Christmas With the Kranks would
love to be considered among the
"twisted" holiday classics like Bad
Santa and A Christmas Story,
but instead finds itself resting atop a junk
heap that includes Jingle All the
Way and Eight Crazy Nights. By
taking a saccharine sweet holiday
message and coating it with total crap, it
gets the twisted holiday movie formula all
screwed up. A little bit of evil crap is OK,
but being evil for most of a films running
time and then trying to become Its a
Wonderful Life in the last 20 minutes
results in a film that is discordant,
unfunny and just plain rude. Not that
Kranks is any good when its being
evil, either. Its pretty much a shit storm
from the get go, with Tim Allen mugging
to the point where his face almost falls
off, and Jamie Lee Curtis delivering the
most overwrought, embarrassing
performance of her spotty career.