Scrooged

The spirits will move you in odd & hysterical ways
The spirits will move you in odd & hysterical ways
SCROOGED (PG)
D: Richard Donner
Paramount/Mirage (Richard Donner & Art Linson)
US 1988
101 mins

Comedy/Fantasy

W: Mitch Glazer & Michael O'Donoghue [based on the story "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens]
DP: Michael Chapman
Ed: Fredric Steinkamp & William Steinkamp
Mus: Danny Elfman
PD: J. Michael Riva


Bill Murray (Frank Cross), Karen Allen (Claire Phillips), John Forsythe (Lew Hayward), John Glover (Brice Cummings), Alfre Woodard (Grace Cooley), Bobcat Goldthwait (Eliot Loudermilk), Robert Mitchum (Preston Rhinelander)

This contemporary update of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol actually does a very good job recreating the story for the 20th century, starring Bill Murray, wonderfully despicable as a miserly TV executive visited by four ghosts who scare up some Christmas spirit in him and convince him to change his ways.
The ghostly makeup effects in this film are absolutely fantastic and had it not been for Beetlejuice, released the same year, it's almost certain this would have won the Academy Award for that category.
It's hectic, rambunctious (albeit inconsistent) fun with a wee dash of Yuletide sentimentality at the end, but the main reason it works is due to Bill Murray's deadpan comedy style, the perfect choice for a modern day Ebeneezer.
6/10

Bill Murray in Scrooge
Bill Murray in Scrooge