Review of Scrooged (1988) by R96Sk — 22 Dec 2022

Surprisingly, I didn't enjoy 'Scrooged' all that much.

I never really clicked with this 1988 release whilst I was watching it. Bill Murray is fine, the Ghost of Christmas Past is good and the bits of the plot involving Alfre Woodard's character are decent. That's all I have for noteworthy positives, though. The vibe of the film felt off to me. I didn't connect with Murray's Frank at any point, whether it be the past, the present or the future version of him.

I get, as Scrooge, you're supposed to dislike him, but I've seen a fair few versions of 'A Christmas Carol' and I feel like the Scrooge character is usually moreso cowardly bad, as in he'll be horrid to people behind their back or under his breath - as opposed to Frank Cross, who is in your face, over the top, overtly mean. Perhaps I'm misremembering or it just stuck out to me more here as I didn't like much else from the 100 or so minutes.

For an Xmas flick, also, it doesn't hit the Christmassy spot either. It could've done with more warmth, or at least some entertaining and/or funny moments; I did minorly chuckle a few times, I will say, but not nearly enough. I still wouldn't describe this as a 'bad' film, but it is quite far adrift of being a positive in my books.

I thought this would've be a good'un, many think it is which is fair, but for me I unfortunately didn't particularly like it.