Film Reviews

Christmas with the Kranks

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Cheech Marin
• Details: US/ 100 mins/ (PG).

While you'd be forgiven for fearing that a Christmas film adapted from a novel written by John Grisham would feature idealistic young lawyers fighting for Santa's rights, even that looks infinitely more appealing than anything unfolding in Christmas With The Kranks. A man who seems allergic to non-Christmas roles, Tim Allen is the patriarch of the Krank family, husband to Nora (Curtis) and father to Blair (Gonzalo). When their Blair decides to join the Peace Corps, Luther and Nora decide to skip Christmas, and head off on a luxury holiday. Their neighbours, marshalled by Vic Frohmeyer (Aykroyd, Lord help us) and Walt Scheel (Walsh) are a fairly intolerant lot and proceed to wreak havoc on the Kranks' lives until they give in and celebrate in the good old-fashioned American way
Sounds like a hoot, eh?
Actually there's a decent movie begging to be made about intolerance at this time of year, but Christmas With The Kranks has no interest in hitting any targets. Woefully inept and utterly contrived, the film has no semblance of order or delivery, relying on a series of gags so inanely predictable, you can spot the punchline coming weeks in advance. Astonishingly banal in places and just plain bad in others, Christmas With The Kranks is a film where the closest thing to a redeeming feature is the end credits. I'm sure I've seen worse films, but none spring to mind. Bah humbug, indeed.

Review by Garreth Murphy