YMMV / Scrooged

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Younger audiences may be confused at the appearance of a cellphone in 1988. Notice how the phone is on a cord that goes to a larger part in Grace's purse. That's a real 1988 cellphone, top of the line.
• Broken Base: Is the movie too mean spirited? Defenders say no, it balances enough real Christmas cheer with the darker comedy, and the meanness was already present in the original book. Detractors say that the nastiness goes too far in this version, and combining it with comedy can make the moments where you're supposed to be laughing uncomfortable instead.
• Critical Dissonance: Critics heavily bashed the film on its release for its dark tone and "mean-spiritedness" (what did they expect from a modern update to a story about a dark, mean-spirited protagonist?), but audiences liked it just fine, making it #1 at the box office and Bill Murray's most successful movie to that point since Ghostbusters (1984).
• Crosses the Line Twice: Frank looking under the Ghost of Christmas Future's giant robe and seeing the distorted, snarling faces - horrifying. Frank checking again to make sure that, yes, that's exactly what he saw - hilarious.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Carol Kane's Ghost of Christmas Present was by far the most praised character in contemporary reviews, the worst even calling her its sole redeeming feature. The Ghost of Christmas Past is also quite popular for his attitude and antics.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: For Elliot Loudermilk. Frank rehiring him as a high level executive is certainly a good step forward, but he's still got his fair share of problems that we never see get resolved. He lost his wife and child in the wake of his firing, and there's no indication of reconciliation. And while his bender was hopefully a one time thing, there's a very real chance he could continue to have issues with alcoholism. And then there's the potential legal trouble he'd face for his use of a firearm. Frank will most certainly not press charges, but the other people he held at gun point more than likely will.
• Harsher in Hindsight
  • Frank's Scrooge promo becomes this for two reasons, either because of the 9/11 attacks (so much that the scene is occasionally edited out, namely the "international terrorism" and the exploding plane or just after the tragedy, the whole promo was removed) and that less than a month after the film was released, The Lockerbie Bombing occurred.
  • Frank's Scrooge promo is apparently so shocking that it killed an old woman. As absurd as it may sound, such a thing has since happened.
  • There's also the fact that if anything, many of the problems alluded to in the promo have gotten worse in the years that have gone by.
  • Eliot's rampage at the end is played for comedy, but with the rise of high-profile mass shootings and the growing awareness of how easy it is in America for someone to bring a gun to the workplace, it can definitely make modern audiences uncomfortable.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • At one point, Frank's boss asks a bemused Frank if he has any idea how many cats and dogs there are in America, and proceeds to press Frank into including 'pet appeal', which soon appears in the form of some mice in the Christmas Carol adaptation. While farcical in the film and yet appearing to work, certain pet food companies have since experimented with the concept of including sound and noise to capture the attention of cats and other animals in their commercials, and there's even a cable service called DOG TV along those lines.
• Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: The promos for IBC's version of A Christmas Carol continually refer to it as "Charles Dickens's immortal classic, Scrooge."
• Just Here for Godzilla: Even people who didn't care for the film have admitted to finding The Ghost of Christmas Present hilarious.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Waiter; Christmas Future; the Antler guy; Frank's dead boss; the homeless gent.
• Retroactive Recognition: The company nurse who takes care of the censor is rather plain. She gets better?
• Spiritual Adaptation: This macabre and modern take on the classic Charles Dickens tale, with a score by Danny Elfman to boot, sounds like something Tim Burton would do...but he was busy with Beetlejuice that year!
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Bryce Cummings may be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but he's sexually assaulted near the end and it's Played for Laughs.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • Frank refers to Leroy Nieman painting a mural on the Berlin Wall, and one of the cities that the Scrooge telecast was supposed to be live from is West Berlin. The Berlin Wall would fall within a year.
  • Grace has an anti-Apartheid poster on the wall of her apartment. Apartheid did not last much longer than the Berlin Wall did.
    • The Anti-Apartheid poster was likely a throw-in by Richard Donner, as he was an outspoken Anti-Apartheid activist at the time (and similar posters were featured on Lethal Weapon (1987)).
  • The idea of a VCR as a premium gift strikes audiences today as a little amusing, though in 1988 the price of a VCR ranged from $500 to as much as $1'500! Adjusted for inflation, that's the equivalent of $1'000 to $3'000!
  • "...And Starring Mary Lou Retton as 'Tiny Tim.'" If you're into gymnastics, you might know who Mary is, and why she was famous in The '80s. If not, well...
  • "No, you are a hallucination, brought on by alcohol. Russian Vodka, poisoned by Chernobyl!
• Values Dissonance: Given women physically abusing men is taken much more seriously nowadays, it's unlikely you'd see The Ghost of Christmas Present beating the shit out of Frank nonstop being Played for Laughs if the film was made nowadays.
• Values Resonance: Nowadays Scrooged is viewed as having been ahead of its time given its portrayal of a Scrooge-like character as a high-ranking executive who's more concerned with making money and advancing his career over the common good. Today, Scrooged can be interpreted as a criticism of the continuing rise of "hustle culture" and its corrosive effect on society.
• Vindicated by History: While few critics have softened their position on the movie, it's become a holiday classic among more irreverent viewers because, much like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, it emphasizes comedy over Glurge, but still plays the Christmas-y aspects straight enough that it doesn't feel like a Deconstruction.
• The Woobie: Grace and Calvin Cooley. The rest of the family (save for the eldest daughter) arguably qualifies as Angst? What Angst?.
  • Eliot Loudermilk. Within the span of fewer than 24 hours, he's fired on Christmas Eve, his wife leaves him, taking their baby girl with her and he goes on an alcoholic bender and soon wanting his revenge. Despite Going Postal, he quickly finds himself out-crazied and terrified before the now reborn Frank. At least Frank now welcomes him back to the company in a high paying job, but even then, he's still got other issues that need working out.
  • The homeless people at Operation Reach Out, but especially Herman.
  • Frank himself is mostly a Jerkass Woobie, though he becomes a full-on Woobie as a child and during his terrifying future vision. And while he's a bigger jerk than Scrooge ever was, that means the ghosts are even harsher on him than they were on Ebenezer, to the point of physical violence.
• Woolseyism: The german title of the film, "Die Geister, die ich rief"^note "The Ghosts, I called for/summoned", is a universally known reference to Goethe's Sorcerers Apprentice.

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