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always deliver a strong moral message.

Frank Cross is well signposted as a bad guy, subtle things like the usual motivational office text inspired to give your staff a boost here is replaced by a definition "Cross - Something that you nail people too" just as if you never really got hold of the fact that he is unpleasant. Slightly less subtle signs like Cross insisting that antlers are stapled to the heads of mice to stop them from falling off are there for those who like their messages a little more in your face.

Like the original Christmas Carol story Frank is visited by four ghosts during the course of the story, the idea being is that the four ghosts and most specifically the first ghost that visits Frank has had a little time to reflect upon their time on Earth and intend to steer Frank in the right direction, to presumably prevent him from becoming as wretched as they were. The three ghosts that visit Frank: The Ghost Of Christmas Past (played by David Johansen of The new York Doll), The Ghost Of Christmas Present (Quirky Carol Kane), and his old boss Lew Haywood (John Forsythe) bring with them instant laughs, Lew slowly rots before Franks eyes, while Johansen and Kane are a little more direct, the latter delivering the majority of her messages with violence. There is of course the Ghost Of Christmas Future, who is a more threatening looking character who is played by an unknown actor, says nothing and is obviously partially puppet based.

The remaining cast are filled with past stars the Jamie Farr, John Glover, Bobcat Goldtwaite, Michael J. Pollard, , and late actors Anne Ramsey, Robert Mitchum, John Houseman, Buddy Hacket and Robert Goulet. As well as stars of the present Bill Murray, and now popular TV actress Alfre Woodard; and a star of both the past and the future in the form of Karen Allen the beautiful actress who wowed audiences in the early 80's and is in for a busy year of acting with the most notable role being in Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. You could almost say these are representative of the ghosts in the movie.

Scrooged has dated slightly, things that are commonplace now, or even obsolete are being treated like some sort of technological revolution, a video recorder being a prime example. Fashions in the movie are sadly very 80's looking, Karen Allen being the biggest victim, at times looking like she was dressed from the contents of a Christmas cracker. 20 years suddenly seems like a lot longer ago.

There is something that really rubs me up the wrong way about Scrooged though despite the good things that I might say about it and that is the rather saccharine ending to the film. Without ruining the tale for those that might not have yet embraced this story, the end is in some ways so sickening that it might just make you throw up a little (hopefully in your own mouth), there is something so unpleasant to me about this ending that it actually makes me feel embraced about watching the rest of the film. The long and over exaggerated finale really rubs me up the long way; it's like five minutes of the worst bleeding heart bile ever put into a film, worse than 100 bad Adam Sandler/Ben Stiller romantic endings. And I strongly believe this is the one reason that the movies critics on release were not as passionate about the picture as they could be.

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