Scrooged (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	96:48
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (55:56)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Richard Donner
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Bill Murray Karen Allen Bobcat Goldthwait Carol Kane Robert Mitchum Alfre Woodard John Forsythe David Johansen John Glover
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Czech Hebrew Polish French English English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch Arabic Greek German Turkish Italian Spanish Portuguese Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    It's Christmas time, or thereabouts, so we should expect a DVD or two with a Christmas theme.

    This movie is about, at least in part, the making of a TV special, "from Charles Dickens' immortal classic Scrooge". I fear children may grow up thinking that Charles Dickens wrote a book called "Scrooge". No, he didn't - the book is called "A Christmas Carol".

    In "A Christmas Carol", a miserly old man called Ebenezer Scrooge is surprised by a visit from his business partner, Marley. The surprise is mostly due to the fact that Marley has been dead for some time. Turns out that Marley has been suffering for the sins he committed during his life (chief among these, we gather, being a lack of generosity to others). The main purpose of his visit is to warn Scrooge that Marley's sins are as naught by comparison to Scrooge's, but Scrooge is being given one last chance to redeem himself (I don't think the book ever explores why Scrooge has drawn the "get out of jail at considerable cost" card - why does he rate a last chance?). Scrooge will receive three visits, from three ghosts: the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Future. The first shows Scrooge what he left behind, the second shows Scrooge how other people celebrate Christmas, and the last shows Scrooge what will happen if he doesn't change. Scrooge is a changed man after these experiences, and turns over a new leaf. Fade down and roll credits.

    This movie takes a slightly different take on the old story, and has some fun along the way. 

    Our protagonist here is Francis Xavier Cross (Bill Murray), a rampaging type-A person who is president of a TV network. His office has a quote printed on one wall: "cross: a thing they nail people to". He fires someone (Bobcat Goldthwait) on Christmas Eve, and when his PA points this out his gratitude is limited to being able to stop the victim's Christmas bonus. His network's Christmas showing includes Santa and the elves defending the North Pole with M16 assault rifles and Lee Majors. He replaces a warm and friendly ad for their special Christmas "Scrooge" show with one that features atomic bombs, a aircraft exploding, and drug addicts shooting up. Yep, he's not a nice person. He works for Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum), something of an obsessive old fool.

    As you would expect, Frank is our Scrooge character. He is visited by his previous boss (dead seven years after a heart attack on a golf course), and he is visited by three Ghosts. These Ghosts are a bit different. Christmas Past is David Johansen - the kind of taxi driver you could do without. Christmas Present is Carol Kane - a fairy with attitude. There is rather more physical violence in this version than the original.

    Frank is reunited with his old flame, Claire Phillips (Karen Allen), who left him because he cared more about his work than her. Well, it is an American variation on the story...

    I rather liked the street buskers that Frank abuses as he is strolling along the street - you don't often get to see Miles Davis, Paul Shaffer, Larry Carlton, and David Sanborn busking.

    In essence, this is an amusing retelling of the story, and one which gives Bill Murray ample scope to overact to his hearts delight.

Video

    This move is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture is beautifully sharp, with excellent shadow detail. There is no low level noise in the transfer and it is a delight to look at.

    Colour is strong and well-saturated with no colour bleed.

    There are no significant film artefacts in the transfer and although there are moments of aliasing, they are barely visible. There are no MPEG artefacts in the transfer nor any other artefacts worth mentioning. This is a clean transfer.

    There are subtitles in 17 languages, including English. The English subtitles and captions are attractive, accurate and well-timed.

    The disc is single-sided, dual layer and is RSDL formatted. The layer change is located at 55:56, at a scene change. On one DVD player the layer change is invisible; on another it is visible, but not at all troubling.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The English soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and that is what I listened to.

    The dialogue is almost always easy to understand and there are no visible audio sync issues. There's one instance where Carol Kane says (according to the subtitles) "Holland", but it sounds like "Harlem" - it is possible that the subtitles are wrong, of course.

    Danny Elfman's score is well integrated in the story, with quotes from a number of Christmas carols and popular Christmas songs.

    The soundtrack is mostly frontal, with surrounds providing a bit of depth, but there are only a couple moments with real directional surround sound. Given that the closing credits mention Dolby Stereo in some theatres, the lack of detailed surrounds is unsurprising. The subwoofer gets enough to do to keep it awake, but it never draws attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is static and silent.

Trailer (2:28)

    A simple trailer, not quite as good quality as the movie.

    The Region 1 disc is close to identical to this one. It has the exact same features, the same artwork on the cover and disc, the same chapter stops, and the same sound mix. The Region 1 video shows traces of edge enhancement (the Region 4 does not), and slightly more contrast (it looks a bit harsher). We get a lot more languages, both on soundtracks and subtitles.

    The Region 4 disc is slightly better, but if you have the Region 1 - keep it, as it is almost as good.

    A reasonable movie, presented nicely on DVD. Seasonally appropriate.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent, but not particularly directional.

    The extras are negligible.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall