Scrooged

US (1988): Comedy/Fantasy

Frank Cross (Bill Murray) runs a US TV station which is planning a live adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Frank's childhood wasn't a particularly pleasant one, and so he doesn't really appreciate the Christmas spirit. With the help of the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future, Frank realizes he must change.

Most critics couldn't get behind Murray's modern retelling of Dickens's story, finding it too unfocused at times and not nearly wicked enough. Still, if you're a Murray fan, you have to enjoy his deliciously nasty portrayal of the world's meanest TV executive, who has his cathartic moment one cold Christmas night in New York City. The various ghosts lead him on a ghost-town tour of Manhattan, with stops at holidays past, present, and future and a Kumbaya moment when Al Green and Annie Lennox sing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." The effects are otherworldly, but one wishes the writing were as sharp as Murray's edgy portrayal. -- (Marshall Fine, Amazon.com)

 View a trailer for this film from VideoDetective.com.

1 nomination