While any adaptation of Charles Dickens’A Christmas Carolis bound to end on a sentimental and uplifting note, the real pleasure ofScroogedlies in watching Bill Murray at his malevolent best.

He plays the utterly amoral Frank Cross, a television executive who has sacrificed family and personal life to his all-consuming ambition. Warned to change his ways by the ghost of a former mentor, Cross is subsequently visited by three apparitions showing him the mistakes he’s made in a story familiar to all. While Murray is excellent (as always), the film is nearly stolen by Carol Kane as the psychotic Ghost of Christmas Present. (Notes by Kevin Coyne.)

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