Casey Phillips: If the directors of “Scrooged” and “Rachel Getting Married” met one night at a roadside cafe and decided to create a lackluster hybrid of their movies, the result might end up something like “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.”

Director Mark Waters, who last dabbled in ectoplasmic romantic comedies with “Just Like Heaven” (2005), has created a movie whose only real difference from the plot of “A Christmas Carol” is replacing curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge with AbMaster spokesmodel Matthew McConaughey.

As a playboy who goes through women like a flu victim through tissue paper, Connor Mead (McConaughey) learns to mend his wicked ways with the help of his uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas doing his best Hugh Hefner impression) and the spirits of his girlfriends past (Emma Stone), present (Noureen DeWulf) and future (Olga Maliouk).

The result is predictable and mostly unfunny. If you can’t figure out how it will end in the first five minutes, seek help.

Holly Leber: I have to wonder whether McConaughey is trying to be satirical in his romantic comedy roles, or if this is just how he acts. His “I’m charming” grin that permeated movies like “How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days” and “The Wedding Planner” is just as present here. He must imagine a flash of light winking off his front tooth. It doesn’t really make sense in “Ghosts” that Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), an attractive doctor, would have spent most of her life smitten with Connor. He’s a smarmy character who boasts about his overinflated salary and worships at the altar of his late uncle (Douglas), a wealthy, womanizing type.

Casey: Despite some pretty decent romantic chemistry, McConaughey and Garner’s interactions just don’t ring true. He’s arrogant and lascivious, but when presented with a more likable choice in a triathlon-running physician (Daniel Sunjata), she holds out for the seemingly impossible return of the sensitive 12-year-old she thinks is hidden deep inside Connor.

Of the spirits helping Connor on his Dickensian quest, Emma Stone has the strongest presence as Allison Vandermeersh, Connor’s hyperactive, gum-popping first romantic conquest. She’s cheery and spunky, which livens up her scenes. I found the other spirits (particularly Maliouk) forgettable.

Holly: DeWulf brings a no-nonsense humor to her role of Melanie, Connor’s put-upon assistant who, as she points out, is the most consistent female presence in his life, as opposed to his disposable lingerie models. I had to check if director Mark Waters was involved in another Garner vehicle, the far more charming “13 Going On 30,” because her presence in another time travel romantic comedy seemed suspect, especially considering that the same young girl (Christa B. Allen) appears as Garner’s younger self in both movies. He wasn’t, but he is treading familiar territory of his own here (the perspective-switching “Freaky Friday” remake, and casting “Mean Girls’” Lacey Chabert as Connor’s apoplectic sister-in-law-to-be).

Casey: There’s nothing necessarily wrong with “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” other than being Grade-C vanilla. Applying the “Christmas Carol” concept to relationships could have been an interesting re-imagining in the vein of “10 Things I Hate About You.” Instead, this is the bare minimum, just clearing the bar instead of raising it. The Muppets did Dickens a better turn than this.