Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Surviving Christmas
DreamWorks Distribution LLC


3.4

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Deborah Kaplan (also story) Harry Elfont (also story) Jeffrey Ventimilia Joshua Sternin
DIRECTED BY:	Mike Mitchell
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 21, 2004 Video: December 21, 2004 Theatrical: October 22, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	92 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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.

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.

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.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Another go-round for the premise of an overaged kid insinuating himself into a stranger's family.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Cynical yet mildly amusing Yuletide-season comedy.

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.

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Some screwball moments elicit a chuckle or two, but the script is weak and the characterizations clichéd.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Can't decide whether it wants to be a black comedy, dumb farce, or sentimental sit-com.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Absolutely awesome in its relentless mediocrity.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

A dismally formulaic hodgepodge of crude humor and wan attempts to tug at the heart.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Bad enough to make even James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara seem dull.

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.

Variety Brian Lowry

An almost mirth-free, poorly conceived comedy destined to offer Ben Affleck bashers satchels full of new ammunition.

Empire Dan Jolin

As it is, an unbearably irritating, shouty, gurning Affleck takes the anaemic script and injects it with strychnine.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Affleck may finally have found a use for his obnoxious personality, because Drew is amazingly annoying.

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

It's screen comedy at the end of its tether, Capra-corn gone rancid.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

There are no survivors here.

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.

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?"

Village Voice Jessica Winter

This ghastly comedy emits the subliminal whine of a sucking chest wound.

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!

Surviving Christmas DreamWorks Distribution LLC

Surviving Christmas
DreamWorks Distribution LLC