Karroll's Christmas

Nice premise but... extremely poor execution. The movie didn't know whether it wanted to be a comedy, a drama, a romance or Porky's Revenge with a foul mouthed ghost of the future lewdly commenting that there "wasn't a dry seat in the house" after Karroll's bended knee proposal to his girlfriend. The acting oscillates between cardboard stiff caricatures to over the top emotional extortion. The sets look like they snuck onto the soundstage of "Christmas With The Kranks" after hours and had movie-making 101 students do the lighting for free. The sloppy joke writing makes fun of everything from Sodomy in Hell with the Turkish guard from "Midnight Express" to a fat naked man wiping his face on a Magi's robe with the comment "we gotta lay off the myrrh." Don't watch this with your kids unless you're prepared to explain to them what is meant by the "open my ankles" line by a negligee modeling Carrie straddling her boyfriend on his bed.

This one is one real waste of time so don't bother.

Karroll's Christmas is one of 2004's Christmas TV gems amid an onslaught of holiday specials this year. Tom Everett Scott (ER) is engaging as the lead in this modern and extremely funny retell of Dicken's Christmas Carol, and Wallace Shawn (Princess Bride) is both charming and funny as Scrooge.

The twist this time around is that the ghosts have gotten the wrong address and they take the wrong guy (Allen Karrol, played by Scott) through his crotchety neighbor's life (Wally Shawn).

Along the way, Karrol learns how his neighbor got so crotchety and becomes sympathetic to a man whom he abhorred, prior. Well directed (Dennis Dugan) and cleverly written, (Drew Daywalt & David Schneider), this one is bound to become a perennial. Five stars out of five.

I have to agree with the posting from cyberdoc-6 - this warped version of the well-loved Dicken's tale is just a waste of valuable time. It seems to be a amalgamation of scenes or ideas from different movies patch-worked together to make something akin to Bill Murray's "Scrooged" (1988). The jokes are feeble or just plain crude and the characters have no depth (except for the portrayal by Wallace Shawn).

There are better reasons for disliking Christmas than your girlfriend saying "No Thanks" to an engagement ring. Why set yourself up for failure by proposing in a hugely public place (scene pinched from 1988s "Working Girl") where either she feels pressured for a positive response or you feel humiliated if you don't get the answer you want?

Give this one a miss. One star out of five.

I just saw this movie last night and I thought it was really sweet. It doesn't seem like a major movie, it seems that not very much money was spent on making it.. and I really don't mean that in a bad way, I think it was a really cute story. I thought it was a very good cast and story line, I realised it had a similarity to A Christmas Carol, which I'm guessing was kind of the point. I like the fact it has some funny, sad and sweet moments. I felt so sorry for Wallace Shawn's charatcer, especially the scene when his wife dided, I actually started to cry. I will definitely will be watching it again and make sure to have the tissues ready.

Review Date 2/7/2018

PLEASE BEWARE OF SOME REVIEWERS THAT ONLY HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. I HAVE OVER 400 REVIEWS OF "CHRISTMAS RELATED FILMS & SPECIALS" WHEN ITS A POSITIVE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I REVIEW MOVIES & SPECIALS AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN! I HAVE DISCOVERED MANY GEMS IN MY QUEST TO SEE AS MANY " C H R I S T M A S " MOVIES AS I CAN.

Now Someone keeps reporting my reviews. I guess they are jealous because I do tell the truth. I want to point out that I never make snide remarks about actors weight or real life sexual orientation. If there acting is terrible or limited "I talk about that". If a story is bad "I will mention that" So why am I being "picked on"? IMDB? When one of my reviews gets deleted IMDB will not even tell me what someone found offensive. Well on to this review.

Allen Karroll hates Christmas ever since his ex-girlfriend humiliated him in front of thousands of people one Christmas. As a man who writes greeting cards for a living, this proves to be a hindrance. He also hates the man who lives across the street, Zeb Rosecog, played by Wallace Shawn, who seems to take delight in tormenting him.

This is lots of fun and film worth seeing