Christmas with the Kranks

Variety Scott Foundas

Ultimately something of a softball satire, its climactic evocation of the "true meaning" of the holidays is surprisingly touching.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Not an abomination, although it is uninspired and insipid. As such, it's perfect television fare.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

A flat parable about the virtues of homespun conformity and the perils of defying family tradition.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Above all, Kranks lacks that basic kernel of credibility that even a goofy farce needs to work.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A Christmas comedy where laughs and even Christmas joy are in short supply.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Slick and treacherous.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Phony, disingenuous family entertainment, suffocated by its green bean casserole approach to Middle America, spineless cardboard characters and paper-thin plot "twists."

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Christmas with the Kranks is so calculated that it's pathetic, a warm-hearted holiday greeting card with not one scintilla of honest emotion inside.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

They pull it off, but even if you believe in Santa, you'll never believe that this is any sort of holiday classic.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

M. Emmet Walsh and Elizabeth Franz enliven the film as a couple across the street...These wonderful old actors briefly raise the level of the picture to the kind of warm but honest drama it ought to have been.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

In its hostile sitcom way, Christmas With the Kranks is a paranoid comic nightmare of conformity gone mad.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

Other lumps of coal in this celluloid stocking include director Joe Roth's leaden pacing - like trudging through heavy snow - and screenwriter Chris Columbus' tireless affinity for pain gags.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In any normal year this dire comedy would be the undisputed lump of coal in our psychic stocking, but with "Surviving Christmas" still in theaters it's a close second.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Hard not to pelt the screen with rotten fruit when confronted with a film like Christmas With The Kranks.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's hard to discern exactly whom this holiday tripe is for.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Curtis' considerable and diverse talents don't go entirely unused.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

It would be one thing if Christmas With the Kranks were a satire on the assaultive, bullying nature of contemporary Christmas celebration in this country, but it's not. It's an ugly glorification of it.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Its main message is that everyone should believe and behave in exactly the same way. Groupthink wins again!

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A lethargic, lurching holiday-themed comedy.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Filled with overly processed situations it tries to sell with manic energy, "Kranks" is canned, hammy and rolling as fast as it can.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Ho, ho, horrible.

Premiere Peter Debruge

Kranks is the type of grim holiday movie that reminds you of all that is noxious and insincere about the Christmas season and then chases it down with a sickly-sweet reversal

USA Today Claudia Puig

For a comedian (Allen) who often seems to be calling it in, he's more lackluster than usual. Curtis is a bigger disappointment, especially after "Freaky Friday," in which she was funny, smart and cheeky.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A loud, coarse and witless family comedy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Doesn't have anything wrong with it that couldn't be fixed by adding Ebenezer Scrooge and Bad Santa to the cast. It's a holiday movie of stunning awfulness that gets even worse when it turns gooey at the end.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Bad can't begin to describe Christmas With the Kranks. It's sub-humbug.

Village Voice Akiva Gottlieb

Cringe-worthy spectacle.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Everyone in the film is mean-spirited, manipulative and repulsive, and I'm only talking about the women! The men are much worse, particularly Dan Aykroyd.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Kranks is a feel-good movie in which every character is hateful (except, sigh, the cancer lady), and a Christmas movie too chickenhearted to mention Jesus.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

As the year stumbles toward its conclusion and critics begin penning their best-and-worst compendiums, here's a holiday contender fit for the all-time Naughty List.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

An abysmal failure.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

When is a holiday stocking more like a smelly gym sock? When it's the malodorous Christmas With the Kranks, a so-called comedy stuffed with bigotry, intolerance and bullying.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Egregiously mediocre and flagrantly ill-conceived in every department, this is, truly, the cinematic equivalent of finding a single solitary Saltine in your stocking and a pair of old tube socks beneath the tree. Humbug!