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Ah, the holidays. A time for loved ones to get together and share in good cheer. A time when movie studios release their triple-A product, in hopes that this outpouring of affection will translate into box-office gold. Of course, the cynical know this is also the season of cinematic depression, an opportunity for studios to make a fast buck on grade-Z junk. Revolution Studios seems to know this more than any other. Arriving like a lump of coal, director (and Revolution studio chief) Joe Roth’s Christmas with the Kranks shares a central conceit with the recent Ben Affleck vehicle Surviving Christmas. That is, it’s monumentally awful. Based on John Grisham’s 2001 bestseller Skipping Christmas, which involves a married couple’s vain attempt to boycott the holidays, the title was changed (to avoid just comparison with Affleck’s film) to the more homogenized one it now bears. This, courtesy of equally homogeneous screenwriter Chris Columbus, who’s unable to resist grafting elements from his Home Alone films (bumbling burglars, treacle) onto the Grisham blueprint. If this were a sit-com (which it resembles, thanks to the broad, directionless performances of leads Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis), it would face quick cancellation. Skip this Christmas. (94 minutes)
BY BRETT MICHEL
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