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Last week writer-director David Zucker told the Los Angeles Times that Vivendi Entertainment, which is distributing his anti-liberal spoof An American Carol, had decided not to screen the movie for critics because "most reviewers don't agree with the politics, which put the movie at risk." Well, the critics got a look at the film over the weekend and demonstrated that the studio had good reason to be concerned, although politics may not have been the only factor driving the film's largely negative notices. Gary Goldstein's review in the Los Angeles Times runs just 207 words. "If An American Carol contained any real bite or intelligence, those so inclined could've legitimately griped about its shallow anti-liberalism," Goldstein comments, "But given that this supremely silly satire ... plays more like something slapped together to beat an expiration date, it's hard to get too worked up about it." Rafer Guzm?n in Newsday does get worked up about the movie, writing, "With this hamfisted, haranguing film, Zucker joins the ranks of those who are so convinced of their own correctness, so full of hatred for anyone with other views, that they've crossed the line from humorists to dogmatists." And Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer concludes that the movie "is about as not-funny as a comedy can get."