Scrooged (1988)

Bill Murray is excellently cast as selfish TV executive Frank Cross in Richard Donner’s original take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Not short of adaptations, Donner sensibly opted to bring the story into the present, whilst keeping much of the core story; namely Frank being visited by ghosts from the past, present, and future as he learns the true meaning of Christmas during the course of the film. Set in the world of television, Donner presents the industry as the dog eat dog world it can be, especially before the explosion of technology in the nineties and into the new millennium, and watching Scrooged now does make you wonder what a modern adaptation would look like in the world of social media. God only knows. Murray has a blast in the role of Cross, and has support in the form of Elliot Goldthwait, Alfre Woodard and Karen Allen all on good form. But Murray makes the film his own, and although overlong and somewhat overstuffed, Scrooged does a good job of bringing Dickens’ tale into the present (even if it was indeed over thirty years ago). 6.3/10