Rotten
Tacky in the extreme, this self-congratulatory 1988 film is an exercise in hypocrisy, indulging every form of Christmas exploitation that it pretends to attack, and many of the laughs are forced.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Scrooged
The spirits will move you in odd and hysterical ways.
1988 · 1h 41m · PG-13
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Directed by
Richard Donner
Overview
Frank Cross is a wildly successful television executive whose cold ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the love of his life. But after firing a staff member on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his actions and right the wrongs of his past.
Director and cast
- Richard Donner Director
- Bill Murray as Francis Xavier Cross
- Karen Allen as Claire Phillips
- John Forsythe as Lew Hayward
- John Glover as Bryce Cummings
- Bobcat Goldthwait as Eliot Loudermilk
- Robert Mitchum as Preston Rhinelander
- David Johansen as Ghost of Christmas Past
- Carol Kane as Ghost of Christmas Present
- Nicholas Phillips as Calvin Cooley
- Michael J. Pollard Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
71%
Tomatometer
Rotten
An appallingly unfunny comedy, and a vivid illustration of the fact that money can't buy you laughs.
Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten
In spite of the jokes at the expense of television-network censors, there's very little in the film, aside from naughty words, that wouldn't be perfectly acceptable on prime-time television.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Fresh
This is not a 'good movie' -- in fact, it's a sprawling mess -- but I like it.
Joe Brown, Washington Post
Rotten
It was obviously intended as a comedy, but there is little comic about it, and indeed the movie's overriding emotions seem to be pain and anger.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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