest things ever written. All American Christmas Carol is a redneck take on the story, and while it wasn't a bad film, it wasn't what I thought it would be. Cindy (Taryn Manning) is a single mother, who has three kids from three different men, and she's not even thirty. Her drunken, partying life style doesn't even cover the bills to keep her three kids, Harley (Tristan Lake Leabu), Skoal, and Cheese Doodle in their trailer. Her life and family are headed for disaster, when Harley's father, aptly named Jake Marley, dies in a paintball accident. After the funeral those three ghosts we all know and love show up and try to put Cindy on the right path. This film was unrated and had all the makings of another terrific raunchy Christmas film. I was expecting Bad Santa, instead I got it's Duck Dynasty-esq PG-13 cousin. Kill Theories, Taryn Manning stars and she was great, she was far more believable than any of the ghosts and really made you feel for her character. The other stand out in the film is young Tristan Lake Leabu, who plays her oldest son, Harley. Harley is the man of the house at the ripe old age of 13. With the hilarious redneck antics going on around him, it's hard to remember that he's doing a man's job at a child's age. Leabu played the both sides of this character and did so with the ease of an actor far beyond his years. This is not your typical Christmas Carol, it's not all that raunchy either, but for it was, I was pretty entertaining. I wish they had taken it to the next level and really gone all out with the comedy, but still it didn't take that much away from the film. Rednecks let this film be a warning to you, if you don't do more than drink and have sex, the ghosts of loved ones passed will haunt you and it will be hilarious.