A Christmas Carol

[Dacey]

This quote posted from the review on the front page has me a little concerned:

“On a showy, exuberant demonstration of the glories of motion capture, computer animation and 3D technology level, it’s a wow. On any emotional level, it’s as cold as Marley’s Ghost”

Then again, maybe I shouldn't be too worried. After all, people said the same thing about "Beowulf," and it was nothing like that at all. Oh, wait a second...it actually was.

[Ben]

Apparently, be concerned. Be very concerned.

[Randall]

I don't even like the look of the commercials, and they're supposed to be showing off the best stuff. Technically "wow" in some respects, but nothing there that connects with me.

[Jeroen]

I expected nothing less from Robert Zemeckis to be honest.
This movie didn't interest me from the start, it looked quite boring to be frank and there seemed to be no improvement since Beowulf.

[Ben]

Gary Oldman looks particularly lifeless...which as we know is <I>not</I> how Marley should appear, despite his ghostly form.

[Bill1978]

Just hoping someone can answer a trivial question. Does anybody know if the soundtrack to the movie is getting a physical release or am I going to be required to purchase it off iTunes? Thanks

For all my following of release dates, this one took me by surprise when I saw it opened last week in Australia, I thought it was a December release date in Australia but later I thought we were getting it earlier than the US for some reason but that was't the case. Guess November doesn't scream at me Christmas movie

[Josh]

Just hoping someone can answer a trivial question. Does anybody know if the soundtrack to the movie is getting a physical release or am I going to be required to purchase it off iTunes? Thanks

I've tried to find the same info, Bill. Even Amazon.com is just selling the digital form of the Christmas Carol soundtrack. (And the one song I want - Andrea Bocelli's "God Bless Us Everyone" - is an album-only track at every online store.) Fortunately, Lala.com allows visitors to hear the entire soundtrack for free. Still, it seems Disney would give the Christmas Carol soundtrack a physical release. After all, this time of year, plenty of folks are looking for new Christmas music.

[eddievalient]

Can anyone here tell me if the 3D is any good on this one?

[Dacey]

The 3-D is excellent! I saw it on a screen that wasn't especially big, and it actually felt like it was snowing in the theater at one point! I can only guess what this movie is like on IMAX 3-D.

[Bill1978]

I've tried to find the same info, Bill. Even Amazon.com is just selling the digital form of the Christmas Carol soundtrack. (And the one song I want - Andrea Bocelli's "God Bless Us Everyone" - is an album-only track at every online store.)

Sometimes it's good to be an Australian. It seems that the US version of online stores make one track an album only track forcing the US to buy the whole album. Here in Australia I was able to purchase God Bless Us Everyone from iTunes as a single track. The same thing happened with The Golden Compass and Lyra, wierd.

What makes Amazon really wierd is there is a link to the physical CD but when you click on it, you end up purchasing an album that is totally different to the current Christmas Carol.

I may venture into a cinema to see this mvie jsut to be surrounded by snow and the cold for 2 hours and escape the heat of Novemeber.

[EricJ]

This quote posted from the review on the front page has me a little concerned:

“On a showy, exuberant demonstration of the glories of motion capture, computer animation and 3D technology level, it’s a wow. On any emotional level, it’s as cold as Marley’s Ghost”

It's actually not that bad:
It's no Alastair Sim--and the word "subtle" has never existed in Bob Z.'s universe --but what they don't show in the trailer (at ALL) is that it's a pretty good faithful and straightforward version.
(When they aren't subjecting us to some of the loopiest original movie additions since Albert Finney danced in a Santa Claus suit, and even those are just saved for the between-ghost entr'actes...Even so, Z does have a tendency to insert "business" when the dialogue gets too long, but the Dickens text doesn't suffer for it.)

The big surprise is that Jim Carrey, in fact, makes a fantastic Scrooge--
He plays it absolutely 100% straight to character, and rechannels all his subversive humor-of-annoyance urges into hamming up the two Ghost characters.
It's probably the closest thing we've gotten to seeing Carrey deliver a straight performance (without weirdo Charlie Kaufman movies or corny Frank Darabont dramas), as you could still see him trying to break out and throw some chaos into "Truman Show" and "Series of Unfortunate Events".

[ShyViolet]

OK I know this thread is like ten years old and all, but this very thoughtful essay addresses the underrated film “Scrooged”, (a 1988 Christmas film starring Bill Murray that has astoundingly become a yearly tradition) and I wasn’t sure where else to place it.


https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/1 ... tmas-movie

Still amazes me how even with somewhat dated (but still funny!) references to Lee Majors, Robert Goulet along with that old network TV tradition of running lousy Christmas special after lousy Christmas special, this film was so incredibly ahead of its time. What was seen as its “strange”, “overly cynical”, and “too dark” tone at the time fits PERFECTLY into the 21st century. And the moving human story was always there...seriously how can you not cry after Grace’s son begins to talk again, right before Claire shows up?? (And that extra non-Carol scene added to Christmas future was just unbelievably brilliant...a truly shocking moment no one ever sees coming... )


So, yeah, Scrooged rules. (Also fun fact: When It’s a Wonderful Life was released theatrically in 1947, it was panned just as much as Scrooged was in ‘88. Critics at the time felt it was way too sentimental. Maybe because WWII had only recently ended. Like Scrooged, it eventually found new success through network and cable broadcasts.)


Original trailer! . (Wish they’d shown more of Robert Mitchum...he was hilarious in this movie! “Frank, do you have any idea how many cats there are in America?”)

https://youtu.be/3OLRQfMOXOw

[Ben]

Towel, towel, towel...VHS, towel, towel, VHS...

[EricJ]

Still amazes me how even with somewhat dated (but still funny!) references to Lee Majors, Robert Goulet along with that old network TV tradition of running lousy Christmas special after lousy Christmas special, this film was so incredibly ahead of its time. What was seen as its “strange”, “overly cynical”, and “too dark” tone at the time fits PERFECTLY into the 21st century. And the moving human story was always there...seriously how can you not cry after Grace’s son begins to talk again, right before Claire shows up?? (And that extra non-Carol scene added to Christmas future was just unbelievably brilliant...a truly shocking moment no one ever sees coming... )

When it's sticking to being a "serious" update of Carol--with young TV-Scrooge growing up on reruns instead of books, and having his one happy workplace Christmas in a kids-show dog suit instead of at Fezziwig's--it works fairly well.
But as for the comedy, Bill Murray reportedly hated working on it. Every time his post-"Razor's Edge" seriousness wanted to explore the character, Richard Donner kept "pushing" him to do the comedy wilder, more outrageous and sitcom.
Annnnd, both sentiments show.

Still, it's become quotable enough that every time Hollywood studios try to put "Chinese-audience content" in one of their current blockbusters, who doesn't immediately joke about "TV for cats"?

[ShyViolet]

Towel, towel, towel...VHS, towel, towel, VHS...

Lol!

So many memorable quotes in this film.


Also love this line from the essay:

He is a one-man live-action comment section, and it is glorious, and also whatever the opposite of glorious is.