Surviving Christmas

Rating:
Summary: I Liked This Movie
Review: I really liked this movie and the main reason for that is that it made me laugh. Here we have a millionaire who has no family and decides that he will 'rent' one for Christmas. The Valcos, who now live in his childhood home are not thrilled, but the idea of the money makes them decide to give it a try.
Of course you know the outcome of the movie halfway through, but still there are some really funny scenes and a happy ending.
If a movie can make me giggle and let me just relax for a while, I think it's worth my time and I do love a happy ending.
Give it a try; you might be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: You can do lots worse than this
Review: Ben Affleck is an easy target and I'm no fan but his wooden acting is somehow fun here. Applegate, Gandolfini and O'Hara are all good as is the supporting cast. Not a great film but it's no cup of hemlock like Gigli. I'd go 2 1/2 stars if I could.

Rating:
Summary: Ben Afflecks Best, Worst Movie...If That Makes Any Sense
Review: "Surviving Christmas" is quite possibly one of the worst reviewed film of 2004. This is what made me want to see this movie. For some reason, if the movie isn't well liked I tend to enjoy it. Ben Afflecks last 3 films have been extremely critically hated (Gigli, Paycheck, Jersey Girl) and this continues that lineup. And as much as I hate to admit it, I liked all these movies. This, is my favorite out of those. This film recieved Two Thumbs Down from Ebert & Roeper, and an F from Entertainment Weekly. Ben Affleck plays Drew Lathan.
Drew is a lonely executive who has just broken up with his girlfriend and has no one to spend Christmas with. He recieves a tip from a psychiatrist to write a list of his grievances and burn it in front of his childhood home. He does this and is hit over the head with a shovel by Tom Valco (James Gandolfini).
This his introduction to the Valco family. The family consists of Tom.Christine (Catherine O'Hara),
and Brian. They hate him right away, but after Drew offers them 250,000 dollars to let him stay with them over the holidays, they accept him...Somewhat. Then, Alicia (Christina Applegate) the daughter comes home and eventually falls in love with Drew. OK, so, they use a LOT of cliches in this movie. And I can plainly see why most people don't like this movie. But I personally thought this movie was hysterical.
James Gandolfini & Catherine O'Hara steal the entire movie, Gandolfini has a menacing prescense that he uses to be funny. Anyway, the best of Afflecks critically hated movies, B+.

Rating:
Summary: Not That To Difficult To Survive
Review: After Jersey Girl and GIgli I doubted that Ben Affleck could ever be in a decent movie again-- My cousins and I rented surving Christmas around the holidays and to our surprise we enjoyed it-- mind you it won't win any academy awards but, it was a funny Christmas movie.

Good for a laugh--Ben Affleck a selfish spoiled milloniare hires the family that is living in his childhood house to let him spend the holidays with him--one reason he does not want to spend the holidays alone. The storyline is a little predictable at times... but it's better than the predictable "National Lamphoons Christmas Vacation." It's a combination of dim-witted humor great to watch with the teens in the family--

My twelve year old and fourteen year old cousins were rolling over laughing on the floor. It's a Christmas story that meets "There Is Something About Mary" meets "Meet The Parents" It's a funny-- dim- witted comedy. All in all this movie surprisingly is not that difficult to survie. Rent this one and sit down with the teens in your family and survive Christmas!

Rating:
Summary: funny
Review: ben affleck really does a great job from this movie. and this movie is dedicated too people who likes a decent christmas movie.

Rating:
Summary: impressing
Review: i was impressed when i saw this movie. since this movie has alot of hilarious scenes that made me laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Not Everyone Hates This Movie
Review: My family and I enjoyed this movie very much. It may not be the hit of the century, but we thought it was a cute, funny, family movie. I'm glad that I did not pay full pop to see it in the movie theater, but it was worth a few bucks (used) on amazon.
It's one of those movies that we will watch again and again every Christmas.

Rating:
Summary: this movie rocks
Review: this was by far the best chrismas movie ive ever seen. i honestly thought that this movie was way better than christmas with the kranks. like chrismas movie go see this one.

Rating:
Summary: nice movie
Review: this was one of ben afflecks best movie. that has a wonderful cast like ben affleck.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, the worst Ben Affleck movie, but it is not his fault
Review: Well, "Surviving Christmas" made it from the theater to DVD with a speed usually reserved for films trying to get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (apparently a record for a "major" release). Dreamworks must be really trying to wash their hands of this one, because certainly if they released it on DVD a month before Christmas instead of a month after the holidays, they would have to make more money (even if people were picking it up as the cinematic equivalent of coal to put in someone's stocking). We had to wait almost a year for "Elf" to come out on DVD, but then there were people who actually wanted to see that movie. "Surviving Christmas" does not inspire that sort of enthusiasm, and while it does not really deserve outright ridicule, it does appear to be another nail in the coffin of Ben Affleck's thespian career. Remember, this was a Christmas movie that was released before Halloween in another move that smacks of quiet desperation.

"Surviving Christmas" starts off as if it might actually be an edgy, black comedy about the holidays. Andy Williams sings "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" while we are treated to a montage of holiday suicides, including a grandmother type who bakes gingerbread cookies with frowning mouths before she puts her head in the oven. Given this rather intriguing introduction, you would reasonably be expecting a story about another potential holiday suicide, but it turns out that introduction has really nothing to do with the rest of the film. As soon as it is done (and well before the opening credits are over) we are introduced to Drew Latham (Ben Affleck), an advertising executive who is selling a client on the only way for people to endure their families during the holiday. It is a nice bit for establishing Drew's character, but it also sends the film on a detour that will last under the end credits.

When Drew wants to take his girlfriend (Jennifer Morrison) away for Christmas, this turns out to be the final straw in their relationship because she thinks people should spend the holidays with their family. Left alone, Drew discovers he has no place to go and spend Christmas. While visiting his childhood home, he comes up with the bright idea of paying the family that lives there $250,000 to pretend to be his family, at which point we know essentially what will happen in the rest of this movie as Drew and the Valcos become a "real" family.

The Valcos consist of father Tom (James Gandolfini), mother Christine (Catherine O'Hara), son Brian (Josh Zuckerman), and in case you were wondering who was going to be Drew's new girlfriend, daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate), who is smarter than the rest of the family put together, but unable to use that to her advantage. Despite being handsomely paid for this inconvenience, the Valcos tend to resist Drew's demands: wearing a Santa's hat or putting marshmallows in hot chocolate seems a reasonable request for one-tenth the sum they are being paid. But we have to establish different levels of tension between not only Drew and the Valcos, but between each of the Valcos as well so that Drew can fix them and make them all better and we can have a happy ending where God blesses them, every one.

The script bears the primary responsibility for "Surviving Christmas" not surviving until Christmas. The story is by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who worked on the screenplay along with Jeffrey Ventimilia and Joshua Sternin. The former pair turn television sit coms into movies and the latter do television sit coms, which certainly explains why the bar was set low on this one. Since the script does not take advantage of having Gandolfini and O'Hara in the cast, it is not surprising that they come up with essentially nothing for Applegate (besides one small confession). By the time we get to this serious moment in this film, it is too little too late. Yes, it provides some notion of motivation for Drew's character, but if you look back at everything he has done previously in the film it is not justified by the revelation, which makes it no more a coherent part of the narrative than the opening montage.

I would still argue that Ben Affleck's best film was "Chasing Amy" and would continue to maintain that it was his performance that was the fatal flaw in "Gigli," although the movie has some choice moments. Given those oppositional poles "Surviving Christmas" would be my choice for the worst Ben Affleck movie to date, not so much because it is inherently bad, but more so because it is just such a waste of all of the cast members. If Drew's demands were more obnoxious or bizarre, then "Surviving Christmas" would have been a funnier movie. Jettisoning the suicide montage at the start would have made more sense, but finding a way to follow up on it would have made for a much better movie. Unfortunately, director Mike Mitchell ("Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo"), could not possibly know better.