I'm just going off the grid a bit. I am amazed at how Christmas has already taken over in early November. October couldn't even finish before stores and commercials starting looking to cash in. I get why my horror peeps were so pissed. I really love October through the end of December as I get into Twilight Zone mode on New Years Eve and Day. Then January starts over and it all falls back into the mundane and ordinary. During this time of the year, though, I do indeed find myself watching certain Christmas fare earlier and earlier. Like, for instance, Scrooged (1988) tonight. I watched it the earliest this year than I ever have except when I was a youth and would watch it whenever the mood hit me. I recall Scrooged getting major play on USA Network one December, on constant rotation. On the mind this afternoon after taking my stepdad out for a birthday "feast", I decided to go ahead and watch it.
It is one of those films that I seesaw back and forth on. Some years I really get a kick out of it, others it annoys the hell out of me. Some years I find Murray entertaining, while others he is just obnoxious and loud, noising his dialogue as if speaking into a wind tunnel. I was sort of in the middle this year. I responded well to Robert Mitchum, with his eyes seeming to imply he might be slipping off the edge while "coming down floor" to speak to Murray about attracting cats and dogs to their product. Johannson as the uncouth, growly (it is as if he smoked enough cigarettes it corrupted his throat), raggedy cabbie Ghost of Christmas Past, berating Murray about how his childhood and what he watched on television weren't one and the same, left the most entertainment value with me. The past revealing why Murray's nickname is Lumpy, and I just love Karen Allen and that magnetic smile. While Starman (1984), admittedly, is my favorite of hers, she's all charm in a film such as this one that doesn't have a lot of it. It is just Murray and his sarcastic performance where he just seems to remain a disingenuous character. Like when he goes after Woodard's son when he appears on set or telling Allen to "scrape them off" when she must tend to her charitable duties at a help center.
The sincerity is what I always felt made other A Christmas Carol adaptations so noteworthy is totally missing here. Murray is playing around, winking at us. But I was in a rather okay mood for this film where other years I just brushed the film off. I certainly understand why critics, like Ebert, and Donner (the director) weren't fond of it. I think it is visible on screen that the production wasn't run with smooth sailing. Just a lot of noise, though. Carol Kane's sequence as the tinker bell Ghost of Christmas Present and her use of violence on Murray was probably what caused my eyes to roll over and over the most. Hitting him in the head with the toaster, kicking him in the crotch, punching him in the face: this all sort of falls in line with the tone of the entire film. It can be quite a blunt force object. Still, it remains a seasonal revisit and I love seeing Lee Majors arrive to protect Santa's workshop from assassins in "The Night the Reindeer Died" and the preposterous horror show that Murray's version of Scrooge for his network that is quite the alternative to "America's favorite old fart telling the story near a campfire and acrobatic Mary Lou as Tiny Tim" that causes a woman seeing the commercial to "croak" much to the publicity hungry Murray's celebration (!) piles on the anti-spirit of the season. 2.5/5
It is one of those films that I seesaw back and forth on. Some years I really get a kick out of it, others it annoys the hell out of me. Some years I find Murray entertaining, while others he is just obnoxious and loud, noising his dialogue as if speaking into a wind tunnel. I was sort of in the middle this year. I responded well to Robert Mitchum, with his eyes seeming to imply he might be slipping off the edge while "coming down floor" to speak to Murray about attracting cats and dogs to their product. Johannson as the uncouth, growly (it is as if he smoked enough cigarettes it corrupted his throat), raggedy cabbie Ghost of Christmas Past, berating Murray about how his childhood and what he watched on television weren't one and the same, left the most entertainment value with me. The past revealing why Murray's nickname is Lumpy, and I just love Karen Allen and that magnetic smile. While Starman (1984), admittedly, is my favorite of hers, she's all charm in a film such as this one that doesn't have a lot of it. It is just Murray and his sarcastic performance where he just seems to remain a disingenuous character. Like when he goes after Woodard's son when he appears on set or telling Allen to "scrape them off" when she must tend to her charitable duties at a help center.
The sincerity is what I always felt made other A Christmas Carol adaptations so noteworthy is totally missing here. Murray is playing around, winking at us. But I was in a rather okay mood for this film where other years I just brushed the film off. I certainly understand why critics, like Ebert, and Donner (the director) weren't fond of it. I think it is visible on screen that the production wasn't run with smooth sailing. Just a lot of noise, though. Carol Kane's sequence as the tinker bell Ghost of Christmas Present and her use of violence on Murray was probably what caused my eyes to roll over and over the most. Hitting him in the head with the toaster, kicking him in the crotch, punching him in the face: this all sort of falls in line with the tone of the entire film. It can be quite a blunt force object. Still, it remains a seasonal revisit and I love seeing Lee Majors arrive to protect Santa's workshop from assassins in "The Night the Reindeer Died" and the preposterous horror show that Murray's version of Scrooge for his network that is quite the alternative to "America's favorite old fart telling the story near a campfire and acrobatic Mary Lou as Tiny Tim" that causes a woman seeing the commercial to "croak" much to the publicity hungry Murray's celebration (!) piles on the anti-spirit of the season. 2.5/5
Comments
Post a Comment