This movie is one of the worst comedies I have seen in a long time, oh and yes I did catch Comedy Central's airing of "Armed and Dangerous" last month. The movie suffers from not having much of a plot and a non-existent screenplay. Instead it goes along from unfunny slapstick gag to unfunny slapstick gag. I usually like Jamie Lee Curtis, but she is so spastic and over the top that I was embarrassed to watch. There are no believable characters in the movie, or really anyone to root for. I didn't like either of the two leads, nor was I on the side of the obsessed neighbors. Dan Akryod was in this movie, but you wouldn't know it, his character might as well have been played by some other actor because none of his comedic talents were used (though it is arguable whether he's had any left since the 80s). The pace of the movie is fairly uneven, with slap stick bit following slap stick bit until the daughter finally comes home. You would think the movie would end there, but instead it drags on for another twenty minutes, incorporating a supposedly "touching moment" which feels way out of place in this movie and an unfunny side plot with a strange old man. Oh yeah and there is a burglar who gets arrested, and then released so he can come into the party...where he tries to steal some stuff. Yeah, I thought something was missing, good thing they put that in right at the end. Bottom line is this movie sucks, there is a lot of yelling and people falling down and very little dialog or laughs. But guess what, there are a ton of movies about Christmas, and pretty much all of them are better then this. Go rent National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, or Scrooged, or A Christmas Story, or The Santa Clause, or Muppet's Christmas, or Miracle on 34th Street, or It's A Wonderful Life, or anything else you can think of. Or better yet go to the store by like a bottle of Stoli and then go out in the back yard with like 2 of your friends and a camcorder and try to make a movie about Christmas, I bet it will be a lot more fun then sitting through Christmas with the Kranks.
Review of Christmas with the Kranks
