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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8034
- Running time: 97 minutes
- Year: 1988
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: 6 languages available
- Subtitles: 17 languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Director:
- Richard Donner
(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-outone, namely Frank Cross. He’s also incredibly mean to his staff andeither 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 strangeLew Heyward (John Forsythe) that he’s to be visited by the ghostsof Christmasses Past, Present and Future, two of which areDavid Johansen and Carol Kane.
Murray puts on a superb performance throughout the film – making this one ofhis better comedies – and gets good support from Karen Allen as thelove interest, Robert Mitchum as his boss Preston Rhinelander,Alfre Woodard as his harrassed secretary and there are cameos fromRobert 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 1.85:1ratio 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 niceto 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 inmono.
Extras :Sadly, Paramount are a scrooged when it comes to the extras and the chapteringwith 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 thefront cover and the usual options.
Overall, when it’s Christmas time (mistletoe and wine), I’d rather watchthis comedy than a sloppy film, although this does lose a point or two forgetting schmaltzy towards the end as Murray learns the error of his ways.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.