helpfulsnowman's picture
Community Manager
helpfulsnowman from Colorado is reading But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman November 28, 2016 - 1:21pm

Hello, community members!

We spend a lot of time talking about movies here, and I thought that perhaps we could start a movie club. Like a book club, but instead of reading a book the members watch a movie. Then we'd get on here and discuss it. 

The movies will vary wildly. Some good, some bad. Some classics, some modern. We'll endeavor to find things that are available through streaming services, but once in a while might move into something else. 

Hope to see you here!

 


Welcome to our December 2016 discussion for Scrooged. 

Lots of us have probably seen this before, but I'm betting most of us have seen it on TV, with commercial breaks, and so on.

We're watching Scrooged this month because it's December, but also because there's a lot to be learned from the storytelling techniques (more on that shortly).

Just a heads-up, spoilers are welcome in this thread. The start of each month's film thread won't have any spoilers, but the discussion most certainly will. If you're commenting, don't feel like you need to hide any info. Assume everyone reading has seen the movie.

A little pre-watching trivia from IMDB:

1. The ghost of Christmas present grabbed Bill Murray's lip so hard that it tore and they couldn't film for a couple days.

2. Four copies of Pablo Picasso's 1942 painting "Woman with an Artichoke" were made for a scene that was never shot. Three were given to crew members: director Richard Donner, production designer J. Michael Riva and original cinematographer Conrad L. Hall. Mel Gibson somehow got the fourth.

3. The movie was the second ghost picture comedy that star Bill Murray made. Wikipedia states, "the film was marketed with references to Ghostbusters (1984) which had been a great success four years earlier. In the USA, the tagline was, "Bill Murray is back among the ghosts, only this time, it's three against one".

4. The sling mounted GE M134 minigun used by Lee Majors in the beginning of the movie was the same stage prop used by Jesse Ventura in Predator (1987).

And here are some things to consider as you watch. Feel free to address any or none or all of them in your comments:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages on doing a modern take on an old story? What opportunities does this provide the creator(s) and what obstacles does it place?

2. What are the pluses and minuses of telling a story with a structure that's so in-your-face and set forth within the narrative? We know there are three ghosts, and we know the main character will have to make a decision. 

3. Which glimpse seems the most interesting, conceptually, to you? Past, Present, or Future? Why?

V.R.Stone's picture
V.R.Stone from London is reading Savages by Don Winslow December 7, 2016 - 5:43am

I LOVED this film as a kid. I actually saw it at the cinema, and since Wikipedia tells me it was released in 1988, I must have been 8 years old. I do remember being a little scared by the scene where the first ghost appears...

It's possible that I wasn't familiar with 'A Christmas Carol' back then, so perhaps I didn't know what was going to happen. But I did re-watch it many times. I think sometimes there's sometimes too much focus on plot and endings. You don't need a "The Sixth Sense" style twist ending or the big revelation that comes at the conclusion of a murder mystery or the currrent crop of "domestic noir" psychological thrillers. The journey can be more important than the destination. I don't even remember what happens at the end of Scrooged, or a lot of books and films for that matter.

It's a Hollywood movie. Frank Cross is bad, so he'll finish the film being good, just like James Bond will save the world. The entertainment value is in delving into Frank's life in a humorous way and watching him change.

Maybe going with a reworking of a classic story is a great thing to try. You can focus less on the twists and turns of the plot and focus more on character, setting and humour.

Favourite ghost was present... but I found that fairy weirdly attractive. I've said too much.