Fantômes en fête

...not quite , but his performance in Scrooged isnt far behind omnipitancy. With exception to Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, this is probably one of his most hilarious performances to date. In this re-working of Dickens "A Christmas Carol" , Murray plays Frank Cross, a tight fisted,selfish Network Executive who, as christmas rapidly approaches, finds himself needing to hasten up proceedings on his networks live Christmas Carol show, which is airing on Christmas eve. From the very start of the film, we are treated to how unkind and selfish, Murrays character really is, yet we still cant bring ourselves to hate him.....even when he suggests to a prop man that he should STAPLE little plastic antlers to the heads of door-mice.

Due to a very creepy encounter with his dead boss, Cross is warned that he will be visited by 3 ghosts, and so the story takes off, as he meets 3 very unusual ghosts with even weirder traits, such as the ghost of christmas present, who likes to randomly beat Cross up, every time he shows no heart. Best of all is the NOO YAWK talkin taxi driver, who i feel almost steals the show from Murray ....which is one of the hardest things in the world!!!

Running throughout the film, is, ...sadly, a rather weak sub plot of Cross and his ex-lover, which , i love for all the wrong reasons.....but sadly, to people who have never seen the film, might find a bit tedious.

But of course....its Murray who comes away from this looking cool, as , even though he has experienced some genuinely scary things ( the halucination of a waiter on fire is still creepy), we lap up his dead pan reactions to it all!!

Francis Cross is a successful TV executive but at Christmas time he is about as miserable a man as you could wish to meet. Forcing people to work over the holidays and unwilling to think of anyone but himself. As Christmas Eve approaches Francis is visited by his dead boss, warning him to change his ways; when he doesn't he is visited by three ghosts who show him Christmas in the past, present and future.

Each year there are plenty of versions of the classic Christmas Carol story, but this film is consistently one of the better ones. It starts with a great dark comedy that sees some very imaginative gags (The Night The Reindeer Died) as well as Murray given great material. At some point (roughly ghost 2), sentimentality starts to set in and the film doesn't quite have the edge on it that it did. It still works - in fact, ghost 3 is not so much sentimental as really dramatic!

What holds it all together though is a great performance from Murray. He is funny throughout but also does the work to try and hold off the sentimentality of the piece - although it does come through, as one would expect with a Christmas movie! The support cast is good and includes Woodard, Goldthwait, Goulet, Farr and Mitchum. I didn't feel like Kane's Christmas Present really worked and didn't find her funny in the least. While the support cast add to the film, it is almost totally belonging to Bill Murray and the fact that it is so enjoyable is mostly due to him (although not even he can carry off the audience interaction over the end credits).

Overall this is a good Christmas movie - it does give you a nice little festive glow but also has enough cynical edge to keep the syrup at bay for a certain amount of the time. Regardless of everything else, Bill Murray is great in the lead and holds the movie together better than someone else may have been able to.

I just finished watching this film (on TNT) for the countless time. What a fine seasonal offering. It's so much better than a lot of the pulp and smarmy c*** that passes for Christmas classics.

Bill Murray exclaims at the end of the movie, "I get it now!" Apparently, some folks watched this flick and didn't get it. The movie is essentially a star turn for Murray, who's in almost every frame - and that's fine with me because he can carry a film. Trivial quibbles over the movie's name and reference to the original work, the lack of faithfulness to the book and other complaints miss the point of the project. While staging a production of 'A Christmas Carol,' a TV executive experiences the very same circumstances as one of the characters in the novel. That alone makes it work. A few reviews question the overall harsh tone of the movie, or more specifically, Murray's role. Frankly, I would not have minded had it been even a little darker. There's a lot of water to carry in that bucket of trying to measure the callous and thoughtless manner in which some folks act on all but the most treasured of holidays. Murray's demeanour boils it down into one strong mean spirit and evaporates it with a truly positive and well-wishing finale.

Scrooged is, along with Groundhog Day, among his best work.

What a fun little Christmas film! I was always creep out by the Christmas Carol story growing up, especially this version. Nowadays I find a lot of nostalgia for Scrooged and love the effects on all the ghost. They remind me a lot of Beetlejuice, especially the Ghost Of Christmas Past. Bill Murray is always charming and hilarious, (although the last speech was kinda awkward and speratic, I'm not sure if that were what they were going for, but it leaves the movie on a bit of an awkward mood instead of heart warming), and Karen Allen is always great to see and plays every part she gets perfectly. May not be an every Christmas movie, but is definitely fun!

This is a modern take on the classic Christmas story about Ebeneezer Scrooge from the story A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. To say that there was a lot of creative license taken here would be an understatement, but that does not detract from the fact that this is a great social comment on how commercialized Christmas has become. Bill Murray plays Frank Cross, a television network head that is trying to put on a live version of A Christmas Carol. He is driving his people like slaves and even tells someone to staple antlers to a mouse because they would not stay. He fires a member of his team on Christmas Eve for disagreeing with something he said. He has led a life of greed and cut off anyone that stood in his way, including his brother. That night he is payed a visit from fours ghosts, the first being his mentor, followed by the ghost of Christmas past, present and future. I am sure you are all familiar with the telling of this story. David Johnson and Carol Kane as the ghost of past and present respectively, steal the show. This is a great movie and should be enjoyed by all, every year.