MattyGibbs A Carol Christmas is a modern version of scrooge. An egotistical presenter learns the error of her ways via some spirits of Christmas past, present and future. Despite a relatively high profile cast ( cameo performances from William Shatner and Gary Coleman)for a TV movie this one falls a bit flat. Tori Spelling does a decent job as the lead but the terrible dialogue and production is just too mushy and it just seems the film is going through the motions. To be honest the only emotion this film evoked from me was boredom.Whilst it's not horrendous and is at least watchable I'd save your mulled wine for better Christmas films.

James Donnelly A TV version of Scrooged, effectively, and the 1001th version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol! Tori Spelling is the eponymous Carol, a selfish TV Chat Show host.This really does have iconic TV actors, Star Trek's William Shatner, Different Strokes' Gary Coleman, Lois and Clark's Michael Landes, The West Wing's Nina Siemaszko and in an uncredited role, James Cromwell.Its the support cast that make the movie tolerable rather than Tori Spelling. I don't know her for her acting career, just for her being Aaron Spelling's daughter, and general tabloid fodder.The movie is typical TV mulch, and tries too hard to be a lot like Scrooged, momentarily funny, but not laugh-out-loud.So, yeah, One time viewing, its fine, but for repeats, definitely choose the superior Scrooged.

Jackson Booth-Millard I saw the title and instantly knew this TV made film was going to be a modernised version of the classic Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol, and with one or two names in the cast being good I gave it a go. Basically Carol Cartman (Scary Movie 2's Tori Spelling) is the conceited, cynical, selfish and cold sensationalist TV chat show host who has been moulded by her dead Aunt Marla (Dinah Manoff). It is Christmas Eve, and with her mean behaviour at its tether, her dead Aunt comes to haunt her and tell her she is making a big mistake being like she is, she could become what she has in the afterlife. Marla also tells Carol that she will be visited by three ghosts to see the error of her ways, and hopefully change her attitude towards family, work and Christmas. So the spirit to visit is the child star Ghost of Christmas Past (Diff'rent Strokes' Gary Coleman), who takes her back to see her childhood growing up with Aunt Marla, how she got her break to becoming a star of stage and then screen, and ultimately how manipulative her Aunt really was to get her any career at all. After returning Carol is next visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, in the form of TV nice guy Dr. Bob (Star Trek's William Shatner), who shows her what her nastiness is doing to the people in her life, including work employees and family. Finally the silent and cold looking chauffeur Ghost of Christmas Future (James Cromwell) who shows Carol how her life will turn out if she doesn't mend her ways and make amends, including of course her death. So when she wakes up she is a reformed person, starts being nice to Jimmy Fields (Final Destination 2's Michael Landes) and assistant Roberta (Nina Siemaszko). In the end, live on her show she ultimately expresses her newfound heart saying she will give loads to charity and take her crew on holiday to Hawaii, and finally spends time with her niece and sister. Also starring Paula Trickey as Beth, Jason Brooks as John Joyce and Holliston Coleman as Lily. Spelling makes a slightly cheesy but near good Scrooge figure, the supporting cast members do alright as well, particularly Coleman and Shatner, the modern day showbiz satire is amusing at times, I agree it is like a pantomime most of the time, but a not too bad seasonal comedy fantasy. Okay!

rick-centner Each year, the Christmas/Chanukah season sees a plethora of new and reissued movies celebrating the holidays. Some are groaners, a few are terrific (such as "Comfort and Joy" elevated by Nancy McKeon and Steven Eckholt's performances), and a handful make seasonal films worth taking a chance on. "A Carol Christmas" is one of these. I almost skipped it because of Tori Spelling, but can't resist checking out the latest "Christmas Carol" pastiches. Tori's acting was better here than what I've seen previously to about the same degree that the reformed Carol was to the "bad" Carol. Gary Coleman, as the Ghost of Christmas Past, was surprisingly and wisely understated. Willam Shatner, whose "real life" counterpart was a Dr. Phil send-up, was campy as usual. But writer Tom Amundsen cleverly managed to fit the ghost's campiness within the "real world" of the story. Dinah Manoff was outstanding as the conniving Aunt Marla, on whose machinations the plot revolves. Initially, Jason Brooks struck me as an odd choice for Carol's love interest, but he won me over. The key to the success of "A Carol Christmas," in my opinion, is the fact that Amundsen, who wrote several episodes of the classic series "Perfect Strangers," combined some excellent comedy with a somewhat gentle touch when it came to copying Dickens' original. He was also restrained without being coy in the way he made his points about the moral messages in the film. "A Carol Christmas" is, in my opinion, far better than several big screen Christmas releases of the past two or three years, in which major stars have strained and struggled with overblown scripts in efforts that yielded precious few real laughs. A tip of the hat as well to the always reliable Michael Landes, and Nina Siemanszko (recurring in the Mystery Woman series on Hallmark). They and other supporting cast members gave this surprisingly good Christmas film a realism and poignancy that left us with smile on our lips and a warm feeling in our hearts.