User reviews

Just saw this on DVD, a little more than a year after it came out. Sure, it is not that "funny" if you are expecting SNL level comedy, but I really enjoyed it. First, I had never heard the song "Christmas Blues" before. Not bad at all. And the later group performance of "Fairytale of New York" (originally by The Pogues from the late 1980's) was just great. (I guess I have to write a little more - right now my review is not long enough for IMDb.) It was interesting to see David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) of the New York Dolls. I see that he was also in the 1988 Bill Murray film "Scrooged". And I was not familiar with Jenny Lewis, but she is a very good singer. I got this on a whim, but am really glad that I saw it.

Bill Murray worries no one will show up to his T.V. show due to a terrible snow-storm in New York City.

I may be rating this special a little low. It is hard to say, because I did not know going in to it what this would be, and I was somewhat disappointed that it was not funnier or more silly. It basically amounts to a series of special guests singing Christmas songs. Which is nice, but really nothing all too different from any other special, and seems like a waste of Murray's talent.

One thing I found the most confusing was that some people were themselves (Murray, Chris Rock, George Clooney) while others (Jason Schwartzman, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones) were not. Why not just have everyone be themselves?

This is painfully bad and boring. I'm a big Bill Murray fan and will remain so only by not ever watching this again.

It's basically a number of musical performances with a thin plot. I assume some were purposefully bad to be funny. Nothing was very funny. I will say that a few of the performances are okay (sparing a 1 for a review) but mostly it just feels awkward without any real Christmas feeling or humor.

I suspect they had a lot of fun making this. I just wished they had kept it as a home movie to show their friends and not their fans.

With all those stars, what a shame.

This is a unique take on a christmas special. Giving a fun and a witty perspective on Murray's personal life it takes a simple look on a christmas eve giving a fun filled celebration of christmas with Hollywood celebrities.

Personally loved it though many critics criticised it.

Rating - 3.5/5

Several of Bill Murray's films are at the top of my movie list. This one, not so much. It was really disappointing as a fan. I agree with several other reviewers that Bill Murray's talent was underutilized. I expected it to have a bit more of a plot and a bit more of his usual quick wit humor. It's not so much a movie with a plot as it is a celebrity karaoke night with Bill Murray as a host and also a bit of a therapist to some of the characters in the bar.

I feel like they phoned a few celebrity friends, got together for a slumber party in a warehouse, sang songs and filmed it, used the first takes on all of the scenes and hurriedly put it together to get it on Netflix in time.

Some songs were decent enough, but others were a disaster. Possibly on purpose, but didn't cut it humor wise. If you are someone who enjoys celebrity cameos, perhaps you'll enjoy this. It just wasn't funny for us to watch a bunch of celebrities we know are not singers fail (miserably) at singing and a bunch of celebrities we already know are decent singers be decent or mediocre at singing.

If you're going to watch this, be prepared with something else in front of you to do while it's on, like wrapping Christmas presents, so you don't have to feel like it was a total waste of your time.

In September 2015, HBO gave us the special Ferrell Takes the Field, an hour-long documentary following actor/comedian Will Ferrell joining ten different MLB teams in one day for a game of preseason baseball. The purpose of the event was to raise money for Ferrell's friend's charity that helped give terminally ill kids an opportunity at college education, but instead of making a meaningful contribution that would go unnoticed like many would, Ferrell had to embellish it and make it all about him. This, in turn, led to a purposeless publicity stunt and a film that screamed nothing but vanity and ego for Ferrell himself.

With that, just in time for the holidays, Bill Murray, enough universally loved and respected actor, has decided to hop aboard the train of mindless projects that assume we, the audience, is just going to bust a gut throughout because the titular actor is the lead in the film. Sofia Coppola's A Very Murray Christmas is pointless Christmas special, never quite making the stride towards self-referential humor but never acting like a straight-forward comedy either. As a result, we get fifty-six minutes of Christmas carols from recognizable faces punctuated by a sulking and brooding Murray and banter between him and other celebrities.

The film revolves around a lonely Bill Murray, who has lost his holiday spirit after a vicious blizzard in New York City prevents guests like Pope Francis and Brad Pitt from showing up to his one-man-show "A Very Murray Christmas," where he was set to perform various Christmas songs. The venue he was scheduled to play at, New York's famous Carlyle Hotel, is nothing but an empty auditorium, and Murray's crushed sentiments can't even be curbed by the encouragement of a perky Amy Poehler. In the midst of this mess, Murray runs into Chris Rock, who agrees to perform a song with him in the meantime, and over the course of the day, Murray helps liven up a couple's (Jason Schwartzman and Rashida Jones) postponed wedding and finds the gall to sing alongside George Clooney and Miley Cyrus.

The end result shouldn't be as cheerless as it is. To begin with, the Christmas songs move at a snail's pace and are never played for the absurdity of circumstance. It also doesn't help that writers Coppola, Murray, and Mitch Glazer can't find a consistent tone for the project and don't really know how to handle the sardonic and often bleak humor of Bill Murray's character. Secondly, the scenes interjected in between the musical numbers aren't very funny or interesting either. They're more along the lines of nudging the audience at how allegedly funny it is that Clooney, Cyrus, and Murray, at one point, all share the same on-screen space. Most of these scenes are clear that Coppola and company just assumed that the presence of many actors at once would hopefully take over and, in turn, produce comedic results, but time again shows that this notion is just an excuse for lazy/minimal screen writing.

Finally, what's the takeaway from this project? By the end of it, the characters don't seem to learn anything they didn't already know, the glacially paced musical numbers have mostly faded from the mind, there's not a single quotable line in the film, and Murray's attitude has made the audience exhale comfortably knowing that this special doesn't even last an hour. A Very Murray Christmas is about as perplexing as it gets, if you try to discern its themes and content in a literal sense, but it's pretty easy to understand the soulless attempt to make the audience laugh solely based on actor recognition as a result of lazy screen writing and conceptual ideas.

Starring: Bill Murray, George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Chris Rock, Amy Poehler, Paul Shaffer, Jason Schwartzman, and Rashida Jones. Directed by: Sofia Coppola.

This Christmas special has a very 2020 vibe even though it was made 5 years ago. A blizzard in Manhattan on Christmas? Unable to see your friends and Family? Sounds familiar. Stellar performances all round, although I do wonder how much acting was actually done. Still, one of my go-to Christmas watches for a nice somber vibe.

Show has no social or artistic redeeming virtues. How Sofia convinces the backers to actually put up cash to finance such a pointless, silly, egocentric hour of supposed entertainment is a total mystery! The only surprising aspect is that Bill Murray is a fairly good singer. Otherwise, the show should be an embarrassment to the other participants...particularly George Clooney. Except for Miley Cyrus who was scripted to sing a song without any story background, the other contrived musical situations were ridiculously contrived situations about which one cringed, hoping they would end quickly. Hopefully, this will not become an annual event...once was one time too many already!!!

This show is a real stinker. I wonder what Murray had to do to get Cloony, who looks like he might ought to give up drinking. Chris Rock has so little talent, and the desperation is in casting Cyrus. What a Yuuuuuge skank. We watched 20 minutes, so bad, we could not waste anymore time. The music is lame, the talent is non existent. This will never be anywhere near a classic. I can 't even think of anymore insults to direct at this POS. I have to write 10 lines. It stinks. Really. It is soooooo bad. It is an insult to Christmas. Cyrus sitting on a piano in a whore outfit singing Silent Night. We just could not watch.

A Very Murray Christmas (2015)

** (out of 4)

This Christmas special was made for Netflix and when you've got a talented director like Sofia Coppola and a talented actor like Bill Murray you expect much better. The story has Murray set to perform a live Christmas show but NYC has been hit by a major snowstorm so he's worried none of the stars will show up. Not only do we get Murray but we also have Paul Shaffer, Michael Cera, David Johansen, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Miley Cyrus and George Clooney.

There are many problems with this 56 minute special but the biggest is the fact that it's simply not funny. While watching the film I couldn't help but wonder what they were even trying to do. Show off a great cast? Perhaps because that's really the only thing that the movie accomplishes. Murray is always fun to watch but he really isn't given much to do here outside of singing some songs, which he adds a nice spin on. Clooney shows up towards the end and while it's fun seeing him in something like this he really isn't given too much to do. The scene-stealer is Cyrus who sings three songs but takes the movie with a wonderful version of Silent Night.

I'm going to start by leading with my guess at why people review this film so low:

Because they expected a standard Bill Murray caper and that's not what this is.

So what is this film:

This film is ridiculous, not always funny, but very endearing.

It's intimate, cosy and festive.

It's meandering is a surreal way.

It's unpretentious, mainly because I don't think they really had a plan.

It's got some great names.

It's got some random names.

It is genuinely heartwarming.

I'm going to end by saying that if you're after plot, or even high quality singing, then this isn't for you. If you want some surreal Christmas Murray rambling then dive right in.

Pretentious, boring, unfunny insult for everyone who loves music, Bill Murray's great acting creations, and most of all, Christmas special atmosphere and all good what comes with this time. So question is: why is Bill Murray doing this? Is this a quick buck action? Or is this more like a: I am a Bill Murray so, whatever I do, even if it is not funny, even if I can't properly sing one note, even if the whole plot has 0 substance and I have perfect knowledge about that, it is good enough, because it's me, Bill Murray? I got information for Mr Murray: don't do it again man! It can be danger for your health, not to mention other things like a loosing whole credibility. There are other interesting things worth of few words, e.g. Miley Cyrus as an Icon of almost Marian virginity singing Silent Night wearing playboy bunny Christmas costume, but let's just forget it. That was dedicated to those who like Christmas backwards and was even more emphasizing main question of whole undertaking: why Bill? Why?!

Previous icon of Groundhog Day, Bill Murray, stars as the front-man of Netflix's new holiday special. Right from the get-go, "A Very Murray Christmas" is a confusing affair. Whenever a new character is introduced the viewer has to determine whether or not the a member of it's fairly impressive cast plays themselves or just another character. A prime example being Amy Poehler playing, "Liz", a main character that very well could have just been Amy Poehler, as a majority of the cast plays themselves.

The special is musically driven and in most cases fun. Paul Shaffer is an absolute delight and often works well will Murrays charm. The quality of both the music and the special itself improves upon itself throughout its 56 minutes. However, unless accompanied by another cast member, Bill Murrays singing can be dry, with the first music numbers being the specials worst.

The beginning of A Very Murray Christmas is debatably terrible, and due to this first scene it's hard to tell who it appeals to. Every aspect of the hour is appropriate for children but only after excusing the explicit language in the first scene, not that it ruins the quality, it was just an odd choice for the content matter. Bottom line is that it's not funny and it doesn't really have a point but it makes it well. Fun, charming Murray makes the special as the rest of the cast makes the music. No distinct direction, but no distinct flaw 7.3/10

This show starts out with a miserable Bill Murray because a snowstorm threatens his TV show. This show ends with a miserable viewer because it was not funny, not entertaining, and lackluster throughout. AVOID unless you are a Murray fan, then multitask viewing this with holiday card writing, decorating, or heavy drinking.

Murray plays himself in this variety show within a variety show, which nobody attends due to a blizzard. With his worries come true, Murray wallows through New York City's Carlyle Hotel with the holiday blues, but fellow guests will get him by with some Christmas spirit. Great song selection and performances, but each number is performed in its entirety, dragging things on a lot longer than necessary. The ensemble cast includes cast and crew that have become part of Murray's modern clique, making A VERY MURRAY CHRSTIMAS seem (appropriately) like a group of friends getting together for the Holidays but at the end of it all, this Christmas special just doesn't end up being all that funny.

★★½ (out of four)

My personal rating of a Christmas movie is if I feel more excited, and good about Christmas. I want to feel the Christmas spirit more at the end of a Christmas movie then at the beginning. I thought there was going to be some hope to this at the beginning of A Very Murray Christmas. The first ten minutes I thought was going to be a setup to the eventual release of Christmas Spirit later. I was surprised at Bill Murray's voice in the first song, but later songs seemed to be just a way to have him sing more and the quality of his singing got worse and worse. It was almost like they said, he sang good on the first song, we don't have to worry about any of the others. However, the more I watched, the sadder I got. The more I listened, the less I wanted to. By the end of the movie all remnants of Christmas Spirit had faded away in a smog of sadness. This will never be seen in my house again.

A BIG thank you to Bill Murray, Chris Rock, George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, et al. for making me laugh (and cry...Miley Cyrus's rendition of Silent Night brought tears to my eyes.) when I needed it most. Bravo to those who bravely took the mike while they obviously cannot carry a tune,(eh Chris and George?) Have been watching Bill Murray since his debut on SNL. And who would ever guessed that Clooney would be where he is today after watching him on Roseann?! Despite the negative reviews here, this little gem created some much needed Christmas cheer. I hope to see another Murray Christmas next year! And for all of you who were disappointed...bah humbug!

It is completely shocking....really, at how bad this is. I forked money out sight unseen and rarely do I do that, but with Murray how could I go wrong? I guess Murray can't go undefeated forever and the whole cast stumbles through this while Murray tries to keep a horrific script alive. The hardest part was the painful ineptitude of the deliveries of the whole cast, I get the feeling that this may have been a solely extemporaneous performance. If it wasn't it was more forced than shotgun wedding. The best gift you can give yourself this Christmas is anything but this movie. I really don't want to spend any more time writing a review for a movie I was mugged out of 20 bucks for, but I MDB felt that 5 lines to say that a form of entertainment sucks it hard is not enough, so let me add this....I would rather be shaved with a rusty broken razor, rubbed with salt and then dipped in a vat of Iodine than watch this film again.

This effort is so bad and that is even before you take into account all of the flat out of tune singing

This truly terrible beyond words.

All i remember about the film before i eventually just turned it off is... having no plot whatsoever just one really bad singer after another . with the only exception of maybe Miley Cyrus who was actually not bad. I have no clue wither people were acting or being themselves or a bit of both. It was truly a film to slash your wrists watching .

I have never used any account to openly criticize a film before but this was so bad i felt the needed to warn people so they would not waste time out of their lives which they wont ever get back .