Brad and Kate, an urbanite unmarried couple with no plans to tie the knot or ever have children, are forced to visit their respective families after bad weather grounds planes and keeps them from going on their yearly tropical Christmas vacation together. And so we the audience are treated to nonstop cruelty, violence, profanity, and humorless mockery of the Christmas tradition for the rest of the film.
When Brad and Kate aren't being attacked, vomited on, and belittled, they're bickering about their increasingly deteriorating relationship, which is maybe not as solid as they thought. There is some funny dialogue, and the fish-out-of-water classism is amusing at times. But a few witticisms once in a while can't make up for the rest.
Four Christmases had potential; as a concept, it makes sense. Nearly everyone can relate to dysfunctional family comedies, and with four families in the mix this movie could have been hilarious. Instead, it's relentlessly cruel. If the script had been tempered with any kind of warmth, love, or holiday spirit, perhaps it would have been a Christmas classic. Unfortunately, the writers saw fit only to mock Christmas and Christians both under the pretenses of making a Christmas movie.
That the filmmakers loathe Christmas and everything it stands for is evident in every scene. That they expect their Christian, or Christmas-celebrating audiences to laugh along with their pathological hatred of the holiday and its higher meaning is absurd. The cast is indisputably talented but their skills are wasted on this charmless, unfunny bore. What a shame.
When Brad and Kate aren't being attacked, vomited on, and belittled, they're bickering about their increasingly deteriorating relationship, which is maybe not as solid as they thought. There is some funny dialogue, and the fish-out-of-water classism is amusing at times. But a few witticisms once in a while can't make up for the rest.
Four Christmases had potential; as a concept, it makes sense. Nearly everyone can relate to dysfunctional family comedies, and with four families in the mix this movie could have been hilarious. Instead, it's relentlessly cruel. If the script had been tempered with any kind of warmth, love, or holiday spirit, perhaps it would have been a Christmas classic. Unfortunately, the writers saw fit only to mock Christmas and Christians both under the pretenses of making a Christmas movie.
That the filmmakers loathe Christmas and everything it stands for is evident in every scene. That they expect their Christian, or Christmas-celebrating audiences to laugh along with their pathological hatred of the holiday and its higher meaning is absurd. The cast is indisputably talented but their skills are wasted on this charmless, unfunny bore. What a shame.