Christmas with the Kranks (Movie Review)

Sorry for the delay with this movie review...I saw it a long time ago...but here goes. Christmas with the Kranks starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis is based on John Grisham’s bestselling book “Skipping Christmas.” (which by the way would have been a much better title for this movie)

Allen and Curtis play Mr. and Mrs. Krank, a couple which decides to cancel Christmas when their college-aged daughter decides not to come home for the holidays. The Kranks think that this is the perfect opportunity to take all of the money they usually spend on gifts, decorations and parties and instead take a cruise to an exotic location. Well, their neighbors and friends are not at all pleased with this decision. They use any and all tactics necessary to get the Kranks involved with Christmas…even volunteering to decorate their home for them. But the Kranks remain strong and refuse to get drawn into any Christmas activities whatsoever. Instead, they focus on packing and visiting tanning beds…and hiding out from the neighbors.

However, all their plans change when their daughter changes her mind and decides to come home for Christmas…AND she is bringing her foreign boyfriend with her. She has told him all about her family’s Christmas traditions and can not wait to share them with him…and oh by the way…her plane will be landing in a few short hours. Bye-bye cruise, hello Christmas. The remainder of the film focuses on the Kranks and their neighbors working together to decorate the house and plan a Christmas party for that night.

The first twenty minutes of this movie led me to believe it may be one of the worst Christmas movies of all-time. But it did improve, and actually had some funny parts in it…and of course a few of the required “heartwarming Christmas moments.” Unfortunately, a lot of the comedy was of the “slapstick” variety. There is good slapstick, and there is bad slapstick…and trust me this movie had bad slapstick. Part of the problem is that they tried to make a funny movie out of a book that wasn’t that funny in the first place. It is not a horrible movie but you should probably just wait until it comes out on DVD or cable to see it…which you will probably have to do anyway since my review is so late.