Product Description

FACING ANOTHER LONELY CHRISTMAS, DREW WANTS TO REVISIT HIS CHILDHOOD HOME & RELIVE HOLIDAY MEMORIES. BUT WHEN HE GETS THERE HE FINDS ANOTHER FAMILY LIVING IN THE HOME. DREW OFFERS A NICE FINANCIAL REWARD TO THE FAMILY. BUT IS HIS CASH THE BEGINNING OF AN ANNOYING VISITOR WHO IS OVEREAGER TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5228 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2004-12-21
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, Surround Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Amazon.com
Ben Affleck is well-cast as Drew Latham, a millionaire on the verge of nervous collapse, a man with no sense of self who tries to buy the trappings of life--including the family that just happens to be living in his childhood home. He jumps around with a plastic smile on his face, trying to impose himself on the bribed household, who--even though the parents are on the verge of divorce--are still more psychologically coherent than he is. Surviving Christmas has been unfairly trashed due to anti-Affleck sentiment in the post-Gigli era; though the movie eventually succumbs to bland formula, it has some moments of bracing dark comedy and genuine empathy, mostly thanks to James Gandolfini (The Sopranos, The Mexican) and Catherine O'Hara (A Mighty Wind, Beetlejuice) as the parents--two superb actors who could breathe life into any banal script. Also featuring Christina Applegate (Anchorman, View from the Top). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

I guess I am crazy!!!???
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!

Just try to survive
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.

Surviving Christmas
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.