What if you could re-imagine “Hamilton” as an animated, historical-comedy-gorefest?
“America: The Motion Picture” Rated: R. On Netflix Grade: C- What if you could re-imagine “Hamilton” as an animated, historical-comedy-gorefest, featuring a modern idiom-spewing George Washington (Channing Tatum) with chainsaws, a beer-inventing frat boy Sam Adams (Jason Mantzoukas), a one-armed, bitterly anti-colonial Geronimo (Raul Max Trujillo), a scientist named Thomas Edison (Olivia Munn), who turns out to be a Chinese immigrant and a woman and a werewolf Benedict Arnold (Andy Samberg)? Just in time for Independence Day, “America: The Motion Picture,” featuring pop culture references and for some reason super-buff founding fathers, from director Matt Thompson (“Archer”), has some of the DNA of “Team America: World Police” (2004) to be sure. But Thompson’s sophomoric film, which was written by Dave Callahan (“Wonder Woman 1984,” “Mortal Kombat”), has little to none of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s raucous subversive and irreverent humor. In opening scenes, we learn that the famous words, “We the people,” might have been, “Us rich guys.
