Christmas With The Kranks Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
Their Christmas will turn the town upside down!
No! Ho! Ho!
Allen portrays Luther Krank who, fed up with the commerciality of Christmas, decides to skip the holiday and go on a vacation with his wife instead. But when his daughter decides at the last minute to come home, he must put together a holiday celebration.
| Julie Gonzalo | Blair Krank |
| 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 |
| René Lavan | Enrique DeCardenal |
| Caroline Rhea | Candi |
| Felicity Huffman | Merry |
| Patrick Breen | Aubie |
| Joe Roth |
4.60 out of 10 (4414 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Keeping up with the Kranks
posted on 25 Aug 2009'Christmas with the Kranks' presents the holiday season with a common ambivalence. Depending on one's take of Christmas, the season will be a festive celebration, a religious hallmark filled with meaning, or an ordeal filled with nauseating depression. (For most of us, it is a combination of all three.) Trying to cope with the forced pleasantries and crass materialism of a season saturated with meaning is a real struggle. So it is with Nora and Luther Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis and Tim Allen). As empty-nesters they face a particular vacuum when their daughter leaves for the Peace Corps and leave all reason for them to celebrate behind. Their solution? Skip the expense of the holiday trimmings and go for a cruise starting Christmas day. Cynically and brazenly, their neighbors and co-workers won't stand for it. Like the holiday police, they encroach the Krank's personal space as if they were criminals in the Great Holiday Conspiracy. Motives seem mixed. As they start, they save Christmas spending for their cruise, but, later refuse even the free holiday trimmings of Christmas carolers. What gives? Luther says, "It's the principle of the thing...Not even Nick Frohmeyer (M. Emmitt Walsh) can stop us." So it's keeping up with the Joneses, then--or in this case the Krank's--and their reputation with the rest of the neighbors. Included are prankster kids who launch a "Free Frosty" campaign for the coveted Krank roof decoration.
'Christmas with the Kranks' really has a frosty look at the holiday season--one that notably warms up as the movie goes on. One wonders why the Kranks couldn't take a few simple steps to make their Christmas plans easier; one that would combine purposes and take needed short-cuts to their sanity. But, that, of course, would delete a lot of the comedy. And, there are some big laughs to be had from this comedy flick. The previews give us the impression that '...The Kranks' would deliver a sack full of holiday laughs, but at least we get a quality stocking stuffer. It seems to at least have some heart--even if it does borrow (or steal) some important elements from great Christmas classics, notably 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,' 'Scrooge,' and 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. For the latter, there's the scrawny tree bit. Anyway, for all its redeeming qualities, 'Christmas with the Kranks' presents an inconsistent and jaundiced holiday view that has the effect of tainted eggnog: It is sweet but leaves a bitter aftertaste.
A very Funny Christmas movie!
posted on 21 Aug 2009This is a very great movie.
It is funnny and entertaining.
In this hilarious movie, Blair Krank goes on vacation for christmas. Luther Krank(Tim Allen) tells his wife Nora( Jamie Lee Curtis)that they should skip christmas and have a holiday in the carribian sun. I laughed out loud when Luther was rude and chewing with his mouth open.
Blair then rings up Nora and Luther and says that she's coming home for christmas! Things go out of hand when the whole street helps the kranks get ready and they have only 12 hours. Luther's idea to skip christmas was bad. Because Christmas Without the Kranks? UNTHINKABLE!
I liked this DVD and I reccomend it to all of you!
Better than expected
posted on 15 Aug 2009First, I would like to say that I would give this 3.5 stars if possible. I read Skipping Christmas for about three Christmas' in a row before this year when I recently watched Christmas with the Kranks. I expected it to be the quality of a straight-to-video movie with no style whatsoever.
However, my entire family liked it as I watched it with them, especially my mother who doesn't understand English all too well. It's nice seeing Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis again after seemingly so long. They fit very well in the nice little film.
*SEMI-SPOILER*
I think the movie should have been about 10 to 15 minutes longer to help you really appreciate what the neighbors did for the Kranks near the end. Because of it's short length, it just seemed too unbelievable. But it was still nice to see it all happen.
The is a movie I would rent to check it out if I haven't seen it yet.
Rather Odd Christmas Movie
posted on 13 Aug 2009I agree with the reviewer who called this slap stick silly.
A couple sends their daughter off (I think to college or on a intership)so they decide since she is not going to be home for the traditional Christmas celebration that they would take the money that they would spend on Christmas and take a trip together. Well, OK there is certainly nothing wrong with that but what annoyed the heck out of me was why not just say you took the trip as a Christmas present instead of insisting your skipping Christmas. Taking a trip together shows courtship and compassion for one another, skipping Christmas on the other hand is not compassionate and grinch-like. So basically the whole movie is nothing other than the neighbors and co-workers highlighting how terrible the couple are for "skipping Christmas" and not carrying out the traditional celebration. The last 10 minutes or the ending if you will, was the only heart felt moment through the whole movie. Sorry, try again.
what were you expecting ... hamlet?
posted on 12 Aug 2009Enough already, "Kranks" bashers. My wife and I talked about the movie after seeing the trailer before "Spider-Man 2," and we were not disappointed. It's not Oscar-winning material, but I'd rather watch a light-hearted movie like this (a matinée for $5.25) than any "Kill Bill" or "Lord of the Rings" extravaganza. Tim Allen, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis have done MUCH better work, but who cares. If you want, or need, to laugh and feel good when you leave the theater, check out the "Kranks." I don't consider myself the most sophisticated movie-watcher, but neither my wife nor I, nor anyone watching with us, walked out of the theater.
Flat
posted on 27 Jun 2009"Christmas with the Kranks" - Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Cheech Marin, M. Emmet Walsh, Julie Gonzalo, Jake Busey. Luther (Allen) and Nora (Curtis) Krank, whose daughter is away in Peru, decide to forego their annual Christmas celebration and head for the Caribbean. The neighbors, however, won't hear of it. With no rooftop decorations on just one house, the usually glistening neighborhood will be in disgrace. When daughter shows up unexpectedly, the Kranks have to change plans and throw things together fast. While the film allows Christmas as a joyous holiday of basically good cheer, its tone is often cynical, artlessly showing the holiday as a tedious job dumped upon people without genuine sentiment. Allen's got a few laughs, but otherwise you'll have to go lookin'. I would save my hard earned money for a better choice.
Awful. Awfully awful. What a waste of time. - 1 of 10
posted on 27 Jun 2009I would like to rate this film a zero. It misses on all marks in my book.The acting is terrible. The dialogue is just plain bad. It's really difficult for me to imagine that folks would find this film funny at all. Though I did find ~one~ funny gag: That Marty brought The Ham. If you sit through it (and I hope that you don't) then you'll know.I was actually somewhat enjoying the interesting "we don't have to do Xmas" message and wondered where they were going to end up with the story, but it ended up a extremely disappointing and trivial "shame on you for snubbing Xmas, but we're still gonna help you to show that we're better than that" or something along those lines. Yeesh. Where is the imagination? Groan. Pure garbage. Don't waste your time. Do yourself a favor and go watch Christmas Story instead. - 0 of 10
A late night looser
posted on 16 Jun 2009I would recommend, Christmas with the Kranks, is viewed by only people who are looking for a brainless movie to watch late at night, because it doesn't have any extraordinary aspects to it, and because it has no thought provoking values. Furthermore, the acting in very elementary and easy to follow so serves as easy watch.
On the day of November 27, 2005, at 3:30 pm I watched this movie twice through, in my living room, at my house in Bells Flats. This gives me the information and background to be able to review this movie.
By saying a movie is brainless I mean that it doesn't take any brain power before, after or during the movie. Watching the movie is like watching a soap opera, the story line is straight forward, so the mind is at easy watching it.
This movie is basically shot with a wide angle standard lens the entire film. The camera plays no tricks on your eyes and is pretty much straight forward. The scenes are not abstract in anyway. They incorporate no tilt effects or panning effects that make the eye cautious in watching. Most of the scenes are evenly lit and give no suspenseful play to the movie. No special features are brought in such as masking, or a hidden item, that would add any sort of depth to the film. These aspects of film weighted it, it allows for easy watching. Nothing is suspenseful and your eyes become lazily satisfied with the scene. However, being so easy to watch, if it is late you might just fall asleep half way through it.
In film some directors, make the audience guess what is going to happen next. Not in this film. Although there is a plot and a storyline the movie doesn't have the watcher on the edge of their seats asking, "What is going to happen next?" It doesn't engage the watcher mind. Therefore it is great for those people who have had a long day and don't really want to engage themselves. Those people also tend to be the people who don't have a long attention span at night, and this movie won't help that.
The acting in this movie proves to be very elementary. The main characters have no up's and down's to their personalities. They have their semi-freak-out moments, but other than that their characters are dry. Not very engaging the characters become normal human beings on screen and are not hard to watch or follow. Not true for all of Jamie Lee Curtis and Tim Allan's movies, but very true for this one. They didn't give the extra oomph that the comedy in this movie needed and therefore the film became dry and a half a laugh movie at most.
For those people on a late Friday night this movie maybe in the stack coming home from Blockbuster, but for all those other viewers, there are better choices to be considered for a laugh out loud sort of movie.
Great Movie
posted on 15 Jun 2009Contrary to what other wanna be movie reviewers on this site may say, my family and I thought this was a really good movie. It's a Christmas movie! It's supposed to make people think about how Christmas effects us. Yes, this movie does have quite a bit of so called "slapstick" comedy, but I thought it was very funny. A very cheerful movie. Who doesn't want a "feel good" movie for the holidays! Everyone needs a good laugh every once in awhile! Don't miss this movie. It's great for the whole family! Maybe people shouldn't try to look so deeply into movies trying to find something wrong with them. Maybe they should just sit down with their families and a bucket of popcorn, in their own living room, cuddle up and enjoy a happy family related feel good show!
Okay, it's a comedy ... or is it?
posted on 08 Jun 2009Tim Allen is the funny guy with the usual funny faces, but with only a very few new comedic ideas. Jamie Lee is there but it won't be another "Friday." Let's put it this way: while the concept behind the story is acceptable, the execution of it, which is not that easy to do, just doesn't seem to work and the flick is trying too hard to be funny. Sure, there are a few laughs here and there and my wife e.g. loved the movie, and she said it was really funny. But the bottom line is that my holiday season would have been just as funny without ever seeing this movie. Maybe my expectations were just a bit too high.
they should pay YOU to see it!
posted on 05 Jun 2009My two friends and I walked out and got a refund...We've never done that before. The jokes were slow building...very slow building and when the punch line finally arrived it was disappointing. Most weren't even deserving of a groan. I think I chuckled once at something Tim Allen did, but I can't even remember what.(Notable because I am known for my ability to recall movie lines.) Even the costumes were boring and repetitive. (How many vests can one woman own?) There were so MANY vague, meaningless and extraneous details regarding 'supporting' characters that left us confused, bored, and stupefied. I don't know if the film lost it in editing or in the screenplay adaptation, because I heard that the book was great, but this film insulted my intelligence and wasted my time.If I had a choice between watching "How to Style Hair" the free video that came with an electric hair trimmer set, or Christmas With The Cranks, I'd rather learn to master the fine art of the Flat Top.
"Christmas With The Kranks" isn't worth a bah-humbug!
posted on 28 May 2009The trailer for the Tim Allen comedy ''Christmas With The Kranks" (* out of ****)promises a lot more merriment that this yuletide yawner yields. "America's Sweethearts" director Joe Roth and "Harry Potter" scenarist Chris Columbus serve up strictly warmed-over, recycled laughs in this modern day rendition of "Scrooge," and their gags lost whatever their spontaneity that they may have had over twenty years ago. Imagine how hilarious it is to see Tim Allen plunge off a roof as he struggles to place a huge snowman up there? Imagine how hilarious it is to see people fall down on an iced-over front lawn? Or how about the scene where a guy nearly electrocutes himself putting up Christmas lights? Of course, we're supposed to guffaw when Jamie Lee Curtis accidentally crashes a supermarket buggy into product display stand. The only thing worse than this hackneyed hokum is seeing both leads humiliate themselves by cavorting in Speedos and a bikini. Far past their athletic prime, Allen and Curtis should conceal all that cottage cheese. Things might have been funnier with younger leads. This half-cynical, half-sentimental drivel about an upper-middle-class, suburban, Chicago couple who decide to skip Christmas and take a Caribbean cruise plays like a 1950's tale of conformity in the Joseph McCarthy era when everybody feared that Communists were lurking under their bed. Predictably, "Christmas With The Kranks" celebrates the holiday on the alter of consumerism gone mad. Religious references are held to a minimum, and the message is that you should decorate your house so it resembles an intergalactic eye-sore with a constellation of multi-colored lights, snowmen, reindeer, and Saint Clauses. Bestselling author John Grisham's novel "Skipping Christmas" serves as the basis of this forgettable farce. Incredibly, there isn't a lawyer in the story or a scene in a courtroom! Luther (Tim Allen of "The Santa Clause" movies) and Nora Krank (James Lee Curtis of "True Lies") have spent the last 20 years celebrating Christmas with their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo of "Dodge Ball") in the Windy City with expensive house decorations and costly holiday social gatherings. As the movie opens, our protagonists bid their daughter goodbye. Blair has joined the Peace Corps and is heading off for South America. Christmas just isn't Christmas anymore, because their daughter has flown the coop. Luther gets to thinking about things. An upper-level manager at an accounting firm, he calculates that he drops $6-thousand dollars each year at Christmas on food, gifts, and parties. Luther discovers that for half the cost, Nora and he could spend ten days lounging in the Caribbean. No sooner has Nora okayed the idea than the neighbors start to harass our heroes about their anti-Christmas mind-set. A greeting card clerk berates Nora in a public restaurant for her refusal to buy seasonal cards. Their ward boss of a neighbor Vic Frohmeyer (paunchy Dan Aykroyd of "Ghostbusters") gives them withering looks, and the subdivision where they live tries to bully them into putting up Christmas lights and shelling out to charities. The Kranks even refuse to buy a police's calendar when two policemen (Cheech Marin of TV's "Nash Bridges" and Jake Busey of "Starship Troopers") come calling for their annual contribution. In fact, everybody in the neighborhood reacts with shock, suspicion, and contempt when the Kranks refuse to honor a holiday tradition. One character accuses the Kranks of being Jewish. Just as Luther and Nora battle their neighbors, they receive a phone call. Not only is Blair coming home suddenly from Peru, but she is also bringing a native that she plans to marry. Suddenly, Luther and Nora revert to tradition and their neighbors help them in their last minute attempt to deck their halls with boughs of holly. When "Christmas With The Kranks" isn't behaving anti-Semitic, the movie acts anti-African-American. Of course, any predominantly Caucasian subdivision in a movie must have its token black characters. A black couple loans Luther their Christmas tree because they are clearing out of town to stay with relatives.Director Joe Roth just doesn't know when he has beaten a stale gag to death. In one scene, the neighbors besiege the Kranks and demand that they bring out their giant snowman and display him on the roof. Luther and Nora dodge from room to room to avoid them, but the neighbors follow them from window to window. Later, an obnoxious neighbor (veteran character actor M. Emmet Walsh of "Raising Arizona") invites a truckload of gung ho Christmas carolers to serenade the Kranks with expected results. Worse, the humor sinks like lead and the story is so prefabricated that Allen, Curtis, and Aykroyd sleep walk through their one-note roles. One gag that gets repeated ad nauseam has Allen tromping on a cat's tail. Matters aren't helped when the cat owner turns out to be a poor old lady suffering from incurable cancer."Christmas With The Kranks" isn't worth a bah-humbug.
A Feel Good Movie With An Important Message
posted on 27 May 2009"Christmas With The Kranks" was a strange movie to be primarily because it was written by political thriller author John Grisham. This was NOTHING like any Grisham film or book I've seen! But I was pleasantly surprised.
The premise of "skipping Christmas" is appealing to the Kranks, especially with their daughter Blaire out of the house and in Peru. So why not save your money and take a trip on a cruise ship to the Bahamas! What an idea!
But then the nosy and intrusive neighbors catch wind of this scheme about ditching the most wonderful time of the year and lay the guilt trip on the Kranks about it. Through a series of temptations, the Kranks held firm in their resolve that they wanted to take a year off from Christmas.
That all changed when Blaire and her new fiance Enrique decide to surprise mom and dad by coming home for the holidays. Uh-oh! The mad dash to make Christmas happen is too hilarious not to watch this movie to find out what happens next.
The important message of this movie is that you can't skip Christmas. Whether you allow the commercialism of the holiday to overcome you or if you choose to celebrate it and enjoy it as it is intended to be, Christmas WILL come and impact you year in and year out. Don't even think about skipping it!
Unless, of course, you want the neighbors yelling "Frosty, Frosty, Frosty" on your front lawn...GET THE MOVIE! LOL!
This is fun!
posted on 26 May 2009Based on the book 'Skipping Christmas', Tim Allen's latest movie is about a stingy accountant and his wife who are planning to skip Christmas because they're daughter's with the Peace Corps, and they wanna save a little money and take a cruise, which will actually cost less than half of what they spent for Christmas last year. But their neighbors are aghast. Skipping Christmas? Is something like that legal? Not on Hemlock street. And when Tim refuses to put up the Frosty decoration like everyone else, that's the last straw...This is a really good movie. Tim Allen does excellent Christmas movies, and this is his best one to date. This movie teaches about love, community, the downsides of selfishness, while showing, in a way, that Christmas has become a little too materialistic of late, though it forgets to point out why we really do celebrate December 25. But it also doesn't replace the real reason for the season with Santa, either. Well-done, funny, only negative scene is in a tanning salon, but it's tolerable. I fully recommend this film to anyone who enjoys good, wholesome family entertainment. But beware of evil seven-foot Frosty the snowman roof ornaments!
Might as Well Flush Your Money in a Public Toilet
posted on 23 May 2009This has got to be one of the worst holiday movies ever. Save your money and time. You would probably enjoy watching your christmas tree catch fire in the living room or finding reindeer doo doo in your stocking more than watching this. Anyone who gives this movie more than one star probably gives out fruitcakes for presents and is a fruit him/herself!! And 20 dollars!!!! - PLEASE, this piece of garbage will be 3.99 at your local quikie mart.
Christmas is a slightly enjoyable holiday movie
posted on 22 May 2009Christmas with the Kranks is a slightly amusing, slightly heartwarming slapstick comedy starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curits as the title couple who initially want to skip the holidays because their only offspring, a daughter, is leaving the country to join the Peace Corps. In fact, Luther Krank is planning to leave with his wife for a cruise on that very day. As a result, they get harassed by the neighbors led by Dan Aykroyd. Other neighbors include M. Emmet Walsh, Felicity Huffman, Caroline Rhea. There's also a couple of cops (Cheech Marin, Jake Busey) who Luther refuses to buy the annual police calendar from. Also appearing are David L. Lander, who I fondly remember as Squiggy on "Laverne and Shirley", as a tanning customer who causes Curtis to hit her head on the tanning bed and, in his last role, the late Tom Poston as a priest who discovers Jamie in her bikini after she goes to the receptionist for a band-aid. Those scenes were funny as were those between Allen and a white cat that he keeps stepping on (also loved when the cat got frozen with only the eyes moving) and his botox scene when he has trouble putting things in his mouth. Others were either too frantic or too predictable. Best surprise was Austin Pendleton as someone no one knows at first but then Allen remembers from somewhere else. Like I said, this wasn't very funny but by the end I was willing to overlook many of the film's flaws and just enjoy the celebration that filled the last 30 minutes with wonderful singing from Aykroyd and nice accompaniment from Marin, Busey, and especially Poston in his final minutes of screen time. Oh, and Rhea and Huffman are completely wasted in their few minutes as Curtis' neighbors. Still, a tolerable time waster from screenwriter Chris Columbus who adopted John Grisham's novel "Skipping Christmas", and director Joe Roth.
Not what I expected
posted on 19 May 2009I had high expectations to seeing this movie thankfully I work at the movies so I didnt have to pay. I had high expectations because Tim Allen and Dan Akroyd and Cheech Marting those guys are funny. I figure that Allen being in another Christmas movie thats cool I mean Santa Cluase and Santa Cluase 2 both were great movies. But there were like 2 or 3 parts that made me laugh other than that I was dissapointed in it. The ending was the best part of the movie and also Julie Gonzalo is hot. Other than that it wasn't a good movie and I highly don't recommend it.
Kranky from being robbed
posted on 30 Aug 2009Christmas with the Kranks. By far, this movie is one of the worse movies to ever have been filmed. Comedy? There was a total lack of comedy throughout the entire film. Luther Krank decides to skip Christmas. He informs all his co-workers and neighbors that the Kranks are skipping Christmas because his daughter is away on missionary work. He is rude and crude to everyone, which did not promote a single laugh. He avoids everything Christmas for no reason, except for a lack of good screen writing. Suddenly, the daughter calls and says she is in Miami and headed home. Now the Kranks have hours to get Christmas ready. Prepare the ham, decorate the house, buy a tree, buy gifts and arrange a party. You would think that maybe the laughs would come here, but they do not. Luther falls from his roof while trying to put Frosty the Snowman on the rooftop. His fall attracts his neighbors who "suddenly" decide to save the Kranks Christmas. Like it needed to be saved. They could have gone on their trip and still enjoyed Christmas. But what to do? Send the police to get the daughter at the airport so they have time to prepare. Here the movie drops into pitiful. The police try and delay and end up fighting a criminal. Was this shot needed? No. Did it do anything for the film? Just made it worse. Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis are just pitiful. Allen is terrible. Nothing he does is funny or enjoyable. Curtis, who has been a non-factor since her sexy dance in True Lies, whines the entire movie. Curtis is so annoying that you wish she would be left off the screen. This movie is a good representation of why box office receipts are down in theaters. I felt robbed of good money after seeing this film. I paid a rental fee, imagine taking a family to see this trash. I had to rate a 1, since it is the lowest you can rate. This movie is below a 1. Avoid at all costs. Burn the DVD if given as a gift, the temporary heat, it gives off, is worth more than viewing the film. Christmas with the Kranks will just make you cranky.