Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #950 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-14
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, Hindi
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Synopsis
The Kranks have always celebrated a picture-perfect Christmas. But with their only daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), away from home on her Peace Corps assignment, Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Luther (Tim Allen) are suffering from empty nest syndrome and decide to skip Christmas in favour of a Caribbean cruise. But their neighbours, led by Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Akroyd), take Christmas very seriously and are none too happy about the Kranks' boycott. In this neighbourhood where every house is decorated to the hilt and has a Frosty on the roof, skipping Christmas is virtually a crime. And just as the Kranks are preparing for their Christmas Day departure, they get a call from their daughter who announces that she is coming home for Christmas after all. Suddenly, all systems are go for their annual Christmas Eve party and a normal - highly festive - holiday. Will the Kranks be able to pull together a perfect Christmas for Blair in just a few hours, or will she discover their plan to skip Christmas? Directed by Joe Roth ('America's Sweethearts') and based on a John Grisham novel, this film also features appearances by Cheech Marin, Caroline Rhea, and Felicity Huffman.

Customer Reviews

Great family fun film
Really enjoyed this film, really funny. Will be on of my classic family christmas films to watch each year. One to watch with all the family.

A bit of festive fun
This is a reasonably watchable movie, perfect for the days leading up to Christmas when the madness starts to get to you!
It is well acted and you can sympathise with the characters' decision to escape for the festive season. Unfortunately, this decision doesn't go down too well with their neighbours who expect them to keep up the normal Christmas traditions.
There are the usual cringing and wincing moments -enough to keep the watcher entertained.
It is well worth a viewing, if only to enjoy the part where the Tim Allen character has botox. Classic! It made me cry with laughter!

Disappointing despite great actors!
Looking forward to this film, especially in the run-up to Christmas, then what a disappointment. . . All characters are rather crazy, which should have been funny, but unfortunately it isn't. The scenes where you are supposed to laugh are obvious, all that's missing is a sitcom-like laughter in the film, but it is just so not funny! After a while it becomes quite annoying how the neighbours are terrorising the Kranks because of their decision to skip Christmas, - after the tenth creepy "hint" you just want to scream "I GET IT: THE NEIGHBOURS FOR SOME REASON TRY TO BULLY THE KRANKS INTO HAVING THEIR HOUSE ALL KITSCH CHRISTMASSY AND THEY DON'T WANT TO".
Jamie Lee Curtis looks very scared a lot, which isn't so funny, Tim Allen is grumpy, the neighbours are horrible, - there isn't one likeable person in this film! One scene is almost funny in a cringeworthy way where Curtis stands in full bikini clad glory (I admire her for her bravery there!) in a tanning shop and the vicar - and the whole shopping mall, it seems - stare at her. This could have been very funny indeed if they hadn't tried to lengthen this scene until it is not funny anymore. In fact,that priest doesn't stop staring and seems quite a pervert actually.
The Christmas feeling just doesn't shine through anywhere, and there are too many annoying scenes (where Allen buys the last available tree which is - you guessed it, - a brown, dry months-old thing, I mean PLEASE!) that spoil any enjoyment that might otherwise be had from good actors who fell victims to a bad script, poor editing and lame directing.
This does not come anywhere near Home Alone, and the only thing that warmed my heart was the anger for wasting my time watching one of Hollywoods worst Christmas production I have ever seen. The only reason I am writing this review is to spare others from doing the same.