It's Christmas, Carol!

The movie has a great theme, even if it is yet another 'reimagining' of A Christmas Carol, this time with a female Scrooge and a coma.

Emmanuelle Vaugier plays a detestile boss. It's ridiculously unbelievable that she doesn't give her employees Christmas off? I didn't buy that. They could have scripted something unlikeable but believable. Even the original Scrooge gave Bob Cratchett Christmas Day off.

However, Carrie Fisher comes in and saves this movie. She personality makes up for the lack of personality Vaugier produces. Frankly. Fisher makes an otherwise unwatchable film watchable to the point my gut said 7 Stars when I went to click the rating.

Last year I sat down for a Christmas movie marathon with my family, and "It's Christmas, Carol!" happened to be one of the movies that we got around to watching. None of us had heard about the movie, much less had any familiarity with it in any way.

It turned out that "It's Christmas, Carol!" actually was quite a nice surprise of a movie, and it actually was rather entertaining for everyone in the family. So yes, this is indeed a Christmas movie that is quite suitable for a family viewing during the holidays.

"It's Christmas, Carol!" is actually a different approach to the Charles Dickens "Christmas Carol" story. So one might ponder if meddling around with a classic is a particularly good idea. It turned out that writers William Penick and Chris Sey actually managed to pull it off quite nicely.

Carol Huffman is a busy publishing executive, whom is visited by her former boss on Christmas Eve, as Carol has lost track of what is important and lost perspective on what truly matters. Initially Carol was supposed to have a visit from three ghosts, but because of budget cutbacks Eve, Carol's former boss, is in charge of the visit to the past, present and future.

Sure, this is a predictable movie, and you know exactly how it will turn out from very early on in the storyline. And you are already more than well familiar with the Dickens tale, be it from the book or from one of the many movie adaptations available.

But at the same time, it is the familiarity in the story that makes it a good story, and the rewriting just adds a new twist on the classic. So on that account director Michael Scott pulled it off quite well.

The cast in the movie was fairly good and people did good jobs with their given roles and characters. It was, for me at least, Carrie Fisher who stole the screen with her role as Eve. And Olivia Cheng also did a good job, just a shame that her role was only a minor supporting one.

All in all, then "It's Christmas, Carol!" was actually a wholehearted and entertaining movie, and definitely a movie that is worth sitting down to watch during the Christmas season. However, it is not likely that this is a movie that you will watch more than just once.

Yet another Made-for-TV movie from the Hallmark Channel and this one is 2012's take on A Christmas Carol. Carrie Fisher has the role as all three ghosts showing Emmanuelle Vaugier her life in three different ways. I knew I'd seen her somewhere before -- ah yes, Mia in Two and a Half Men and she was also in many eps of CSI: NY.

One scene in particular was kind of interesting when in a library, a Star Wars book was seen on a nearby shelf in the background. There was also a Star Wars mention. Those were kind of the highlights, it's sad to say. Other than that this tele-film lacks charm. Many versions of a Christmas Carol do... not very Christmasy. Ah well. Still, for some twisted reason, I'd actually maybe watch it again someday.

5.4 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

Greetings, salutations, and a seasonal welcome to all you movie aficionados. Here are my considerations and recommendation for It's Christmas, Carol!

Story: 1.25/2 - Direction and Pace: 2.50/4 - Performances: 1.25/2 - Enjoyment: 1.50/2

Total 6.50/10

I enjoyed this reworking of Chuck's classic morality tale, "A Christmas Carol". The best element in the movie is Eve - The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future - which Carrie Fisher joyfully portrays. The delight Eve feels as she toys with her prey, Carol (Emmanuelle Vaugier), as she imparts her wisdom upon her is tangible and infectious. Vaugier does well as the straight woman who takes all the pratfalls and fights against Eve's life lessons. Of course, filmmakers have done this style of story to death. There are over twenty-five "Christmas Carol" listed on IMDb alone. Let alone all the movies with a wordplay on the title, like this one. So what do you do when you want to breathe freshness into a stale story? You pep up the narrative with interesting characters, situations, and twists. The writers give the audience a decent set of individuals and circumstances to keep them amused and entertained. I especially liked the "Revolting" Fred, played charmingly by Carson Kressley. It would've been nice to have more meat on his cohorts in La Revolution, as they come across a tad flat next to Kressley. And one of my favourite scenes is when Carol, after realising her wrongs, attempts to rehire a fired employee. The employee's daughter answers the door. After exchanging pleasantries, the young girl asks if Carol's the one who fired her mother. Awkwardly, Carol confesses, and the girl slams the door in her face. It's a simple scene, dipped in realism, that makes the viewer giggle, "Yeah, Go Girl!" as the door bangs firmly into its frame.

The movie isn't the most charming or heart-warming of its type, but it possesses its own enjoyable allure. It could be down to the solid cinematography and decent pacing of the picture, the performers' portrayals of their characters, or the story itself. But whatever it is, I always find myself drawn towards the movie whenever I see it playing. Moreover, I always enjoy it: And this's the fifth time I've viewed the picture. As such, I can only recommend that you give it a look-see. It's not too terrible a way to spend an evening while waiting for Santa's nightly visit.

Please check out my HO! HO! HO! Christmas Belles list to see where I ranked the movie.

Take Care, Stay Well, And Best Wishes For A Merry Christmas.

Another re-hash of Dickens' classic the has some interesting points but, as Don Adams used to say in the old "Get Smart" TV series, "Missed it by that much". I am a "Carol" lover and I own more than 20 versions so I can comment on this with a clear conscience. The idea of having Eve, Carol's old (and dead) boss take the place of Marley is understandable. The idea of her also taking the place of the three ghosts is less so. As in all the re-tellings of the story the protagonist, Carol, is Scrooge-like and pretty well hated by all the people who work for her. Again she sees the past, present and future but, unlike other tellings she doesn't gradually realize how nasty she is until the last moment and then she suddenly switches and is a nice person. This alone makes her transformation less than believable. Not a really bad movie, but it lacks the heart of several of the other versions. For the best see the Alastair Sim version with the George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart versions running a close second.