Customer Reviews

Surviving Christmas [VHS]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I laughed almost the whole time. At times I even had tears in my eyes from laughing. What is wrong with everyone, this movie is freakin hilarious. It is a light hearted, slapstick, funny Christmas family film. Some of the lines were so funny that we still quote them. Hopefully, people will read this review and give this movie a chance. It IS funny. If you are looking for a serious "It's A Wonderful Life" then ok this is not for you. But if you are looking to laugh at some of the Christmas cliches that we all know and love this movie is for you! Some things in this movie are very silly but come on...Christmas Vacation is a great movie. I would rank this with that movie! Enjoy!

When you release a Christmas movie a week before Halloween, I would think a red flag would have to go up. Is it THAT bad that you have to avoid putting it up against other holiday films? That's what I thought, and that's where I was wrong. The film stars Ben Affleck as a lonely man on Christmas who rents a family for $250,000. The film is funny, bittersweet, and had the audience laughing out loud on several occassions. After you catch your haunted Halloween movies next week, make sure you catch SURVIVING CHRISTMAS before it makes its premature departure. It may not go down as an instant holiday classic, but it will definitely lift your spirits this Christmas season. Besides, it beats staying home and watching another two dozen political ads!

Drew (Affleck), after being dumped by his girlfriend, finds himself in the position of being alone for Christmas. Having some money, he returns to his childhood home, and ends up offering the family that lives there, the Valcos, a healthy paycheck to play his "family" for Christmas. Although reluctant at first, they reluctantly agree when the amount of money offered gets to be pretty insane. At first, he rubs them the wrong way at almost every turn, but eventually they settle into a somewhat peaceful coexistence. That is, until Alicia, his "sister", arrives.

Ben Affleck has not had a good movie in a while, and while this is an entertaining movie, it will not be setting him back on the blockbuster path. Affleck plays Drew with, at times, a maniacal glee, forcing the holiday cheer upon the Valcos with reckless abandon. These are the funniest scenes, but are not enough to carry this movie. James Gandolfini is good as Tom, the father that gets his family into this mess and cannot seem to get them out.

Given that this was released before Halloween, one can't help but think that the studio is writing this one off. And while it is not a great movie, it does provide enough laughs for me to give it a very marginal recommendation. If the previews look good to you, you will probably enjoy it.

When life's not going exactly the way he wants, Drew (Ben Affleck) decides it's time to go back to his childhood home for Christmas and recapture the magic and idyll of his past. The only problem? His relatives don't live in that house anymore, so reliving his glory days will be much more complicated than he expected. First, he must convince the family (headed by James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara) who call the place home to humor him.

We bought this movie last year when it first came out and found it absolutely adorable and very funny. Keep in mind what it is, it is an endearing movie about how incredibly lonely Christmas can be if you don't have family to share it with, it was certainly not intended to generate oscar buzz. Ben Affleck was, as always, outstanding. I just love it and will definitely watch it agaim this Christmas. Happy Holidays!

I've been watching the movie constantly on HBO. I think the movie's problem is that it isn't a family movie (a couple of scenes push it out of that genre) and it's too cute to be an adult movie.

Give the movie a chance. The characters really grow on you.

I am absolutely done watching Ben Affleck movies. He has to be the worst actor earning a Hollywood mega-million paycheck over the past decade. I made it through "Jersey Girl" only because of Liv Tyler. However, "Surviving Christmas" (2004) was just torture. James Gandalfini was okay, but does he ever play any role out of his "Tony Soprano" character? Christina Applegate (who is her agent and when will she be in a great movie?) was good, but it just looked like she wasn't into this movie. I like Catherine O'Hara a ton ("Best In Show", A" Mighty Wind", "Home Alone", "Beetlejuice" and the old SCTV), and she was simply over the top in some scenes (in a garrish way) and dare I say I didn't like her acting in this movie. Affleck's acting is pitifully canned and he just isn't convincing. ** FACT: This movie has the shortest period of time (less than nine weeks) between its theatrical debut and release on DVD/Video than any other major release film in Hollywood history. *** FACT: The production was shot without a complete script. Per Gandolfini, "much of the film was improvised". What's that tell you? This movie should've ended in the first 20 minutes when Gandolfini's character hit Affleck's character over the head with a snow shovel. 91 minutes of pure drudgery.

If I see one more Christmas movie with cynical cheer and forced holiday warmth, I'm going to buy a camel and follow stars to the Middle-East. (And it's not even Halloween!) "Surviving Christmas" is the latest of this ghastly genre, a tepid feel-good movie with little heart and no soul.

Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) is a coldhearted exec, with too much money and a newly single status. But he decides to go home for the holidays and reexperience some holiday cheer -- only to have the house's owner (James Gandolfini) come out and whomp him with a shovel. It turns out that the house is now owned by a different family, the Valcos.

Undeterred, Drew decides to "rent" the dysfunctional Valco family and have the Normal Rockwell Christmas of his dreams. To the tune of a quarter-million bucks, the Valcos agree to let their home and family serve his every holiday whim -- no matter how insane or bizarre.

Admittedly, it does get funny at times -- the idea of a spoiled man-child inflicting his Christmas fantasies on an ordinary family is an amusing one. Not to mention the idea of them slowly being driven crazy by said fantasies -- quarter-million or no quarter-million. And that kernel of comic potential is what saves "Surviving Christmas" from being a total disaster. It's a disaster, but not a total one.

But many of the comedy scenarios are very forced; no one in this movie has a single reason to do what they do. The script can't keep itself contained for more than a few minutes before more holiday hijinks spill out like broken ornaments. Not to mention the abundance of Christmas sappiness, and a tepid romance. In a word, the whole thing is monumentally stupid, and stuffed with cliches like a tiny turkey with too much stuffing.

The cast makes Ben Affleck has rarely been more unappealing than he is here -- his sharp grin and stiff acting may frighten small children. Applegate flounders unhappily as the token love interest, since her character has no motivation and no chemitry. The rest of the cats is talented but unconnected: Gandolfini is fun but shallow, and always-wonderful Catherine O'Hara does as good a job as she can, but the poor woman is drowning in a sea of sour treacle.

"Surviving Christmas" will only make you want to survive the two hours before this brain-dead excuse for a comedy is over, and you can put on those Charlie Brown Christmas specials.

I'm not a a big fan of Ben Affleck or anything but I thought this was a fun movie with an original story.

I have a hard time understanding the really low reviews others have given. Certainly I wouldn't expect it to bring in Oscar nominations but it was enjoyable. I rarely write reviews, but the negative reviews compelled me to add my opinion. This must be one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies because the ranking on Amazon is in line with other places, including IMDB.

Look I know since Gigli peoples faith in Ben Affleck have been shaken,but the truth is,Gigli and Surviving Christmas arent bad at all. They are ninety minutes of funny stuff that help you get your mind off the crap that happens in a day.Just the day I saw Surviving, I was having a lousy week at work.Me and my friend went to see this and we came out laughing,and for just a little while I felt better.If a movie can do that,maybe it isnt half bad.Not every movie needs to be an arthouse masterpiece.

This movie came out at the right time, just in time for the holidays, but it was lacking something that I can't quite put my finger on. It was very funny at times, but I found myself almost forcing laughter at times. It does help you realize what is most important in your life though, your family. I give the movie props for that. The characters were funny, the story was funny, but it wasn't really laugh-out-loud comedy.