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Reviews Counted:129
Fresh:6
Rotten:123
Average Rating:2.8/10
Consensus: A mirthless movie as fresh as last year's fruit cake, Christmas with the Kranks is a course, garish comedy that promotes conformity.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $73,701,902
Synopsis: The Kranks have always celebrated a picture-perfect Christmas. But with their only daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), away from home on her Peace Corps assignment, Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Luther... [More]
Starring: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Erik Per Sullivan
Director: Joe Roth
The notion of bullying people into succumbing into the trappings of Christmas does not necessarily represent goodwill to all, and while the situations present good comic opportunities, the film ends up feeling rather manipulative and sugary.
Top CriticChristmas With The Kranks is the sort of film that leaves you thinking Ebenezer Scrooge might have had the right idea about the festive season.
A grueling experience.
Some pathetically predictable plot twists and syrupy sentimentality, which could only amuse a five year-old, lead the Kranks back to their materialistic senses in time for a Kodak moment which shouts a rather shallow Merry Capitalism to all!
A more sweet than sour satire that sets its sight on nasty but lavishly honey coated underpinnings of the holiday season.
In any normal year this dire comedy would be the undisputed lump of coal in our psychic stocking, but coming on the heels of Surviving Christmas, it's a close second.
With clumsy sight gags the only humour on offer, the temptation to mutter 'Bah humbug' is overwhelming.
Top CriticThere is not a single lifelike character in the entire picture.
[A] comedy so broad it barely dents its targets and a patronising moral conclusion that goes against everything its protagonists originally stood for.
Top CriticThis isn't a wonderful life: It looks pretty hellish.
It is a perfectly fine, inoffensive family comedy.
What better way is there to get into a festive spirit than having it crammed down your throat?
...almost had me convinced to convert to Judaism to avoid having to go through anything ever again that even remotely resembles this movie.
Rotten Eggnog
Humbug. American families deserve a better effort than this.
Oh boy. This was a painful experience. Very painful.
This holiday comedy depicts suburbia as a place where all true individualists are treated with a nastiness not in tune with the Christmas spirit.
Makes the colossal mistake of making Luther's obsession seem almost a valid protest against conformity -- then lets the neighbors not only win but claim the moral high ground.
See Joe Roth's movie and you'll understand the true demeaning of Christmas.
Contains momentum-halting continuity errors and clownish antics from hammy performers that will have Santa scribbling furiously on next year’s “Naughty” list.
December 20, 2007:
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Attention, filmgoers who have seen and enjoyed The Golden Compass: According to The Vatican, you're either "dishonest" or you haven't been "gifted with a critical spirit." More...
November 02, 2006:
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This week at the movies brings us the profound discoveries of a great Kazak journalist ("Borat," starring Sacha Baron Cohen), a battle between Santa and Jack Frost... More...
December 15, 2005:
Critical Consensus: A Sly "Family Stone," A Towering "Kong"
This week at the movies, we have a giant ape {"King Kong"} and some yuletide dramedy ("The Family Stone"). Will the critics go bananas for these flicks? More...
October 20, 2005:
Trailer Bulletin: Freedomland
From director Joe Roth and screenwriter Richard Price comes "Freedomland," an apparently racially-charged kidnapping thriller that stars Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne... More...
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