Susan Granger's review of "Christmas With the Kranks" (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
There's no doubt that the Yuletide has been overcommercialized but that's still no excuse for this miserable, lamebrained exercise in sloppy slapstick and silly stupidity.
When their grown daughter (Julie Gonzalo) informs her parents (Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis) that she'll be spending the holidays in the Amazon with the Peace Corps, the couple decide to forgo their usual festivities and take a cruise in the Bahamas. However, this perfectly rational decision throws their petty, materialistic suburban neighbors (Dan Aykroyd, Felicity Huffman, Cheech Marin, Tom Poston, M. Emmet Walsh, Jake Busey) into a fury. Does that mean they won't send Christmas cards or host their annual Christmas Eve party? What about his company's holiday party? And won't they hoist their giant Frosty the Snowman onto their roof?
All this fanatical intolerance is settled quickly when their beloved daughter phones to announce that - surprise! - she's not only coming home but bringing a Peruvian fiancé. Hysteria erupts as the Kranks scramble to create yet another Currier & Ives Christmas, honey-ham and all.
Written by Chris Columbus ("Home Alone"), based on John Grisham's "Skipping Christmas," and directed by Joe Roth, the former Disney exec who gave us "America's Sweethearts, "Gigli" and "Little Black Book," it's a lame comedy that never manages to be either ironic or funny. First it satirizes the communal holiday celebrations, then it lauds them. Better to think of Tim Allen's irascible "Santa Clause" shenanigans, and if you want to see Jamie Lee Curtis at her zaniest, rent "Freaky Friday." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Christmas With the Kranks" is a cheerless, thudding 2, emerging as one of the worst Christmas movies ever.
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