Robert Zemeckis gets a free pass for life based entirely on the fact that he helmed Back to the Future, but the director has amassed a solid filmography dating back to his 1984 breakout pic Romancing the Stone. He’s been responsible for countless critical and commercial hits over the last four decades including Death Becomes Her, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, What Lies Beneath, Cast Away and picked up an Academy Award for Best Director thanks to Forrest Gump.
That’s an incredible résumé, and as well as a proven track record of success, Zemeckis has always been regarded as an innovator in the field of visual effects. Sometimes his efforts don’t always turn out as intended, though, and there was that bizarre sojourn a decade or so ago when he was pushing motion capture as the next big thing that would revolutionize cinema forever.
Of course, The Polar Express has become something of a cult favorite over the last fifteen years, while his star-studded adaptation of Beowulf was quickly forgotten about altogether. His third mo-cap extravaganza, though, was 2009’s A Christmas Carol, with Jim Carrey pulling quadruple duty as Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright and Cary Elwes filled out the supporting cast in a fitfully entertaining fantasy that managed to pull in $325 million at the box office. However, these entirely digital blockbusters are incredibly expensive to produce and A Christmas Carol failed to turn a profit in theaters, but with the festive season approaching quickly now, the movie is being added to the Disney Plus library this Friday where it will no doubt play well over the next few weeks.
