The first time I watched this, I was not impressed. But after the 3rd time in TV, I bought is and have seen it many times since. It have great actors for the roles they play and tells a funny story that ends well. Recommend.

I'm surprised that the score isn't a lot lower seeing as how frequently this appears on worst Christmas movies lists. I think this is mostly deserving of its hate. The thing with Tim Allen is that a lot of times you expect his movies to be forgettable, but he ends up making really good ones like "Galaxy Quest". This, on the other hand, is probably his worst movie. This movie's plot is that the Kranks are skipping Christmas and their neighbors harass them until they conform. That's the main problem.It would have been wonderful if the film had a scene where the neighbors realized that would they did was wrong. Instead, they never learn their lesson and it turns out they were right the whole time. Even the live-action Grinch movie delivered a better message against materialism! Santa Claus does in fact appear, but it's not revealed until the end of the movie. It ends with Santa riding a car led by reindeer. They couldn't even get Santa right.The characters in this are just dumb. There's a scene where a boy lets out a guy who's in the back of a police car! There's this giant Frosty house ornament that actually seems to come to live and wish destruction on the Kranks. It's just creepy. The message is that we shouldn't stop doing what we've been doing for the longest time. It's about how we shouldn't change and that's a terrible message any movie should send. *

With their daughter away, the Kranks decide to skip Christmas altogether until she decides to come home, causing an uproar when they have to celebrate the holiday at the last minute. Christmas with the Kranks is a 2004 Christmas Family Comedy starring Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies) and Tim Allen (Toy Story) and it's about the Kranks that try to skip Christmas and go on vacation but everything changes on the last minute when their daughter returns home. Now this film is nowhere near as bad as a 5.2 in my opinion it does have flaws but it's not an awful film first of all Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters) were all terrific and especially the ending for me was very emotional and everyone did a great job in my opinion this is a film that showcases the meaning of "Family" especially since the whole Neighborhood comes together for just one girl and her boyfriend. There are flaws tho like i said with mostly the humor i felt that at times they went a bit way too far and they even used some cgi here and there that wasn't awful but didn't feel right also. Chris Columbus wrote the script so there are a couple of references to Harry Potter and if you blink you will miss them but overall this was a pretty cool Christmas Film and i'm gonna give it an A+

In my review I discuss the general plot, but I try not to give away any specific events or spoilers. However, I marked the review as "containing" spoilers just in case my discussion of the plot details is too much for those wanting to watch "completely fresh."I had the feeling while watching this movie is that Luther Krank (Tim Allen) is supposed to be a version of Scrooge. In Dicken's classic novel, Scrooge is both the villain and protagonist. He is mean and you dislike him, but he learns a lesson and ultimately changes. However, unlike with Scrooge, I sympathized very strongly with Luther Krank. After years of celebrating Christmas with his daughter, all he wants to do is take a vacation with his wife now that she has grown up and moved away. But his neighbours and peers, who are some sort of weird cult-like Christmas version of the Stepford Wives, harass and bully him to no end. Therefore watching this movie I didn't want Luther Krank to change. I didn't want him to give in and bend to the wishes of his horrifically creepy and annoying neighbours (who should have been charged for trespassing and harassment). I completely recognized his right to be "selfish" and live his life for his own sake rather than the sake of his community who have no business interfering with his desires. I do not think it is a spoiler to say that, predictably, Luther Krank learns a lesson and changes his ways at the end of the movie. However it is the wrong lesson. In Christmas with the Kranks the bad-guys win. I think the movie might have been originally intended as a horror movie instead of a family Christmas movie, a theory supported by both the evil neighbourhood and the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis was cast as co- star. Perhaps if you watch it as such, it won't be so awful.