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Christmas With The Kranks (Joe Roth)
"It's Time For Tim Allen To Move Away From The Holiday Films."
After their daughter leaves for the Peace Corps, Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas all together. No decorations, no gifts, no parties and no holiday spirit. Instead they decide to "save" money by taking a cruise...this does not settle very well with their neighborhood.
Christmas With The Kranks seems like the perfect movie to start up a new series, Griswold style. With two comedy powerhouses in the starring roles, Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, and with Christpher Columbus penning the script, Kranks had potential to last longer then just one film. But Joe Roth makes the film so utterly boring and unbelievably unfunny, that instead of dreading any sequel in the works you dread the entire experience that you just went through watching this thickheaded attempt at a funny film.
Where does the torture begin? Well, if I had to pinpoint the moment it started when the opening credits hit the screen. The bottom line is that Kranks is simply not funny at all. In what is suppose to be a family holiday comedy, Kranks is nothing more then a dim-witted, inane, atrocious piece of crap. Tim Allen should honestly stay away from anything Christmas related for the rest of his career, or sooner or later the Toolman's career will be over.
Jaimie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen do not work very well together as a husband and wife. There was no real chemistry and neither of them manage to get any laughter out of the audience at any point in the film. Being scared of your neighbors to the point where you are scared to leave the house is not funny. Getting botox to the face and not being able to drink is not funny. Maybe is Allen and Curtis had better material to extract any piece of comedy from then this film would be one level above abominable.
As well as not being funny Kranks is predictable. Scrooge finds a heart. That scrooge is Allen and the heart comes from giving away his cruise to an old man across the street, with whom he does not even like. After the Kranks decide to throw a Christmas party after all, all the neighbors join in and everyone lives happily ever after, except those that had to sit through this thing. There's not one interesting character in the whole film, not even one of the Christmas Crazed neighbors is able to connect or get any part of enjoyment from. Akroyd seemed okay in the role he did, but that doesn't make the role funny.
Joe Roth has yet to make one entertaining film and after this and Freedomland, I predict he never will. He should stick to producing and let someone with a little bit more talent stay behind the camera. Roth had no clue how to direct with the talent that he had. If he had lead the cast in some kind of direction maybe the film would have had a stronger comedic tone. With not a funny joke or scene in the entire film, or even a story-line to keep the audience from leaving their seats to slit their wrists, Kranks manages to make it to the bottom of the heap in a list of bad movies.
Everybody involved with this thing should have known that it was going nowhere. It's main draw in was the star power and everyone involved should read Comedy For Dummies, so the next time a garbage script like this comes their way, they are able to burn it.
1.5/10
"It's Time For Tim Allen To Move Away From The Holiday Films."
After their daughter leaves for the Peace Corps, Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas all together. No decorations, no gifts, no parties and no holiday spirit. Instead they decide to "save" money by taking a cruise...this does not settle very well with their neighborhood.
Christmas With The Kranks seems like the perfect movie to start up a new series, Griswold style. With two comedy powerhouses in the starring roles, Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, and with Christpher Columbus penning the script, Kranks had potential to last longer then just one film. But Joe Roth makes the film so utterly boring and unbelievably unfunny, that instead of dreading any sequel in the works you dread the entire experience that you just went through watching this thickheaded attempt at a funny film.
Where does the torture begin? Well, if I had to pinpoint the moment it started when the opening credits hit the screen. The bottom line is that Kranks is simply not funny at all. In what is suppose to be a family holiday comedy, Kranks is nothing more then a dim-witted, inane, atrocious piece of crap. Tim Allen should honestly stay away from anything Christmas related for the rest of his career, or sooner or later the Toolman's career will be over.
Jaimie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen do not work very well together as a husband and wife. There was no real chemistry and neither of them manage to get any laughter out of the audience at any point in the film. Being scared of your neighbors to the point where you are scared to leave the house is not funny. Getting botox to the face and not being able to drink is not funny. Maybe is Allen and Curtis had better material to extract any piece of comedy from then this film would be one level above abominable.
As well as not being funny Kranks is predictable. Scrooge finds a heart. That scrooge is Allen and the heart comes from giving away his cruise to an old man across the street, with whom he does not even like. After the Kranks decide to throw a Christmas party after all, all the neighbors join in and everyone lives happily ever after, except those that had to sit through this thing. There's not one interesting character in the whole film, not even one of the Christmas Crazed neighbors is able to connect or get any part of enjoyment from. Akroyd seemed okay in the role he did, but that doesn't make the role funny.
Joe Roth has yet to make one entertaining film and after this and Freedomland, I predict he never will. He should stick to producing and let someone with a little bit more talent stay behind the camera. Roth had no clue how to direct with the talent that he had. If he had lead the cast in some kind of direction maybe the film would have had a stronger comedic tone. With not a funny joke or scene in the entire film, or even a story-line to keep the audience from leaving their seats to slit their wrists, Kranks manages to make it to the bottom of the heap in a list of bad movies.
Everybody involved with this thing should have known that it was going nowhere. It's main draw in was the star power and everyone involved should read Comedy For Dummies, so the next time a garbage script like this comes their way, they are able to burn it.
1.5/10