Scrooged

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