Patrick Stewart stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in this relatively recent version of "A Christmas Carol". It is well acted and well produced--with nice sets and costumes. And, it provides pretty much the same experience as watching any other version of the story. To date, there have been approximately 1,272,347,234,913,948,251 versions and variations of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Few of them are terrible and most do a decent job of conveying the story*. So I say, why make more?! Why don't we just watch of the best ones, such as the 1984 version with George C. Scott or the 1951 version with Alistair Sim? Now the 1999 version with Patrick Stewart is good--but why try to keep re-inventing something that's been done very well already?!?! My advice is no matter how good this version is, what is the point of yet another? Call me a Scrooge, but I say 'bah, humbug' to all the corporate folks who keep re-using this public domain tale instead of trying to create something new. And, 'bah, humbug' to the fact that MOST versions emphasize the Christmas aspect of the story but gloss over the social message originally intended by Dickens.
*Horrible versions of this over-used story include many kids' versions such as one starring Mr. Magoo, "A Bugs Bunny Christmas Carol" (I love Looney Tunes, but this one was bad), the Flintstone version (they were alive BEFORE Jesus was born...think about it) and although I haven't yet seen it, I am almost 100% positive the new Smurf version is awful.
*Horrible versions of this over-used story include many kids' versions such as one starring Mr. Magoo, "A Bugs Bunny Christmas Carol" (I love Looney Tunes, but this one was bad), the Flintstone version (they were alive BEFORE Jesus was born...think about it) and although I haven't yet seen it, I am almost 100% positive the new Smurf version is awful.