It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

With a bigger name cast than most year-end Christmas TV movies, "A Carol Christmas" should have been better than just a fair film. William Shatner, Michael Landes, and Gary Coleman are among the better-known actors. And, the plot of this film is a modern day "Christmas Carol" story. The title even is a play on words of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." In this case, the Carol isn't a song or poem but a person. The Hallmark plot reprises the Dickens format of three ghosts - past, present and future. But, unfortunately, it is treated heavily with humor and a light touch. Without the drama it's almost whimsical at times. Carol Cartman's trips with the ghosts become much less believable as having any real effect on her. Tori Spelling plays her character well enough, especially in the first part as a modern day Scrooge. As Dickens described the character, Spelling plays well "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner."Her heavy use of makeup, especially lipstick, helps shape her image as a cold, frozen, bitter, totally self-absorbed person. When she changes toward the end, the heavy makeup is gone, her complexion softens, and she appears clean and kind. Good job, that. But again, the light-hearted treatment of the ghosts runs counter to this and detracts from Spelling's character as being seriously flawed. So, instead of a possible modern remake of "A Christmas Carol," this film turns out to be a modern tale that resembles the original format, but with comedy and humor that all but smothers the original story and its values. The original "Christmas Carol" is a timeless classic. So, it should lend itself to a modern adaptation, but one that keeps to the original story format. It would be set in modern times and with a super wealthy person who exists solely for wealth and power but who could have taken a different path in the past.

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.

Though they used a ton of B-List actors, the movie, in my opinion was a pretty decient movie. It was actually a very nice spin on the original and wasn't too sappy. I am also not a very big fan of Tori Spelling, but she was actually pretty good in this movie as the self centered Talk Show Host. Granted, it is not the greatest adaptation of it, but it gets its point across without being too dumb. The acting and adaptation was actually what made it for me!Others include Gary Colman and William Shatner. I know I know, cheesy actors, but their characters of the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present were actually pretty endearing characters. In my opinion, this is a lot better than Vh1's take on the tale in a Diva's Christmas Carol. The movie also stayed close to the main message that the original tale had. This is definitely better than the stars it has right now. I mean, I should have hated this movie, and I actually loved it! Tori Spelling did well!!

It has been a tradition since my first VHS recorder for me to collect several of the incarnations of the old chestnut by Charles Dickens, and I taped this one and "Karroll's Christmas" this year. Fortunately, when this one was run on the Hallmark Channel at the unGodly hour of 3 AM, I was spared having to edit commercials from it. This was, however, it's only saving grace. The writing was excruciatingly dull with almost no clever scenes to save it from being anything more than a teeny-bopper soaper like Beverly Hills 90210. In this one, a good man who was cast aside for her celebrity seems the only logical explanation for her transformation into a Scrooge-like TV talk show hostess. It wasted Dinah Manoff who just plays bitch goddess to the other bitch goddess Tori Spelling (who, by the way, had more coats of paint on her face than some colonial houses) and Bill Shatner is perhaps one of the few fun things in this otherwise dreary adaptation. Some of the best opportunities are wasted like the entrances of the ghosts. Aunt Marla's entrance could have been spectacularly funny in the hands of a decent writer, but this Christmas turkey didn't have one, evidently.Tori Spelling may be a lovely person, but she has all the acting skill of a mannequin, and that makes for a bad show all by itself. Yes, it was good to see Gary Coleman work again, but the script gives him nothing to do really except roll his eyes and spout truly lame dialogue.And what is most infuriating was that the transformation from Scroogedom to Tori "sweet and light" is as convincing as a passionate conservative. Now, if anyone wants to write the ultimate Scrooge tale of a George Bush and Karl Rove, we might have a refreshing change from the usual bad Christmas Carol Clones.I suppose if you're a fan of Ms. Spelling and/or 90210, this might be your cup of Christmas cheer. I'd prefer a stiff shot of scotch and a cold beer to wash it down myself. This one I just may cast away before it is with me here for a long long time.God save us everyone!