(Assassins, Conspiracy Theory, The Goonies, Ladyhawke, Lethal Weapon 1-4, The Omen, Radio Flyer, Scrooged, Superman 1 & 2 - second film uncredited)
Producers:
Richard Donner and Art Linson
Screenplay:
Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue
Music:
Danny Elfman
Cast:
Frank Cross: Bill Murray
Claire Phillips: Karen Allen
Lew Heyward: John Forsythe
Brice Cummings: John Glovers
Eliot Loudermilk: Bobcat Goldthwait
Ghost of Christmas Past: David Johansen
Ghost of Christmas Present: Carol Kane
Preston Rhinelander: Robert Mitchum
Grace Cooley: Alfre Woodard
Himself: Robert Goulet
Himself: Lee Majors
Based on the original Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol,
Bill Murray is the youngest TV executive around - albeit a stressed-out
one, namely Frank Cross. He's also incredibly mean to his staff and
either fires them, starting in this film with Eliot Loudermilk (Bobcat Goldthwait),
or sends them bath towels as Christmas presents.
Bah, humbug! indeed and to put him straight is to be told by the strange
Lew Heyward (John Forsythe) that he's to be visited by the ghosts
of Christmasses Past, Present and Future, two of which are
David Johansen and Carol Kane.
Murray puts on a superb performance throughout the film - making this one of
his better comedies - and gets good support from Karen Allen as the
love interest, Robert Mitchum as his boss Preston Rhinelander,
Alfre Woodard as his harrassed secretary and there are cameos from
Robert Goulet and Lee Majors.
The picture is a lot better than I was expecting for a twelve-year-old film.
Defects are few and far between and the picture is in its original 1.85:1
ratio and is anamorphic.
The average bitrate is fairly steady 7.87Mb/s.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound delivers when it needs to and it's nice
to see such a remix given to a comedy, as opposed to an all-out action feature.
Only the English dialogue gets this treatment though, while German, French,
Italian and Spanish are in Dolby Surround and the Hungarian soundtrack is in
mono.
Extras :
Sadly, Paramount are a scrooged when it comes to the extras and the chaptering
with just a trailer and 12 chapters to splice the movie apart.
Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The disc also contains a basic static and silent menu with a shot of the
front cover and the usual options.
Overall, when it's Christmas time (mistletoe and wine), I'd rather watch
this comedy than a sloppy film, although this does lose a point or two for
getting schmaltzy towards the end as Murray learns the error of his ways.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
