Scrooged
(Paramount Pictures, 1988)
Since I ended HMM with Bill Murray, I thought it would be fitting to have a movie starring him kick Christmas Special Mania.
Scrooged is an amazing twist on the classic A Christmas Carol. This is my second favorite Bill Murray movie, behind only Groundhog Day. He plays Frank Cross, the youngest president of a TV network ever. It's almost Christmas, and the network is getting ready to air a special, star-studded live performance of Scrooge. Frank isn't happy with the normal hum-drum promo for the special, so he makes his own. He decides to make his own. He wants to scare people so much that they will think they would die if they missed it. He uses planes exploding, people shooting people on the highway, and all kinds of disturbing images to drive that point across. The point is made that Frank is a giant ass.
After some more examples of jerkatude, Frank is visited by his dead boss. He warns Frank that he will be visited by three ghosts, but it is spread out a bit more than the original tale's ghost visitations. Instead of through one evening, the first ghost doesn't visit until noon the next day.
You all know the general plot here, so why should I ramble on about that? How about some of the twists? Well, this movie is full of delightfully dark humor. The TV show satires that we catch glimpses look like they are straight out of UHF; We have Lee Marvin saving Santa, Father Loves Beaver, and some other great spoofs. We also get Bobcat Goldthwait going postal on Frank for firing him right before Christmas. We get to see Frank hallucinating about things like eyeballs in his drinks and waiters catching on fire. And the ghosts, oh man, the ghosts! They are jerkbags too! My favorite is the Ghost of Christmas Present. She continually beats the hell out of Frank.
If you've never seen this movie before, it's a great way to celebrate the Christmas season, and it's an even better way to kick it off!
Since this is the first CSM, I decided I should give you an extra special song to listen to. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Ho, Ho, Ho, It's Christmas Time.