Scrooged
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth.
Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings - even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve.
Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who Frank one last chance to redeem himself. (www.rottentomatoes.com
Scrooged is rated PG-13 for adult situations and language, violence
Christmas Vacation
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30
“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” returns to The Varsity again this year.
This 1989 comedy was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series. The Vacation film series was written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon magazine, "Christmas 1959."
The film stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo and Randy Quaid, with Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki as the Griswold children, Audrey and Rusty.
In this movie, The Griswold family’s plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.
Since its release in 1989, Christmas Vacation has often been labeled as a modern Christmas classic.
Christmas Vacation is rated PG-13.
White Christmas
2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22
7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23
$7 and $5 for students
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30 and 1:30
White Christmas is a 1954 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Allen. It features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas," introduced by Crosby in the film Holiday Inn.
Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is notable for being the first to be released in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount that entailed using twice the surface area of standard 35mm film.
The movie tells the story of a successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former World War II commanding general.
White Christmas is rated G.
It's a Wonderful Life
7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22
2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23
$7 / $5 for students with ID
Doors and Varsity Bar at 6:30 and 1:30
This 1946 American Christmas fantasy comedy-drama was produced and directed by Frank Capra. It stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) .
Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched, and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be if he had never been born.
It's a Wonderful Life is considered one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Pictures, and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made.
It’s a Wonderful Life is rated G.