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In this modern day interpretation of A Christmas Carol Frank Cross is the youngest television president in history and it has gone to his head. As he plans the worlds largest live broadcast on Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his old boss and warned he is being given a chance to change his ways and will be visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts. Cross spends the next day being ferried through his past, present and future by ghosts and leading everyone in his life to start thinking the Christmas Eve broadcast has finally made him lose it.

Scrooged is hands down one of my favorite Christmas films, and a movie so funny that like Elf I can watch it any time of year. What makes this film so memorable is that it takes a story we all know so well and manages to combine that with what Bill Murray does best – bizarre comedy.

Frank Cross is a horrible man. He sends the people on his Christmas gift list either a towel or a VCR depending on if he likes them or not. He refuses to give his secretary a bonus. He fires an executive the day before Christmas Eve for disagreeing with him. He’s excited when an old woman has a heart attack from watching his Scrooged promo and it gets published by the media. Cross doesn’t care about anyone and everyone knows it. The slogan posted around his office is “Cross: a thing you nail people to”. Bill Murray is the perfect person to play Frank Cross because he can take all of the self-involved horribleness of Frank Cross and make them almost endearing. You still think Frank Cross is awful, but you laugh at him and get excited when he changes. And there is nothing like watching Murray do his thing on screen, he’s amazing.

You also have to love the ghosts in this film, the most memorable one for most people I talk to is the ghost of Christmas present played by Carol Kane. Kane is a SNL alum like Murray, and their comedy styles mesh very well, but that’s not what makes her character memorable. What makes Kane’s ghost memorable is that she is a hyper fairy in a tutu that beats the crud out of Frank. I don’t mean metaphorically, or emotionally, I mean that at one point she literally hits him with a toaster – and that’s just one thing she hits him with. Kane’s character and Cross spend most of their segment arguing like an old divorced couple and each argument culminates in violence to get Frank magically transported to the next scene he needs to see.

I know the holiday season is wrapping to a close and you may not feel like watching a Dicken’s tale during the march to Valentine’s Day, but I do hope that at some point before Christmas Day rolls around again you will find this film and watch it if you haven’t seen it before.

Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Mitch Glazer & Michael O’Donoghue
Frank Cross: Bill Murray
Claire Phillips: Karen Allen
Lew Hayward: John Forsythe
Brice Cummings: John Golver
Eliot Loudermilk: Bobcat Goldwait
Ghost of Christmas Past: David Johansen
Ghost of Christmas Present: Carol Kane
Preston Rhinelander: Robert Mitchum
Grace: Alfre Woodard
Scrooge: Buddy Hackett

Frank Cross: Do you think I'm way off-base here?
Elliot: Yes. You're, well, you're a tad off-base, sir. That thing looked like The Manson Family Christmas Special.

Mr. Fox is an expert bird thief and loves it, until the day Mrs. Fox tells him that they are expecint a child and makes him promise to get an honest job. Mr. Fox does and begins writing a column for his local paper but pines for the job he was good at; in an effort to better his family’s life he buys a local tree and they move in – into the shadow of Boggis, Bunce & Bean, three of the meanest farmers in the land. When Mr. Fox decides to take up his bird thief ways again he unwittingly brings disaster onto all of the animals in his community.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a brilliant little movie; somehow, Wes Anderson did manage to turn a children’s story into a family film with his own personal flair. But this film has Wes Anderson stamped all over it, from the way the characters deliver their lines, to the quirky costumes they wear and the way they get stuck in situations of their own making. Don’t let the claymation stop you – this is a Wes Anderson film.

The one thing I have to mention about The Fantastic Mr. Fox is something that’s been festering for awhile. I keep overhearing people talking about how they don’t know why such a big deal is being made over the animation technology in this movie because the same thing was done in movies like Over the Hedge. I love Over the Hedge, have seen it many times and that’s why I know that’s a computer animated film. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is stop motion – totally different technology & completely different visual style to it. These were actual little models of the characters that were moved and photographed one frame at a time, not drawn inside a computer. If you really can’t see that it’s time to get your eyes checked.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that this film will be nominated for Best Animated Film at the Academy Awards this year. I do think it deserves the nomination, but I’m not sure it will win. The stiff competition for this film comes from Up, another brilliant family film that also deals with responsibility & family. It will be interesting to see who wins.

Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach
Mr. Fox: George Clooney
Mrs. Fox: Meryl Streep
Ash: Jason Schwartzman
Badger: Bill Murray
Kristofferson: Eric Chase Anderson
Bean: Michael Gambon
Rat: Willem Dafoe
Coach Skip: Owen Wilson

Mr. Fox: Who am I, Kylie?
Kylie: Who how? What now?
Mr. Fox: Why a fox? Why not a horse, or a beetle, or a bald eagle? I'm saying this more as, like, existentialism, you know? Who am I? And how can a fox ever be happy without, you'll forgive the expression, a chicken in its teeth?
Kylie: I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds illegal.

In Ghostbusters 2 the entire paranormal crew is back only this time the fame that exploded around them five years earlier has turned on them and they are now hasbeens that not even the mayor they rescued will take calls from. However, the paranormal can always be relied on to shake things up and it does as Dana’s infant son has strange things that begin to occur around him and the boys uncover a literal river of negativity running under the city that is causing more of the paranormal to come out.

I don’t think that Ghostbusters 2 is as funny as the original, but it is definitely a worthy effort and makes me wish they might actually partake on a third installment. I was quite impressed in the follow up film that the writers chose to make the boys less successful; it definitely upped the comedy factor in a few senses and I have to say that I really laughed out loud when it was revealed that Venkman was now a host of a psychic TV talk show that no one will go on.

I have to give credit where credit is due and compliment Sigourney Weaver. This is a woman who can play just about any role (and has) and shockingly in the Ghostbusters series is a match for Bill Murray, her warm personality versus his dry and dark character is incredibly entertaining and you would not think that could be the case.

I would have to say that there is enough to Ghostbusters 2 to keep the audience entertained, but that if the leads can ever find it in themselves to make a third film in the series it would be adored by fans everywhere.

Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis
Peter Venkman: Bill Murray
Ray: Dan Aykroyd
Dana: Sigourney Weaver
Egon: Harold Ramis
Louis: Rick Moranis
Winston: Ernie Hudson
Janosz: Peter MacNicol

Ray: Ungrateful little yuppie larva. After everything we did for this city.
Winston: Yeah, we conjured up a hundred-foot marshmallow man, blew the top three floors off an uptown high-rise, and ended up getting sued by every city, county, and state agency in New York.
Ray: Yeah... but what a ride.

In New York Drs. Venkman, Stantz & Spengler have a sweet deal going at the local university, they get to continue their research into the paranormal (and Venkman gets to hit on young co-eds) without ever producing results and they continue to be funded and get paid – however, they same day they discover a genuine ghost in the New York library they get the boot from the university. Spurred by their new discovery the men decide to go into business for themselves as the Ghostbusters who will rid you of your otherworldly guests for a nominal fee.

Until last week I had never managed to see Ghostbusters; now that I have seen it I have to say that the exploits of these haphazard scientists are going to gain a permanent place on my DVD shelf. I have to say that I really did not expect the comedy in Ghostbusters to be subtle and intelligent, I kind of thought it was going to be all slime and in your face humor, or at least on par with something like Men In Black; instead, I was delighted to see that Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd were left to their own devices and allowed to do the subtle, adult comedy both can be so dang good at.

While Aykroyd and Murray definitely carried the movie Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis & Ernie Hudson add to the comedy dynamic in a wonderful way that only truly good writing and direction can create. Each character manages to have a distinct personality and flavor and when everyone is woven together Ivan Reitman hit the homerun creating a work of comedy genius. It is no wonder that Ghostbusters is lauded and applauded by so many adoring fans, I have no doubt that Ghostbusters is a film that will be praised for decades to come and continue to be emulated by the ever-evolving voices in comedy.

Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis
Dr. Peter Venkman: Bill Murray
Dr. Raymond Stantz: Dan Akyroyd
Dr. Egon Spengler: Harold Ramis
Dana: Sigourney Weaver
Louis: Rick Moranis
Janine: Annie Potts
Walter Peck: William Atherton
Winston: Ernie Hudson

Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.