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Surviving Christmas
EMAILPRINTDreamWorks Distribution LLC

Overwhelming dislike
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Deborah Kaplan (also story)
Harry Elfont (also story)
Jeffrey Ventimilia
Joshua Sternin
Directed by: Mike Mitchell
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 22, 2004
DVD: December 21, 2004
Running Time: 92 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, language and a brief drug reference
Starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, Catherine O'Hara, Josh Zuckerman, Bill Macy, Jennifer Morrison, and Udo Kier
Facing another Christmas alone, Drew Latham (Affleck) decides to go back to his idyllic childhood home to recall the family holidays of his youth. There is, however, one problem: the people living there now are not Drew's family. (DreamWorks)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo Sky High
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
As light, fluffy, cockle-warming holiday entertainment, this thing is pretty sweet.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
There are a few amusing moments, helped by subdued performances from Affleck and Gandolfini, but this is no "Bad Santa" despite its obvious ambition to play similar holiday tricks.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
This is pseudo-cynical comedy, however, not social satire. All the sharp corners are smoothed over and what's left is little more than a big screen sitcom.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Another go-round for the premise of an overaged kid insinuating himself into a stranger's family.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Cynical yet mildly amusing Yuletide-season comedy.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Affleck's psychotic enthusiasm aside, no one seems to be having a good time, and the ill will becomes infectious.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn
Just like many real-life holiday get-togethers with the family, this comedy starts out pleasantly enough but degenerates into awkwardness and furtive watch-checking to see how much longer you have to suffer before you can leave.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Some screwball moments elicit a chuckle or two, but the script is weak and the characterizations clichéd.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Can't decide whether it wants to be a black comedy, dumb farce, or sentimental sit-com.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
As you watch the comedy lurch along, the woozy, sinking sensation it produces suggests a movie slapped together after the consumption of far too many gallons of that spiked eggnog.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
A dismally formulaic hodgepodge of crude humor and wan attempts to tug at the heart.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Darel Jevens
Pulling off a premise this creepy and cockamamie would require a lot of skill, far more than can be found in the director of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" and the writers of "A Very Brady Sequel."
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Remember that the director, the renowned Mike Mitchell, is the genius who helmed "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo," and be sufficiently generous to accept that such a high level of excellence is hard to sustain.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Ben Affleck's goose is cooked with Surviving Christmas, a movie that makes "Gigli" look like one of the crowning moments in his career.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Everything about it is manufactured -- the emotions are false, the sentiments are phony, and the story is a construction of mirthless silliness. It's a product, not a creative expression.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Bad enough to make even James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara seem dull.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Wrenches paltry giggles and cheap warmth from a screenplay that makes "Son in Law" seem like Sam Shepard. But wretched Affleck is the real liability.
Read Full Review >Variety Brian Lowry
An almost mirth-free, poorly conceived comedy destined to offer Ben Affleck bashers satchels full of new ammunition.
Read Full Review >Empire Dan Jolin
As it is, an unbearably irritating, shouty, gurning Affleck takes the anaemic script and injects it with strychnine.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Affleck may finally have found a use for his obnoxious personality, because Drew is amazingly annoying.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
It's the sort of stupid swill that gets spewed out by a studio committee, slapped together without a brain, a heart, or a good idea about where to put a camera or when to cut a scene.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
The folks who served up this formulaic swill seem to think comedy grants you a free pass from credibility. Our lonely hero's artificial Yuletide enthusiasm is more than odd: it's not recognizably human.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
A lame comic premise, a tiresome-bordering-on-obnoxious protagonist and a script devoid of humor is a lot to overcome for any movie, and Surviving Christmas is not the one to do it.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
It's screen comedy at the end of its tether, Capra-corn gone rancid.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
A crass, shrill and laughless disaster of a holiday comedy with a desperately mugging Ben Affleck that should be banned under the Geneva Convention.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
So bad you're nostalgic for "Gigli." So painful you need an epidural. So mindless you'll lose yours wondering, "What were they thinking?"
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
This ghastly comedy emits the subliminal whine of a sucking chest wound.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 3.4 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ryan M. gave it a1:
Walking out of this atrocity made me not laugh at the content which was applied in the movie...but the fact that there is someone out there so desperate to revive themselves they'll sink to starring in a movie like this. Ben Affleck had more impressive roles as in such classics as Gigli or Dogma. and yes, the following was sarcasm at its finest.
Susan M. gave it a7:
I actually thought this movie was pretty funny and good, I'm not saying it deserves any Oscars, but I laughed at it a lot and I thought Ben Affleck was pretty good, I don't know why everyone is so against him and everything he does.
D W gave it a9:
Off-beat, but that must be my type of humor because this movie evoked plenty of laughter.
Deth S. gave it a 0:
When a movie takes less than 2 months to be put out on DVD, you know you've got a problem.
Damian P. gave it a 5:
I always go to Christmas movies with low expectations, and this one wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I laughed a few times, which is more than I can say for a few recent comedies. The acting was aweful, though.
Fantasy gave it a 0:
Was this supposed to be a comedy? Not!
Sean P. gave it a 0:
Oh that Affleck!
