In this comedy take on A Christmas Carol, the three spirits of Christmas (David Johansen, Carol Kane, Chaz Conner) visit TV network president Francis Cross (Bill Murray) who is producing a live version of the Dickens’s tale.
I can imagine Murray and director Richard Donner talking about how wild, how edgy their new film was going to be. I can see it in every frame. These guys thought they were being outrageous. Sigh. They weren’t. If you are going to twist and corrupt a classic, then do it! But this is the same old story, with the same old message, told in the same old way, but with a modern setting and a few mild jokes tossed in.
Wow, Cross yells at people and fires them on Christmas eve. What comedy! Apparently there was a script; there are writers listed in the credits. But it feels like they all just watched a few old versions of A Christmas Carol and then ad-libbed a film.
None of the characters are believable, which would be fine if this was some kind of unbridled laugh-fest, but when Carol Kane’s Ghost of Christmas Present repeatedly punching Cross is the high point of the hilarity (and it is), then it would help if there was someone on screen worth following. Strangely, Scrooged takes itself seriously, as if we are supposed to care about Cross’s transformation. I didn’t. It all culminates in one of the most embarrassing scenes I can recall. Murray’s Cross, having learned the meaning of Christmas, stops the live telecast of Dickens to ramble at the camera for several minutes. It isn’t inspiring. It isn’t funny. Was this planned or did Murray just have a few too many drinks and start talking? It ends with the little mute boy regaining the ability to speak. Gosh, how swell.