SCROOGED
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
I have to wonder what drug-addled studio executive came up with the idea of having Michael O'Donoghue co-write an adaptation of a Charles Dickens short story. O'Donoghue is probably to Dickens what the Anti-Christ is to Jesus; the man is brilliant at producing dark satirical humor, but I've yet to see him come up with anything that could be even remotely referred to as "heartwarming". Or "civil," for that matter. So I went into this film assuming that it was going to be a complete send-up on A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and for a little while, it does.
OK: the good points: it has a three-minute opening sequence, a promo for a "holiday special" with Lee Majors, that I literally howled at. Pure O'Donoghue. Then... zip. Outside of a decent (but not inspired) zinger from Murray on the average of once every two minutes (not counting the *ugh* finale), and *maybe* Carol Kane (I think she's been over-rated here), the laughs are few and far between. What's worse, the film keeps trying to waffle between satiric jesting and endearing sentimentality, and it ends up being icky. How icky? Oh, lord. You've heard other reviewers mention how bad the last ten minutes are, as the "reformed" Murray address a TV audience? Trust me, it made me *angry* to watch this. I nearly killed an usher with a glower on the way out of the theater. All the actors try to look like they think Murray's artificial speech is touching, while the silent audience appeared to be memorizing where the exits were in case of fire. This was bad -- Golden Turkey level bad. Nas-teee.
Besides Kane, I have to credit Alfre Woodward for one of the two moments that had any real warmth to them; I knew she was a good actress, but how she remained convincing during the conclusion is truly incredible. And a few points to Bill Murray for trying to drag something out of this (the scene where he finds Michael J. Pollard frozen actually worked, at least for the first minute).
But really, avoid this like the plague. Except for the Lee Majors promo. That was cute.
Bah, humbug.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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