Blackadder's Christmas Carol

1988
7.9| 0h43m| en
Details

Pleasant Ebenezer Blackadder is turned into a cruel and witty miser after seeing visions of his ancestors and descendants.

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Reviews

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Tweekums Throughout the ages Edmund Blackadders have been knaves to a man… that is until this one; he is the nicest man in all of England. He is generous to a fault, giving all of his money, not to mention Christmas presents and even his Christmas lunch to others. These others include Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who are searching for the most generous man in London to reward him. As he prepares to go to sleep he is visited by the Spirit of Christmas. This spirit compliments him on his goodness and mentions how he tries to show bad people the errors of their ways by showing them visions of their lives… he also tells Blackadder how bad his ancestors were and agrees to show him.We then see visions of Elizabethan Blackadder and Regency Blackadder as they deviously profit from those around them. Blackadder asks who thinks would change if he were evil… in the distant future his decedent would rule the universe but if he continues to be good things will be very different. Needless to say by the morning Blackadder learns an important lesson… bad guys have all the fun! Those who know him are in for a surprise.This is a solid one off episode of Blackadder. It was fun to see a good Blackadder for once… even if he quickly becomes the man we expect him to be. There were plenty of laughs to be had; unfortunately some of these are rather spoilt by an obtrusive laughter track. I really liked the scenes were we revisited Blackadders past and got to see old favourite characters again. The future scenes were also rather amusing as they play with some more naff sci-fi tropes. If you are a Blackadder fan this is a must see, if you haven't seen previous series this will probably still be amusing but obviously not as funny as if you know the characters.
Alex_Hodgkinson This episode had basically everything you'd want from a Blackadder episode. I mean, all I've seen so far is some quality humour and characters, but this episode had everything. It had nostalgia to the older seasons because we visited older characters and events, it had a tremendously good story which is basically the opposite of 'A Christmas Carol', it had great new characters including a completely different Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) and it had a ton of hilarious Blackadder jokes.Honestly this is my favourite episode so far. Maybe the length had something to do with it as well; it did add more time for development and plot. I didn't expect this one to be so good, as it has a relatively low rating for a Blackadder episode. It's not a perfect TV episode by far, but in my opinion it's a perfect Blackadder episode.One last thing to add is that I found the entrance of Robbie Coltrane's character, the Spirit of Christmas, highly amusing. It was almost exactly like Hagrid's entrance in Harry Potter, and it even has the same actor, but it is years before Harry Potter. I just found this little thing great and wanted to point it out for the benefit of whoever reads this.
tiggerhans I don't know how many versions there are of the famous Christmas Carol. The oldest versions and the one from Disney are the best I think. Some more recent versions are all terrible, but this one from 88 is an excellent one. Of course, it seems that there is a group of fans devided into two. Fans of American humor, fans of Brittis humor. I tend to prefer the last one. This version of Blackadder is Brittish humor at its best, and I never can get enough of it.
Raymond Valinoti, Jr. (POSSIBLE SPOILER) If all people sincerely practiced good will toward others and businesses only marketed their goods to spiritually enlighten their customers during the Yuletide season, BLACKADDER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL would've been pointless and repugnant. But since at Christmas time, many people only behave nicely in order to impress others and businesses peddle a variety of junk- including crass holiday movies- for money, what could be a greater relief from all this humbug than a reverse Scrooge story about "the nicest man in England" who after seeing ghostly visions on Christmas Eve, becomes "the horridest man in the world."Even if one is not familiar with the popular BLACKADDER series with Rowan Atkinson as the scheming, sharp-witted Blackadder and Tony Robinson as his moronic assistant Baldrick, one can still enjoy this Christmas special. Much of the appeal of the special is the "turning of the worm" theme. Because the pre-visions Ebenezer Blackadder (Atkinson) is thoroughly sweet and generous, he is an easy pushover for avaricious hangers-on. He also seems repressed by his saintliness. Atkinson expresses his amiability in a strained manner, particularly when spouting inanities like "Well, bless my ten toes!"Therefore Atkinson's transformation after witnessing the humorously despicable behavior of his ancestors and descendant (also played by Atkinson) is not only cathartic but thoroughly convincing. As he effortlessly and buoyantly expresses his meanness toward his tormenters, one is convinced that Ebenezer's character hasn't actually changed. Rather, he has shed a facade in order to divulge his true nature. The final sequence suggests that benevolence, not misanthropy, is the key to true happiness. Yet it is presented in the same irreverent humorous manner as the rest of the program and avoids sentimentality so the viewers aren't betrayed. A wickedly funny show with hilarious performances (particularly Robbie Coltrane as a fumbling Christmas Spirit and Jim Broadbent as a dense Prince Albert) and witty dialogue ("Think nothing of it, Baldrick- I, after all, think nothing of you."), BLACKADDER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL can be enjoyed any time of the year.

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