Oct 082004
 
two reels

In this variation on A Christmas Carol, Christmas hating Allen Karroll (Tom Everett Scott) is accidentally visited by the three spirits of Christmas (Alanna Ubach, Larry Miller, Verne Troyer) who are supposed to be working on the miser next door.

Quick Review: Unlike Scrooged, Karroll’s Christmas actually has a clever and twisted idea that has the potential for some wild comedy.  Allan Karroll hates Christmas for a number of reasons, the main one being a humiliating proposal rejection (on ice, in a mascot uniform) several years back, but this didn’t, apparently, earn him a visit from the Spirits of Christmas.  It is the stereotypical Scrooge-like neighbor Zeb Rosecog (played, or perhaps overplayed by Wallace Shawn) that they are coming to see.  But they mess up, and in the funniest scenes, the Ghost of Christmas Past refuses to recognize that Karroll isn’t Rosecog as together they watch the other man’s foul deeds.  Larry Miller is a mildly amusing Ghost of Christmas Past and Verne Troyer (famous as Dr. Evil’s sidekick, Mini Me) is an inspired Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

Unfortunately, comedy wasn’t enough; the filmmakers wanted sentiment and it doesn’t work, collapsing into a far too typical version of A Christmas Carol.  Any film that makes Marley’s ghost a Rastafarian should not try to be inspirational.

 Christmas, Reviews Tagged with: