Christmas with the Kranks
reviewed by Brian "the Naked Gun" Felts & Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell

I disagree with the critics on this one. I thought "Christmas with the Kranks" was quite hilarious and ignored the sappy Meaning of Christmas theme until the final 20 minutes. However, once the movie reached that sequence, it slowed down painfully and left a sour taste in my mouth.

The story is pretty basic. Blair Krank, played by Julie Gonzalo (Freaky Friday), joins the Peace Corp, and heads to Peru for the holidays, staying a full year. The Kranks, Luther, played by Tim Allen (The Santa Clause movies) and Nora, played by Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies) decide to boycott Christmas and head to the Caribbean on a cruise. This is much to the dismay of the neighborhood, lead by Vic Frohmeyer, played by Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters).

On Christmas Eve, Blair calls and tells her parents she is coming home for Christmas with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend and now fiance wants to experience a true American Christmas, with parties, snow and all of the trimmings. So, it's a race against the clock to see if Luther and Nora can pull it off before Blair gets home.

Like I said, the beginning of the movie is quite hilarious. Scenes between the Kranks and their neighbors, who want them to celebrate Christmas, are the funniest I have seen in a Christmas movie since "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." The scene involving Luther with his Botox is just great.

However, the last 20 minutes, when the Kranks are trying to get the Christmas Eve party together with help of the whole neighborhood, drags the movie down a lot. So much so, you almost forget the laughter in the first act of the movie. There is also a pointless couple scenes with a burglar which don't make since.

I thought Allen and Curtis were cast perfectly for each other. Although, at times, Curtis reminded me of Patricia Richardson, who played Allen's wife in the TV show "Home Improvement." Along with Aykroyd, the supporting cast is full of very recognizable faces, and some even provide humor to the story.

Overall, I say this movie is a pretty good Christmas movie. If the last half of the movie was as funny as the first half, ignoring the whole Spirit of the Season message, this would have been as great as my favorite Christmas movie of all time; the afore mentioned "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." However, since it wasn't, and they didn't, this movie only gets a pretty good rating. However, I still say go see it and ignore the rest of those idiot reviewers. Listen to me!

Brian - the Naked Gun

Brian is pretty much dead on with this one, except for suggesting the first hour is as funny as "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." I just can't imagine ANY Christmas movie being THAT funny.

Yes, the picture was very laughable, until the third act. At which point, it got severely stale and unamusing. There was a handful of heartwarming moments, as Tim Allen's character finally showed some growth. Overall, the last act was painful.

At one point, the filmmaker's added Santa Claus into the picture, which completely compromised the kind of movie they had created in acts one and two. This was not a "Santa" picture. It was a story about how goofy parents can get when their child first leaves home, especially when it's at Christmas time.

Santa does not, and should not have, factored in. Somehow he did, and the picture suffered for it. I feel adding Santa was an executive decision, which apparently the filmmakers took it on their hands and knees.

Brian is also right about the act three sub-storyline with the burglar. Very little conflict was brought from it. It was a needless red herring for an otherwise forgettable film by that point.

I wasn't expecting much out of this picture. In fact, I don't remember liking a whole lot of movies with Allen starring in them. However, this began as an exception, but ended as no surprise, cheesy and sub-intelligent. I'm sure every problem I have with the third act was NOT a part of the original novel written by John Grisham.

Stay home and watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." It's a far better seasonal experience in the long run.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?