Ebenezer

Rating:
Summary: EBENEZER
Review: FRESH NEW CHRISTMAS FLICK. A MUST SE

Rating:
Summary: A great western version of a classic Christmas story
Review: I know I am a sucker for pert near anything western. But I did enjoy Jack Palance as Ebeneezer in this remake of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol". Definitly has an old west touch to it.

Rating:
Summary: Ebenezer is cool!
Review: I love this western version of "A Christmas Carol"! Jacob Marlow is my favorite character.

Rating:
Summary: good christmas movie
Review: I would rate this film as a must see at christmas, or if like me you enjoy westerns, any time of the year.I received this film as a free gift but I would have bought the film as I am a jack palance fan and he puts in a good performance as usual!

Rating:
Summary: Ebeneezer
Review: Much as I love all things Scrooge, this New-Age through-the-corral spin on Dickens leaves so much to be desired it utterly fails. Palance's cheating Western gambler, Scrooge is far too over-the-top to be believeable even without the continuity, pacing and script problems that plague the film, not to mention a supporting cast straight out of your local high school's annual butchering of Our Town. But aside from a weak storyline that for the most part ignores Dickens altogether, the lamest aspect of this film is the characterizations themselves -- a bumbling, spineless Cratchit and simpering wife; a cloying Tiny Tim who breaks into unconvincing peals of faux-tuburcular coughing at the drop of every dramatic hat; an ineffectual nephew-cum-sheriff wearing a ridiculous bell-boy's hat; the award for Worst Makeup on a Dead Marley (although the director mercifully changes the dead man's name to Marlow -- perhaps to avoid lawsuit) along with about a dozen or so other badly-drawn and generally useless characters who have no Dickensian cognates at all. After the Three Ghosts have done muddying up any possible rhyme or reason to the relationships on-screen and the viewer has consigned the entire cast to perdition together, there is a finale at once so syrupy as to cause diabetes in lab rats and less believeable than an Iraqi disarmament report. In short: avoid this stinker at all costs -- its only redeeming value is how much better some of the 2- and 3-star Scrooge attempts appear by contrast.

Rating:
Summary: One Step Beyond
Review: Much as I love all things Scrooge, this New-Age through-the-corral spin on Dickens leaves so much to be desired it utterly fails. Palance's cheating Western gambler, Scrooge is far too over-the-top to be believeable even without the continuity, pacing and script problems that plague the film, not to mention a supporting cast straight out of your local high school's annual butchering of Our Town. But aside from a weak storyline that for the most part ignores Dickens altogether, the lamest aspect of this film is the characterizations themselves -- a bumbling, spineless Cratchit and simpering wife; a cloying Tiny Tim who breaks into unconvincing peals of faux-tuburcular coughing at the drop of every dramatic hat; an ineffectual nephew-cum-sheriff wearing a ridiculous bell-boy's hat; the award for Worst Makeup on a Dead Marley (although the director mercifully changes the dead man's name to Marlow -- perhaps to avoid lawsuit) along with about a dozen or so other badly-drawn and generally useless characters who have no Dickensian cognates at all. After the Three Ghosts have done muddying up any possible rhyme or reason to the relationships on-screen and the viewer has consigned the entire cast to perdition together, there is a finale at once so syrupy as to cause diabetes in lab rats and less believeable than an Iraqi disarmament report. In short: avoid this stinker at all costs -- its only redeeming value is how much better some of the 2- and 3-star Scrooge attempts appear by contrast.

Rating:
Summary: 2 stars for quality + 1 star for novelty!
Review: Okay, so the first thing I said while watching this film was "So it's not Academy Award material". No matter. I've seen many versions of Dicken's Christmas Carol. This one was novel and original, and that's saying something.
. . . So for acting (especially on the part of the extras and bit parts) and the casting (of the female bit parts, stock hollywood filler types as opposed to real people) this film gets low marks. But for novelty and innovation this film garners the extra star. The Christmas Future sequence was especially creative. Ebeneezer didn't look at his own gravestone at some indeterminate time in the future -- He saw (and tried vainly to prevent) himself in a gunfight that would be happening the next day... And even that did not turn out in an obvious manner.
. . . Palance does an excellent job as Ebeneezer, and it's good to see Rick Schroeder show up again after so many years. He's not Ford or Pheonix or Murray, but he's alright.

Rating:
Summary: 2 stars for quality + 1 star for novelty!
Review: Okay, so the first thing I said while watching this film was "So it's not Academy Award material". No matter. I've seen many versions of Dicken's Christmas Carol. This one was novel and original, and that's saying something.
. . . So for acting (especially on the part of the extras and bit parts) and the casting (of the female bit parts, stock hollywood filler types as opposed to real people) this film gets low marks. But for novelty and innovation this film garners the extra star. The Christmas Future sequence was especially creative. Ebeneezer didn't look at his own gravestone at some indeterminate time in the future -- He saw (and tried vainly to prevent) himself in a gunfight that would be happening the next day... And even that did not turn out in an obvious manner.
. . . Palance does an excellent job as Ebeneezer, and it's good to see Rick Schroeder show up again after so many years. He's not Ford or Pheonix or Murray, but he's alright.

Rating:
Summary: Ebeneezer
Review: The best take on Ebeneezer Scrooge so far. The story line is amusing and if the scene at the end where the kids are putting on a play and Jack Palance (Scrooge) joins in the singing, doesn't tug at your heartstrings, then you didn't really watch the movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Fresh Approach
Review: This movie is probably one of my favorite movies ever for Christmas. No, it probably doesn't have the best story line or even the best production. But as a huge fan of westerns and a huge fan of A Christmas Carol, I thought the middle ground where these two met was great. I would recommend this movie to anyone, although hard to get your hands on(I searched for 2 years trying to get the DVD),it is worth the effort to find it. It's wonderful to have it in my collection now. The ending is quite magical and the overall theme is good things can change bad people.