Scrooged (1988)

☆ ☆ ½

Scrooged (1988) – R. Donner

Loud and largely unfunny – I guess I was right to have skipped this back in the day.  Bill Murray doesn’t really do a convincing “mean” – his sense of humor is wryer and more smart-ass than the sub-Don Rickles insult comedy which he is asked to deliver here.  The script is a barrage of bad jokes and celebrity cameos flung at the wall with the hope that something will stick.  And since this is a version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we need to believe that Murray is a bad man in need of transformation -- but he doesn’t go all the way in either direction (his previous film The Razor’s Edge should have taught him something). Nevertheless, the pay-off at the end (after being visited by scary David Johanssen and awkward Carol Kane plus a guy in a skeleton suit) does hold some rewards – we get a classic Murray improv riff, not exactly funny, but at least feeling authentic at last.  Or perhaps I’ve simply forgotten what Murray was like in the ‘80s now that he has matured into a very good and often subtle character actor.  No subtlety in this picture, however.  Oh and if you are wondering, the Scrooge character is a TV exec and there is a tacked on romance sub-plot (featuring Karen Allen) that Dickens didn’t cheapen his material with.  The “Tiny Tim” surrogate is a young Black fellow who hasn’t spoken a word since his father was killed – and, of course, miraculously does as everything comes together in the spirit of Christmas.  If only this sentimental ending were earned.