# Anyone feel the same about Scrooged as you did when you saw it in theatres? And that feeling is **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 11, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857 "2020-12-11T20:31:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/1 "2020-12-11T20:31:29Z")
Funny, but mean-spirited and maybe Bill left a little too much of himself on the screen? He’s not THAT different in Groundhog Day, but i feel like the corners in that movie are ground down a lot more.\* \*Mind you the sharper contrasts in Scrooged do make the scene of him seeing himself as a child fairly moving. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/2 "2020-12-11T20:36:55Z")
It’s one of my favorite Christmas movies. Saw it in a packed theater when it came out and I remember the audience really liked it too. Surprised now days to hear people think of it as a “bad” Christmas movie and not very well liked. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/3 "2020-12-11T20:45:46Z")
Maybe I’m just burned out. The film doesn’t have the ‘it’ factor to me any longer. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/4 "2020-12-11T20:57:54Z")
I think its still in most critics top 20 Christmas movies. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/5 "2020-12-11T21:22:17Z")
I still enjoy it. It smartly turns the Scrooge story around a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/6 "2020-12-11T22:14:34Z")
I still like it, but now that I’m a parent, the bad future for the “Tiny Tim” character hits a lot harder. Two actors from episodes of Star Trek:TOS appear together in a scene from “Scrooged” - can you name them? ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/7 "2020-12-11T22:43:40Z")
This thread reminded me of this fantastic article in the Ringer a few years back: > **[‘Scrooged’ Is Still the Perfect Christmas Movie 30 Years Later](https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/11/23/18105319/scrooged-30th-anniversary-bill-murray-christmas-movie)** > > It’s loud, cartoonish, and misanthropic, but the 1988 Bill Murray vehicle is remarkably well-suited for our fraught present moment > [@](#): > > It took that much pure volume, one supposes, to rise above the cable-TV hellscape in 1988, which makes _Scrooged_ one of the very few Christmas movies capable of rising above the maximum-internet hellscape of 2018. It’s the crowd-pleasing and wildly unnerving holiday fable we deserve. Fifteen years later, in 2003, two new movies secured their own places in the Classic Christmas Flick pantheon by splitting _Scrooged_ exactly in half. Billy Bob Thornton’s [_Bad Santa_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvaoRScND4) took all the uncut malevolence, black-hearted to the last; Will Ferrell’s [_Elf_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW9wRNqQ_P8) took the raucous and breathless glee, another oversized kid crashing around Santa’s workshop and pumping up the holiday cheer with pure sweat and maximum energy. > > Play both those movies simultaneously and crank up the volume and you’ll get _Scrooged_ , which if absolutely nothing else will get everyone in your family to look up from his or her phone, even if just for a second, just to see whether Bill Murray is, like, OK. He isn’t. He was ahead of his time even then, and he knows of which he screams. He’s merry as hell, and he’s not going to take this anymore. Funny enough I love both Bad Santa and Elf as well. Maybe I’ll take the article’s advice this year. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/8 "2020-12-11T22:57:40Z")
Mean, and the movie was a little overstuffed. I really don’t think Scrooge needs an active love interest either, takes away from the pathos. That was the movie trying to hit too many bases (overstuffed.) Don’t like Bad Santa either, so YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/9 "2020-12-11T23:11:51Z")
Michael J. Pollard from “Miri” and Logan Ramsey from “Bread and Circuses”. I feel about “Scrooged” as I did when I first saw it, it’s a good adaptation, but my favorite version is the 1951 Alastair Sim. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/10 "2020-12-11T23:33:13Z")
I absolutely love this movie. I never saw it in theaters, but I watch it every Christmas. The only really cringe moment comes at the end when a woman forcibly kisses a guy tied to a chair and it’s played off for laughs. Otherwise it seems to hold up. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/11 "2020-12-12T00:19:12Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Michael J. Pollard from “Miri” and Logan Ramsey from “Bread and Circuses”. Exactly right. ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/12 "2020-12-12T00:35:40Z")
I always loved Bill Murray’s commercial from this movie: “Acid rain… drug addiction… international terrorism… freeway **killers.** ” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvmAa1cYZK4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvmAa1cYZK4) ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/13 "2020-12-12T02:52:20Z")
I never saw Scrooged in theaters but it is probably in my top 10 Christmas movies and by far my favorite version of a Christmas Carol which I don’t really like. I also dig Bad Santa which is definitely in my top 10 watch every year movies. Elf is hit or miss with me since Will Ferrell drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/14 "2020-12-12T04:09:57Z")
In the theater at the end when he asks half of the audience to sing, then the other half, no one sang when we saw it. It doesn’t work at all when watching at home. I like the movie otherwise and will watch it every few years. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/15 "2020-12-13T04:24:58Z")
I either saw it in the theater or on cable shortly after its release. I remember after thinking meh about it. I think I’ll give it a re-watch this year. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/16 "2020-12-13T06:22:41Z")
I didn’t like it when it came out, and my memory is neither did many other people. It was not a huge hit, but a mediocre minor success, I thought. The song was bigger than the movie. When _Groundhog Day_ came out, a largely similar concept of redemption through becoming a better person, I figured it was a repeat of what the _Scrooged_ creators were going for but failed to achieve. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/17 "2020-12-13T07:56:05Z")
I like the movie, but it bugs me that Murray’s character is clearly based on Brandon Tartikoff, the legendary 1980’s head of programming of NBC and _actual_ youngest president in television history. I knew Brandon - he and my father were close friends - and he not only was he a supremely nice guy, he had a reputation in the industry for being a nice guy, too. I know for a fact that neither he nor my dad were actually offended by Murray’s portrayal, but it still bothers me a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/18 "2020-12-13T23:48:25Z")
Too young to have seen it in theaters, but it’s one of my favorite Christmas movies and still holds up. I have no real hot take on the movie other than when I describe it to people I make sure to mention it was back when Bill Murray was still funny and not just hipster funny (read: not) like he is today. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/19 "2020-12-22T07:46:57Z")
I wound up becoming a journalist and have frequently had to work on holidays, so the movie’s notion that it’s the height of insensitivity to have people working on Christmas Eve strikes me as, oh, a little quaint. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857/20 "2020-12-22T14:00:40Z")
I saw it in the theatre on my first high school date. I didn’t want to go on the date (long story) but at least the movie was funny. I still think it’s funny though after I read an article where Bill Murray said the director made him yell constantly, I can’t unhear it and several scenes could have been better with out. Still one of my favorites- love the Christmas present ghost and Bobcat of course. Total child of the 80s here- it’s a classic. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-feel-the-same-about-scrooged-as-you-did-when-you-saw-it-in-theatres-and-that-feeling-is/927857.md?page=2)