If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

How sad is this?

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This modern reworking stars Ross Kemp as Eddie Scrooge, a loan shark in a council estate. He is mean but unlike other loan sharks he does not break your arms and legs or threaten to rape single mothers. He just throws down the television set from the 15th floor instead of selling it in Cash Converters for some ever readies.On Christmas Eve Eddie is visited by the ghost of his late murdered business partner Marley who warns him that if he does not mend his ways he will face an afterlife of misery, presumably he will owe himself some money.Marley tells him that Eddie will be visited by three ghosts. The first ghost is his father who harks back to his impoverished childhood and his later blossoming love life with Bell who is a nurse but who left him because of his increasing meanness.However each time Eddie is visited by a ghost his life resets to that Christmas Eve which he relives like Groundhog Day and Eddie clumsily tries to improve his ways but with little success as his heart is not in it until he meets the third and final ghost.It seems that Eddie needs to face up to hard truths such as his role in the death of Marley which is why he tries to avoid Marley's mother or his world-view of the feckless and deserving poor.It is an interesting update on the Dickens tale. Of course Eddie comes across too much as Grunt Mitchell that famous character Kemp played in Eastenders and the ending is not as sentimental as the Dickens novel but the comic elements does not quiet work and Michael Maloney seems miscast as Bob Cratchett.

I actually stumbled upon this version from 2000 by accident. It was Christmas morning, 2002 and I was laying in bed looking for something to watch. I just happened to click on one of the local public stations out of Long Island and immediately became transfixed. I wasn't even sure of what I was watching. Then it struck me. A modern day Christmas Carol, complete with the British accents! What a treasure. The only negative thing I can say about this film is that it's next to impossible to find it playing on TV here in the states. It's also not available in any media form (VHS / DVD).This is my favorite version of the Dickens classic and every cold-hearted anti holiday Grinch would be served well by one viewing.If anyone knows where I can find this, please email me!!!! Thanks

Badly written attempt to modernise Dickens' classic Christmas story. Directed by somebody who thinks they're making a pop video. And if the writing and direction are bad, the acting......... Well, it's Ross Kemp doing his usual 'cockney wide-boy with mad, staring eyes and croaky voice' act. About as convincing as Dick Van Dyke in 'Mary Poppins'. "Stroike a li' guvnah".Even Michael Caine was better in the Muppet version. I'd rather watch the moronic musical version. (Well actually, I'd rather poke my eyes out with lollipop sticks but watching Albert Finney trying to sing and dance is - marginally - less painful).Avoid. If you know what's good for you. This is "dead aht ov ordah".

I am an avid fan of the 'carol' movies, and have read the book more times than I can count. Some version of 'Carol' are terrible, some are brilliant, this movie goes into the latter choice. Kemp brings us a very believable Scrooge, a loan shark in a council estate. We see more of Scrooges love, Belle (or rather, Bella, in this new version), who fills out the character like I have never seen before. The ghosts were fantastically thought out, instead of being random spirits, these ghosts were close to Scrooge in their lives. The Ghost of Christmas-Yet-To-Come being the biggest shocker of all.This is undoubtedly my favorite take on the 'Carols' so far, and I would recommend it to anyone. I really, really hope that one day, it will be brought out onto DVD, I don't think the recording I made of it when it aired will last much longer from being watched.