Review of A Very Murray Christmas (2015) by Dan H — 04 Dec 2015

It's Christmas Eve, and Bill Murray is stuck doing the ultimate nightmare mess of a live Christmas variety special. The production value is awful, none of the guests have showed up, and he can't escape due to a nasty snowstorm that has him trapped in the hotel it's being filmed at.

Will Bill be able to save Christmas? Miley Cyrus, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Cera, Amy Poehler, Jenny Lewis, Rashida Jones, Paul Shaffer, Chris Rock, Phoenix, and George Clooney co-star.

Everyone does a fantastic job here, but "The King of Christmas" is easily Bill himself. He's a joy to watch, and he keeps us invested with his unique mixture of pathos and laughs. A Very Murray Christmas is a variety show, but is staged as a behind-the-scenes movie of a failing variety show.

It's a very unique idea, and it works surprisingly well. All the musical numbers fit in pretty easily into the narrative (especially a last act dream sequence that Bill Murray dreams up of what his ideal variety show would be).

A Very Murray Christmas is charming, creative, fun, and actually touching. I know that it filled me with Christmas spirit. So, I say spend the holidays with your good friend Bill.....what's the worst that could happen? (This movie also has an interesting connection to Scrooged: David Johansen, who played The Ghost of Christmas Past in Scrooged, appears here as himself).