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Title: Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Tim Allen | ... | Luther Krank | |
| Jamie Lee Curtis | ... | Nora Krank | |
| Dan Aykroyd | ... | Vic Frohmeyer | |
| M. Emmet Walsh | ... | Walt Scheel | |
| Elizabeth Franz | ... | Bev Scheel | |
| Erik Per Sullivan | ... | Spike Frohmeyer | |
| Cheech Marin | ... | Officer Salino | |
| Jake Busey | ... | Officer Treen | |
| Austin Pendleton | ... | Umbrella Santa / Marty | |
| Tom Poston | ... | Father Zabriskie | |
| Julie Gonzalo | ... | Blair Krank | |
| René Lavan | ... | Enrique Decardenal | |
| Caroline Rhea | ... | Candi | |
| Felicity Huffman | ... | Merry | |
| Patrick Breen | ... | Aubie | |
As strange as it may sound, Luther and Nora Krank, the award winning couple for their cheerful Christmas spirit, have decided for the first time, to skip this year's annual festivities when their daughter, Blair, departs for Peru after joining the Peace Corps. With the intention to save the staggering amount of $6,000 plus spent on previous year's holiday season, they are determined to invest the money on a sun-drenched, 10-day Caribbean cruise, much to their friends and neighbors' chagrin. However, that is easier said than done, and before long, menacing phone calls and angry protests on the snow covered pavements will betray that there is definitely no easy way out for Luther and Nora who has turned their backs on Christmas. And then, unexpectedly, Blair and her new fiance, Enrique, are coming home, unbeknownst to them that the empty family nest is far from ready for the event. Can Luther and Nora "generate" Christmas out of nothing in less than a few hours? Written by Nick Riganas
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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 portion of the movie 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 during the holidays for a full year. The Kranks, Luther, played by Tim Allen (The Santa Clause 1, 2) and Nora, played by Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, True Lies,) decide to boycott Christmas and head to the Caribbean on a cruise, much to the dismay of the neighborhood lead by Vic Frohmeyer, played by Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters, 50 first dates.) On Christmas Eve, Blair calls and tells her parents that she is coming home for Christmas with her boyfriend who 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 they can pull it off before she gets home.
Like I said the beginning of the movie is quite hilarious. The scenes between the Kranks and their neighbors who want them to celebrate Christmas are the funniest I have seen in a Christmas movie since Natl. Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Luther with his Botox is just great.
However, the last 20 minutes of the movie when the Kranks are trying to get the Christmas Eve party together, with the help of the whole neighborhood, drags the movie down a lot., so much in fact that you almost forget the laughter in the first act of the movie. There is also a pointless couple of scenes with a burglar that don't make since.
I thought Tim Allen and Jaime Lee Curtis were cast perfectly for each other, all though 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 that this movie is a pretty good Christmas movie. If the last half of the movie was as funny as the first half, and if they would have ignored the whole spirit of Christmas message, this movie 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. But I still say go see and ignore the rest of those idiot reviewers and listen to me! *This movie review and others can be read at www.bbmc.dockratent.com*