Review of Scrooged (1988) by Melvin W — 07 Dec 2011

Lew Hayward: I don't mind you shooting at me, Frank, but take it easy on the Bacardi.

"The spirits will move you in odd and hysterical ways.".

Scrooged is at times funny, but not as funny as it needs to be, or as funny as I expected it to be. Still I managed to get a certain satisfaction out of watching Bill Murray play the "Scrooge" character of Frank Cross. With anyone else in that role, I don't think I would have been able to like the film at all. With Murray, the movie is at least entertaining because watching Murray is always entertaining.

The film follows the same plot as A Christmas Carol, just modernizing it and switching the characters to fit into the modern storyline a little better. Frank Cross is a selfish TV executive. He is a jerk in every way possible; forcing a mother to stay late when she has to take her mute son to the doctor and declining his brothers Christmas dinner invitation yearly. He then is met by the ghost of his old boss that tells him that three ghosts are going to visit him. The two ghosts that talk are pretty annoying and in no way help the movie at all, which they should have.

You could do a lot worse when it comes to Christmas movies and this one deserves a look. It merits a watch ever two or three Christmas's, but in no way is it ever going to become a holiday tradition in my household. It's a decent retelling of a story that, I guess, needs to be told a million times. This isn't the best version of it, but it certainly isn't the worst either.