The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, December 2-8
Scrooged (1988)
Directed by Richard Donner
Frank Cross, your run-of-the-mill ratings-crazed television tycoon, is more Machiavellian than Dickensian in this modern day take on the story of old Ebenezer. As president of the IBC network, Cross (a rambunctious Bill Murray) must oversee a production of A Christmas Carol featuring an inebriated Buddy Hackett as Scrooge and a chorus line of scantily clad leggy women as his co-stars. No stranger to the booze himself, Cross fires an employee, repeatedly insults his secretary, and rebuffs his brother between Stoli and Tabs which, naturally, evoke the three Christmas spirits who want to teach Cross a lesson. The Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present (played flawlessly by David Johansen and Carol Kane) shed a proverbial light onto Cross’s hijinks with a gleam of holiday spirit. Samantha Vacca (December 2, 7:30pm at the Nitehawk; sold out)