Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Trailer-Are We There Yet?, Stuart Little 3 Main Menu Audio Dolby Digital Trailer Trailer-Astro Boy, Little Black Book
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	94:51
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:25)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joe Roth
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Tim Allen Jamie Lee Curtis Dan Aykroyd M. Emmet Walsh Elizabeth Franz Erik Per Sullivan Cheech Marin Jake Busey Austin Pendleton Tom Poston Julie Gonzalo René Lavan Caroline Rhea
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	John Debney

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mmmm Ham
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation has a lot to answer for. Its amiable blend of sitcom style, biting satire and mushy Christmas sentiment made for an instant hit that stands up as well today as it ever did. Unfortunately, it has spawned countless imitators, many of which have left out the "biting satire" ingredient in favour of upping the other two ingredients and none of them have reached such critical success. Obviously enough have reached commercial success to maintain a steady flow of Chris-coms from studios each year. While none are as good as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, some are enjoyable enough to while away the Christmas break. Unfortunately, Christmas with the Kranks fails on all fronts.

    Based on the most unlikely novel in John Grisham's never-ending body of work (Skipping Christmas), Christmas with the Kranks is the tale of Luthor and Nora Krank (Tim Allen in an off-Santa Clause year and Jamie Lee Curtis). The Kranks have recently bid farewell to their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo), who is off to work for the peace corps, and are preparing to spend their first Christmas alone in two decades. Amidst all the holiday preparations, it dawns on Luthor that the amount of money the couple spend on Christmas each year is enough to buy them a cruise in the Caribbean with change in their pockets. The couple decide to actively shun Christmas and go for the cruise, much to the dismay of the self-styled overlord of the street Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd on a painfully-off day). Three days out from Christmas day, after ostracising themselves from their community with their anti-Christmas-ness, the couple get a call from their daughter to say that she's coming home on Christmas eve and she is bringing her new Peruvian fiancé, Enrico. Enrico has never seen an "American White Christmas" and is expecting the works. Thus the race is on to make Christmas happen in two days, amidst seemingly hostile neighbours.

    After a painfully dull and rather awkward first half, Christmas with the Kranks picks up to a mediocre second half. Alas, that doesn't add up enough to make for worthwhile viewing even on a slow Christmas holiday afternoon. The main problem isn't the tired, obvious humour (which is pretty much as expected from this type of fare), but the fact that it is nigh-on impossible to buy into the whole need to be rabidly Christmassy, as depicted in the general society of the film, nor the absurdly anti-Christmas nature of the Kranks themselves. Even younger viewers are going to have a hard time swallowing this one.

Video

    The film is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, slightly thinner than its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video quality is very good. The image is quite sharp. There is a good degree of detail in shadows and dark scenes. There is no distracting film grain or low level noise.

    The colours are very bright and quite warm. Skin tones appear quite natural.

    There are no signs of MPEG compression-related artefacts, nor are there any film artefacts visible.

    White English subtitles are present. Based on the portion that I sampled, they appear accurate and well timed.

    This is an RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 56:25 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sound on this disc is significantly better than the film deserves.

    The film features both English and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kb/s) audio tracks.

    The dialogue is clearly audible throughout and appears to be well synchronized with the video.

    The film features a slightly manic, but seasonally appropriate score by John Debney.

    The surrounds are put to good use throughout the film, particularly for environmental effects and a number of gag-related effects. The subwoofer gets a surprisingly good workout in the film, not only supporting the countless slapstick bangs but quite a few environmental rumbles to boot.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailers

    The only "extras" on offer are a handful of trailers for other films.

    The Region 1 edition features both full-frame and widescreen presentations of the film on the one disc but misses the random trailers found on the Region 4 version. Otherwise, the only difference is in the language tracks and subtitles - the Region 1 features French, Thai, Korean subtitles and a French audio track, but misses the Spanish audio track and subtitles found on the Region 4 release.

    A rather awful Christmas movie. They say that Christmas brings out the best and worst in people; the same goes for movies. Christmas with the Kranks falls into the latter category.

    The video and audio are both very good, though the disc is devoid of genuine extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall