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Movie review

Don't expect quality time with the 'Kranks'

Ho, ho, hum. Tim Allen stars in another Christmas movie. This one has some laughs, but plays out like a sitcom.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published November 24, 2004

[Sony Pictures] Tim Allen is attorney Luther Krank in Christmas with the Kranks.

Christmas with the Kranks is an agreeably dumb addition to megaplexes, or maybe that's just holiday season charity kicking in. It's a TV movie wandering onto theater screens to spread a little cheer to mall shoppers whose feet need a break.

Sometimes Joe Roth's movie is funny; often it isn't. Always, it's played with sitcom predictability by Tim Allen, who doesn't know any other way, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who used to know better. They're playing Luther and Nora Krank, an attorney (naturally, since it's based on a stab at humor by law novelist John Grisham) and his frazzled wife. But it's always Tim and Jamie Lee up there, nice folks having a good time acting silly for us.

The couple wave goodbye to their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo), who is leaving their Chicago nest for a Peace Corps assignment. Luther sees that as an excuse to skip the usual Christmas parties and presents so he can spend the money on a cruise. That doesn't sit well with their neighbors, store clerks and charities, resulting in the same one or two scenes replayed to their specifics. It's a chance for old pros Cheech Marin, M. Emmet Walsh, Tom Poston and especially Dan Aykroyd to do what we've liked from them before.

Roth and gag writer Chris Columbus get in a few jabs at holiday commercialization and pushy well-wishers. Nothing savage but recognizable enough to earn laughs when carolers slip on a sidewalk Luther iced and Cub Scouts selling trees are turned away. There's a meaner streak waiting to pop out of the script but the filmmakers won't gamble with box office receipts.

The best gags in the film occur when the Kranks prepare for their trip with skimpy swimwear, tanning sessions and, in Luther's case, a hideous Botox treatment. Allen's attempts to eat with a temporarily frozen face, and Curtis using her 50-year-old physique as a comedy prop, are solid jokes, at least compared to the rest of the movie.

There must be a crisis, so Blair decides to come home for the holidays with her future husband Enrique (Rene Lavan). Luther and Nora have one day to plan the party, baked ham and decorations Blair expects to see. But what about the cruise? What about their strong stand against community yuletide pressure, and the lady with cancer across the street?

Just like any sitcom, it all gets wrapped up in the third act. Theaters can insert one of those preshow commercials any time, and they'd fit right in.

Grade: C

Director: Joe Roth

Cast: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Cheech Marin, Jake Busey, M. Emmet Walsh, Tom Poston, Caroline Rhea

Screenplay: Chris Columbus, based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Rating: PG; brief profanity, mild sexual situations

Running time: 97 min.

[Last modified November 23, 2004, 10:36:06]