Surviving Christmas

source: Surviving Christmas

A sweet little movie. Affleck delightful by the end; earlier pretty grating and a little selfish. A good character study, though. The girl with the Cartier bracelet let me down at the end, though. I didn't expect her to get all bratty and say "I'm gonna keep this bracelet" (or something like that). Alicia had her head on straight. I figured Ben and family would be friends by the end of the movie, and I was right. Doo Dah and understudy were very good and very funny. The dad hitting Ben over the head with the snow shovel was priceless. A weak part, I felt, was when Ben (Drew) told Alicia he really had no parents, and about what had happened to them. Ah well, a delightful respite at our local discount theatre.

Being something of a big Christmas movie fan, I came to this with some trepidation after reading other reviews - but decided to give it a go with no prejudices and you know what, it's fun - it does what it is supposed to in a Christmas film, builds up tension and drama but then gives you a happy ending - perfect, and the cast are top notch.Forget what you read about all the troubles with scripting etc etc and timing of release of the movie, the fact is that it is a very enjoyable Christmas movie - yes, it may be a little "join the dots/movie by numbers" but come on...it's Christmas, it isn't supposed to be or trying to be Citizen Kane for goodness sake!

Why on earth was this movie released for Halloween. It's a Christmas comedy...it really is very funny. I usually never truly laugh out loud at comedies but this movie ,especially the first half is really laugh out loud funny. And not just once either. Ben Affleck can do comedy contrary to what many critics have written.The second half of the movie could have used a little more work but all in all its definitely worth trying. Considering that most of the movies passing for comedies these days are nothing more than filmed juvenile bathroom humour, this was a pleasant break from the Hollywood norm.

Come on people. This movie is better than 4. I can see this happening...wealthy people have done crazier things than this. And it was funny. I watch a comedy to be entertained, escape from the pressures of the world for a short while, and not to have to take anything too seriously. This movie fully suits that purpose. I judge a movie on its own merits and am not about to compare Surviving Christmas to Blazing Saddles. I watched totally dysfunctional people grow into caring, likable individuals who could easily live down the street from my home. It will remain on my list of "favorite.....must watch for the holiday season". If you just want to have a fun 90 minutes, watch this one.

Surviving Christmas is a horrible mess of a Christmas movie that was made worse by the choice of releasing it in October. It was better than I expected because it actually had a plot and a point even if neither were good. The story is very bad, it has a hole lot of major plot holes and doesn't make any sense. The screenplay is horrible, it has every sign of being written by four people each of which have a different idea for the movie, none of which are very good. The dialogue sucks, and the characters are paper thin. The acting is horrible, Ben Affleck gives his worst performance, much worse than his performance in Gigli. The direction is amazingly bad, just horrible. The visuals are better than anything else but still horrible. A terrible mess of a film, avoid. Don't even try to Survive this film you will most likely fail.

A pretty bad movie all in. The only thing that makes this at all watchable is the fact that it is a Christmas movie. Ben Affleck is just terrible -painful at times to watch, the rest of the cast (Gandolfini, Applegate, O'Hara) kind of makes up for him, and keeps things moving along but keep Affleck away from the comedy in the future. The story itself is also lame (a lonely successful man pays the owners of his childhood home to let him spend Christmas with them). Despite all the mediocre I did get a couple of big laughs, and I suppose the whole being with family and money can't buy happiness is in keeping with the season too. 12.13

The cast of Surviving Christmas is a sort of hodge-podge of actors/actresses. I could not have imagined ever casting them together, but it works well in the movie. It is better than the average feel-good Christmas movie, but not destined to be a classic. The comedy is well dispursed throughout, and the movie moved along at a good pace. I have seen plenty of holiday movies, but never imagined one with Ben Affleck. As a matter of fact, this is the first time I have seen an Affleck movie. (I have shunned them on purpose in the past). The movie, however, is entertaining, and only a few jokes fall flat. 7 out of 10 on the holiday scale.

Underrated. Far from perfect but a really good, enjoyable movie nonetheless. Great chemistry between Applegate and Affleck, Affleck like you'll never see him again, enjoyable, but as he's far down the "Serious, Serious" road now, you'll not see him anywhere near this funny and goofy again. Fantastic supporting cast, Gandolfini is so good as the gruff Dad, O'Hara so perfect as the Mom and to Gandolfini's Dad, Macy as the granddad, and others, can't imagine a better cast. Really good lines peppered throughout, overlook the odd bit here and there and just an enjoyable hour and a half. Clearly there was some struggle during production to get this made, makes you wonder what it could have been, but also clearly why a good cast is so important, and what a great cast can do to save a movie even to the point of making it an enjoyable 90 minutes.

There is an original story this film is based upon loosely. I say this because the original story has religious themes. The problem with this film is that the writers thought they could lose that theme & still have a script that makes sense. That doesn't happen. It doesn't help that Ben Afleck heads up the cast. I have yet to see anything in which Ben can add anything too. Maybe some day there will be a script he fits into. This movie proves it hasn't happened yet. There are worse films than this one, but there are also a lot more & better done classic films. The studio knew this one was such a turkey because they released it prior to Thanksgiving hoping it might do business because of no competition. Unfortunately, the studio was right.