Scrooged

Richard Donner, 1988 (7.6*)
Ok, so it’s not a great movie, it’s still another enjoyable Christmas film, and certainly a unique update of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with humor replacing the seriousness. Bill Murray is a heartless tv-exec, making everyone perform a live holiday special on Christmas Eve (with Buddy Hackett and a tumbling Mary Lou Retton in a schlocky tv version of A Christmas Carol, no less!). He’s a total scrooge, not even softened by his big-hearted secretary Alfre Woodard.

In some hilarous visits from ghosts, especially a masochistic Carol Kane, he starts to soften up and realize what a jerk he’s become. Lots of great cameo roles here: Karen Allen as Murray’s ex-girlfriend, Robert Mitchum as a numbers-conscious network exec, Bobcat Goldthwaite as a shotgun-toting disgruntled employee, Eliott Loudermilk.

Quote: oooo... you know I like the rough stuff! (Carol Kane)
Quote2: Did our guys do that? We’re gonna get phone calls! (the ghost of Christmas present shows him a vision of hell inside his coat) (Murray)
Quote3: He called you a flatulating butthead, and he likes you in a certain kind of way (Bobcat to Mitchum)