SCROOGE DREAM TEAM

At Christmas I watched my fair share of A Christmas Carol adaptations and each one is brilliant in their own way. Certain performances are more memorable than others, so I have compiled a list of my favourite portrayals of these iconic characters. I must note that I have only picked from the four best adaptations, which include the timeless classic 1951 Scrooge masterpiece, the riotously entertaining musical Scrooge of 1970, of course The Muppets Christmas Carol and the excellent, and very faithful, 1999 A Christmas Carol. A shout out must go to 1984’s A Christmas Carol starring George C Scott, which I count as the best of the rest.

A (mostly) Scrooge’s TOP TEN CHRISTMAS FILMS

Here are my top ten favorite Christmas films, I have not included Christmas Carol adaptations as I have a separate list for those films that I made last year. I also haven’t included many of the 1940’s or 50’s Christmas classics such as White Christmas, Holiday Inn, The Shop Around the Corner and 1947’s Miracle on 34^th Street, simply because it doesn’t matter how much critics will have you believe that they’re not dated…..they are. So most of these are classics you can revisit every Christmas, as well as some unusually dark Christmas films.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

At last the hotly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed and hugely popular Star Wars: The Force Awakens has arrived! This is the second film in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and the ninth installment overall (eighth in the main cycle) of the franchise. This time we catch up with the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa as they evacuate their main base and are hotly pursued by the ruthless First Order. Meanwhile, Rey attempts to embark on her Jedi training with none other than Luke Skywalker, where she will unlock both age-old mysteries of the force as well as shocking revelations of the past….

Split

The film follows a man with 23 different personalities who kidnaps and imprisons three teenage girls in an isolated underground facility. It is believed that some mental divisions within dissociative identity disorder can manifest unique physical attributes for each personality. Though Kevin has evidenced 23 different personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr Fletcher, there remains one still submerged set to materialise and dominate all the others.

Justice League

This is the fifth instalment in the DC Extended Universe that, compared to its Marvel counterpart, regularly seems to come under some fire from film critics. The first two films Man of Steel and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice received a lukewarm reception from critics, and perhaps rightly so. Man of Steel was a great spectacle and had some thrilling actions sequences, but had a less than compelling story and a dreary feel to it for a supposedly fun superhero film. Next, Dawn of Justice was a muddled effort; more thought provoking than most comic book films with some good performances from Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg, yet hamstrung by a clunky script and some boring effects driven action sequences. But it was not half as bad as most critics would have you believe.

Wind River

Wind River is a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American Reservation in the hopes of solving her mysterious death.  Taylor Sheridan is fast becoming one of the most exciting writers-directors on the scene and he delivers a character driven neo-Western murder mystery that is deeply affecting as well as thought provoking.