The characters of color constantly point out that they’re likely to get a raw deal from Washington and Adams, who regularly make racist and sexist remarks. That’s especially true when the guys are recruiting more diverse allies like the expert tracker Geronimo (Raoul Trujillo) or Iron Man-style super-scientist Thomas Edison, who is recast as a Chinese-American woman voiced by Olivia Munn. Then it moves on, without any point or punchline.
The script, from writer Dave Callaham ( Wonder Woman 1984 and Mortal Kombat) repeatedly notes that the founding fathers were white men who really only cared about the interests of other white men. Washington seeks help from the beer-brewing frat-bro Sam Adams (a waste of Jason Mantzoukas’ oddball humor) and a socially awkward version of Paul Revere who dresses like a knight (Bobby Moynihan). That could be a recipe for some goofy fun to watch while highly intoxicated and celebrating the Fourth of July, but any goodwill provided by the concept or cast is utterly squandered by a film that packs in endless references without having anything whatsoever to say.
The aggressively anachronistic and ahistorical movie follows George Washington (Channing Tatum) as he tries to avenge the death of his childhood best friend Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte) by fighting the British forces led by Benedict Arnold (Andy Samberg), who is inexplicably a werewolf. Netflix’s animated feature America: The Motion Picture, which releases on June 30, feels like an attempt to walk the same line between mockery and actual jingoism.
While ridiculing the concept of American exceptionalism, writers Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady managed to actually defend America’s role as the biggest dicks in a world filled with assholes. 2004’s Team America: World Police was a scathing parody of American action movies, but also a legitimately excellent version of the genre’s tropes at work.