My first laughs watching Bill Murray were in 1977 when I
started watching Saturday Night Live.
Watching the show was a Saturday night social event with friends
gathered together partying. Music was
always a big part of our gatherings but we would always turn it off to watch
SNL and Monty Python, which came on right before SNL.
I have remained a Bill Murray fan since then. The last thing he was brilliant in was 2012’s
Moonrise Kingdom. A quirky, charming
and insightful film. The only movie of
his I don’t like and don’t like a lot, is his remake of The Razors Edge. The 1946 original is just one of those movies
that should never be remade as it is the sacred ground of actor Tyrone Power
and the writings of Somerset Maugham.
Scrooged was released in November 1988 however I didn’t see
it until several years later on DVD and it is in my personal “Top 20 Movies”. It is still funny every time I see it and it
is my holiday season film kickoff movie that I watch every year on Thanksgiving
Day. I fondly recall attending Christmas
Day celebrations in Tulsa and while feasting on gourmet delights, we watched the
trinity of Christmas Movies, The Christmas Story, National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation and Scrooged.
Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843 and it
told the story of the miserly miserable Ebenezer Scrooge and the events that
befell him one Christmas season in Victorian era London. Scrooge is visited by three ghosts that take
him on a retrospective of his life and he is forever transformed.
When I was a kid, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol was the
first version of the story I saw and at the time, it was a bit scary (come on,
you know it was if you saw it as a kid).
Literally, I do not think there has been a television show that has not
done their take on the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. And I have probably liked
every one. Of course, there have also been
numerous theatrical and television movies and will probably be more in the
future. A few of my favorite versions
are the original 1938 version, the 1999 Patrick Stewart version and the last
one I saw, the 2009 Jim Carey version which I saw at the Dole Cannery Theater
in Honolulu.
Nobody does sleazy charming wisenheimer better than like
Bill Murray. It is comedy gold to see
Murray playing Frank Cross, the youngest network executive at IBC and his “Ebenezer
Scrooge” experience. Scrooged is irreverent, gut busting funny wrapped up
with a tear inducing ending. The supporting
cast is a cornucopia of great comedy performances from Robert Mitchum, John
Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, David Johansen, Alfre Woodard, Karen
Allen. Bill Murray’s brothers, Brian, John
& Joel are also in the movie. Because
I grew up seriously, seriously liking Robert Goulet, (my parents listened to his
music on vinyl records on their hi-fi stereo) I love the bit about him
hawking a Cajun Christmas special. The
movie is directed by Richard Donner whose works includes others films I like
such as The Omen, Superman, Lethal Weapon, The Goonies and 16 Blocks.
The first Christmas I was in Anchorage, three years ago, I was
at Barnes and Noble and got a hardback book copy of A Christmas Carol and now
read it every year at Christmas. There is just
something quite lovely about holding an actual book in your hand and reading
the timeless prose of Charles Dickens.
My DVD of this movie is the same copy I bought & blogged about on 12/18/09. http://en.bloguru.com/13princessbeach/query/?search=scrooged&go=
No comments:
Post a Comment