BWN Nerds’ Movie Review: Scrooged (1988)

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different classic from the Nerdosphere.  This week Dave and Patrick continue their holiday film reviews with that Bill Murray Christmas classic Scrooged!

The Flick:  Scrooged

What’s it About:  Frank Cross is an ambitious television executive forced to reevaluate his life when he is visited by three Christmas spirits.

Metacritic Score: 38

The Nerds’ Take on Scrooged (1988):

Dave: This week’s Nerd Review is all about one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies, the 1988 Richard Donner classic, Scrooged. Scrooged was, and actually still is, a retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. I distinctly remember Roger Ebert’s review of this movie at the time and recall thinking that he really missed the mark. Ebert was disturbed by the dark nature of the film and felt it was “disquieting”. To many of us who adore the film, it is the dark and more mature quality of the movie that elevates it from a mere retelling into something timeless and special.

The general gist of the movie is familiar to virtually anyone. Frank Cross is Scrooged’s version of Ebenezer Scrooge. Frank is in the midst of trying to air a live version of A Christmas Carol and is every bit the materialistic, unsympathetic, bah-humbug sort of individual that is synonymous with the Scrooge character. His biggest decision for Christmas gifts, for instance, is whether to give his closest family and friends a bath towel or a VCR. Along the way, he fires one of his executives on Christmas Eve and makes a mockery of his Humanitarian of the Year Award. This triggers a visit from the ghost of his former boss, who warns Frank that he is headed down the path to damnation, but there is still time for him to be saved. From there, the movie mimics its predecessor as Frank is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. These experiences rekindle the Christmas spirit in Frank and the movie concludes with Frank making amends with many he had wronged earlier in his life and, to a certain extent, the world at large.

To address some of what Ebert complained about, the movie is quite dark and could, in theory, be considered unsettling. But that is one of the things that makes it so good. Scrooged took a classic tale and retold it in such a way that it was kept fresh for a modern audience and told in a more mature, scary, and entertaining way, but maintained all the charm and magic of the original. Most importantly, it delivered the same important message as the original just in a different way.

The cast of the movie is simply amazing. Bill Murray turned in one of his best performances as Frank Cross. Murray’s portrayal of the Scrooge-like character is utterly timeless and his energy infectious as the movie progresses. He starts off so arrogant and full of himself but as he is confronted with the demons of his past, present, and potential future, Murray does an incredible job of making you share the doubt that gradually sets in upon him. When he breaks through and realizes what Christmas is all about, it is a magical moment. Karen Allen plays Claire, Frank’s love interest from 15 years earlier, who he lost due to his desire to climb the proverbial corporate ladder. She is immensely wholesome, good, and innocent and it is when Frank sees a potential future where she has evolved into someone like him that he really comes to understand what a douchebag he has been. Bobcat Goldthwait played the best role of his entire career here as Elliot Laudermilk, the executive that Frank fires on Christmas Eve. The movie is simply loaded with talent, all of them operating at immensely high levels. But I would be remiss if I did not mention the iconic and amazing performance of Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present, who takes a very physical and hands-on approach to getting her message through to Frank.

Personally, I always loved the movie because it took chances in its retelling of A Christmas Carol. Other versions of that movie played it much too safe. Scrooged took the complete opposite approach. It showed the Scrooge character as a heavy drinker who initially did not care about anyone but himself. It took a very different approach with the Ghosts, with the ghost of Lew Hayward being the messenger, the Ghost of Christmas Past being the comic relief, The Ghost of Christmas Present being very much in your face, and the Ghost of Christmas Future being a terrifying and silent menace. There are some scenes that are a bit disturbing to be sure, such as the death of Herman in the latter stages of the movie. But Scrooged is one of those rare movies that took a well-established story, added more mature elements to it to make it, dare I say, more realistic, surrounded the movie with an incredibly talented cast, all of whom delivered a flawless performance. No one should be surprised to see this one appear on my upcoming list of the best Holiday Movies of all-time. It is truly an incredible and amazing movie that should be shared and experienced with everyone in the family.

Dave’s Rating: 5/5

Patrick:  Before I get into this review, I gotta say, the combined Metacritic score for Scrooged is hot freakin’ garbage.  38!?!?!?!  Boy howdy were the critics wrong here.  A Christmas Carol has been told and retold in film and on television for decades, but Richard Donner’s Scrooged  is among the best.  So ignore the critics, they’re wrong and dumb.  Thank goodness the Nerd Review is here to set things straight.

I’m not going to waste a ton of space rehashing the story.  A Christmas Carol is easily one of the most known tales of the holiday season.  In this retelling Scrooge is renamed Frank Cross a highly ambitious, cynical uncaring network television executive.  Just like the in the original Frank is visited by three spirits who take him through his life to convince him to change his cynical, greedy ways and so on and so forth.

The appeal of Donner’s retelling really is in the reimagined characters and the actors portraying them.  Bill Murray absolutely carries the load as Frank Cross and in my opinion shows such a great range of emotion In his Scrooge.  Murray is cynical and cold firing a hapless employee within the first ten minutes of the film.  Yet as he is brought through his life by the ghosts Murry does well showing his softer side.  And of course, you just can’t deny Murray’s comedic timing.  Even when he’s being terrible to people, he’s funny doing it.

The Bob Cratchit character is reimagined as Frank’s assistant Grace, played by Alfie Woodard.  Woodard is always one you can count on for a dynamite performance and she doesn’t disappoint here.  Woodard adds an edge to Grace you don’t see in the Dickens’ original Cratchit.  Unlike A Christmas Carol, Grace openly resents Frank and is pretty vocal with her family about it.  Woodard also shows her depth as a caring mother who is the sole bread winner for her family.  Grace stays with Frank because she knows her job and paycheck is the key to getting her son medical care and food on her family table.

Both the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present are terrific.  They are  played by David Johansen and Carol Kane respectively.  Johansen as a loudmouth cabbie driving Cross through the past is a great.  He doesn’t buckle in the face of Frank’s disbelief and sarcasm.  You follow that up with the legendary Carol Kane, who plays an over the top fairy ghost that just gets the best of Cross at every turn.  Murray and Kane play off one another extremely well and the physical comedy is poetry (toaster to the face anyone?).

Other notable performances come from Karen Allen, a name we have mentioned in a few other Nerd reviews.  Here, she plays Murray’s love interest Claire.  In the original classic, Scrooge’s love interest is basically a footnote of a love rejected for money.  Here, Claire is a moral center for Frank, and Allen’s gentle portrayal is a strong counterweight Murray’s energy.  Finally, we can’t ignore the performance of Bobcat Goldthwait as Elliot Laudermilk, the employee fired at the start of the film.  The audience follows Elliot as he progressively descends into madness to the point of trying to kill Frank in one intensely funny little scene after Frank’s redemption.

I’ve spent all of this review discussing the actors because it really is the strength of the film.  Richard Donner manages all of these personalities extremely well, mainly because it’s clear Donner let the actors do their thing.  The story is an old one, just punched up for the time the film was made.  The backdrop of a live production of A Christmas Carol is a fun bit of meta that threads throughout the film and there are some fun cameos for the era popping up as well.  I challenge anyone under the age of thirty to name one Budd Hackett movie, for example.  This movie is a great comedic retelling of a Christmas classic.  There is some mild language and a bit of sexuality that make the flick inappropriate for the little little ones.  But the laughs are frequent and this film still holds up today.  It is always in my holiday rotation and it should be in yours as well, dear reader.

Patrick’s Rating:  4.88/5

Overall Nerds Rating on Scrooged (1988):  4.94/5