“A Christmas Carol” — A Variety Review
Variety has their review of this weekend’s opening of “A Christmas Carol.”
Shortchanging traditional animation by literalizing it while robbing actors of their full range of facial expressiveness, the performance-capture technique favored by director Robert Zemeckis looks more than ever like the emperor’s new clothes in “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.” Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella and screen perennial has been retrofitted here as a so-called thrill ride in which Scrooge zooms above the streets of London and rockets halfway to the moon and back, only because now he technologically can. But while curmudgeons, here qualifying as anyone who might prefer earlier versions of the classic tale, will frown, bright-eyed young’uns will ooh and aah from behind their 3D glasses, resulting in bountiful early holiday B.O. tidings for the company that has now incorporated itself into Dickens’ title.
You can read the full review HERE
Someone’s got to say it: “Bah humbug!”
Honestly, just judging from the trailer, this smacks of “hey, it’s 3D so let’s throw all the 3D cliches at the audience, and create some new ones while we’re at it.”
I still prefer Scrooged.
Yep, Scrooged or The Muppet Christmas Carol. Jim Carrey has become an embarrassing parody of himself anyway.
I wasn’t impressed by the trailer.
Honestly, A Christmas Carol has been done so many times, I can’t get excited about any new version, but looked like it suffered from the same, “Let’s throw stuff at the audience because it’s 3D!” cliche that plagued Beowulf.
I saw a review on tele tonight with some extended scenes and… dammit… it doesn’t look too bad.
Saw the preview at the new Harry Potter film and was impressed. Too bad the movie looked really, really bad. I felt like I was sitting in a 1955 theatre.. same glasses, same stupid 3d stunts, was waiting for Curly from the ‘Three Stooges’ to throw a bucket of water at the screen.
Oh well, guess another 100 years to wait until real 3D comes around.
My wife and I just saw “A Christmas Carol” and really enjoyed it. It was very faithfull to the book and mostly just used the 3D to add dept to the picture. I was pleased with the movie and plan on seeing it again with friends.
Does anyone remember when Robert Zemeckis did really great work? If the answer is no, thats because its been over 20 years since he directed Who Framed Roger Rabitt and Back to the Future.
As for Jim Carrey, its been about 10 years since he’s done anything that was truly compelling. (Man on the Moon and The Truman Show) He has become a parody of himself.