Christmas with the Kranks Review (2004)– Creepy, inappropriate, overbearing neighbors and over the top slap stick!

It is now one of our favorite seasons next to All Hallows Eve! It is the Yuletide season and because we love themes and embrace all things Yule, we will be starting this season with a peculiar one! Christmas with the Kranks! This is not one that we have watched often and since it is the season for it, we decided to give it another go!

This movie is a bit disconcerting, the behavior of all of the characters is abnormal to say the least. This is an odd one with a lot of strange behavior and cringe worthy moments, but we did get a few laughs out of it just for the sheer ridiculousness of it all!

As always, we will do everything we can to not give too many spoilers in this review, but there is likely to be some, so please take that into consideration and read cautiously.

The picture begins with Luther Krank, (Tim Allen), and his wife Nora Krank, (Jamie Lee Curtis) saying goodbye weeks before Christmas to their one and only daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo). Blair joined the Peace Corps and is heading to Peru for her first assignment!

This, of course, is upsetting to the Kranks as they’ve never spent a Christmas without her. This causes them to feel uninspired by the season. Nora grins and bears it, but Luther feels restless.

Luther decides to do some math, and discovers that the total cost of their typical spending on Christmas was $6,000 last year alone! Luther ruminates and chooses to do something different for Christmas this year that will save them some money.

Now, we here think the total of $6,000 for Christmas is extreme, but hey, maybe there are those that spend this much on Christmas.

Luther has the idea that instead of staying home for Christmas that they are going to go on an island cruise! This cruise is going to cost them half of what they usually spend on Christmas too! Nora is thrilled as long as they donate to at least a few of their standard charities she is happy and excited to go on this cruise.

Now for some reason, we are not completely sure why, this means that they cannot do ANYTHING for Christmas. At all. Not even buy Christmas cards, much less purchase or accept gifts. We understand that saving money is part of the goal here…but it seemed again, extreme and silly.

At the same time though, we have to acknowledge that it is their choice whether or not they do any of it! You would think that while this may ruffle some feathers…people would respect it in the end because their daughter will not be there and they are feeling her absence.

However, this is not the case! Every one of their neighbors is intensely distressed by the Kranks deciding to “skip” Christmas. This is especially egregious to one neighbor in particular, Vic Frohmeyer, (Dan Akyroyd) who has a bit of a mob boss feel.

It is bizarre how creepy, inappropriate, overbearing and controlling their neighbors are over this. They do know that there are people in the world that do not celebrate Christmas right? It feels like they may not know this, but we digress.

Now, we can understand, as we stated previously, that some feathers may be ruffled, especially those that go to their annual Christmas party as they will have to make different plans this year…but the overall reaction to the Kranks and their cruise is severe.

The humor is supposed to be found in the persecution of the Kranks, and the implication is that they are somehow being selfish because they do not want to participate in the Christmas season.

In our minds, they do not have to celebrate Christmas at all if they do not want to, and they do not leave anyone in the lurch because they are open about their plans early on.

They give people plenty of time to make other plans and adjust…but instead of doing that…the people around the Kranks spend the film shaming and harassing them.

There are funny moments especially with Nora as she has a truly great shriek. Luther also gets too into the idea that they have to look a certain way for the cruise, which is strange, but there are some funny moments there as well! We laughed at the silliness of it all.

We do not want to give away the whole movie, but there is more. Blair decides merely weeks after arriving in Peru that she is on her way home for Christmas along with her new fiancé!

Instead of the Kranks explaining to their adult daughter that they will not be there for Christmas because they are going on a fun and wonderful trip. They decide that they have to drop the cruise that they already paid for…and is NONREFUNDABLE…so that they can throw their annual Christmas party and have Christmas with Blair.

This confused us, we felt that it would have been entirely reasonable for them to have explained the situation, spent that evening with Blair and the fiancé, and left the two of them there for the holiday while Nora and Luther take their cruise as planned.

Luther suggests something along those lines, but Nora is against it for reasons that we do not fully understand. Maybe she is just feeling her daughter’s absence that strongly? If so, they did not do an effective job at conveying that as Nora was pretty thrilled about the cruise…moving on though.

The Kranks decide to people-please and give in to their awful neighbors. The neighbors also have the audacity to get holier than thou on them discussing how selfish Luther is and more.

We can admit that we found Luther’s behavior throughout the film over the top. He could have been far more reasonable, but then the film, which was already not too funny, would have been dull.

For the sake of Blair, the neighbors pitch in and help put the party together in record time!

This is supposed to showcase people coming together and pulling through for the sake of Christmas…but it is a tough pill to swallow as this is what the neighbors wanted from the beginning. They are getting what they want from the Kranks and it just does not have the altruistic feeling that it is trying to give.

It feels more like coercion, which gave the whole party a bit of a sour taste, but Blair arrives with her fiancé and all is well!

Overall, we did not love the film, but we did not hate it either. We enjoyed small parts of it but what we mostly enjoyed was what we took away from the film. Overall the acting was not poor but the writing most definitely is. This film was trying to sell this idea that Christmas is supposed to be about community and giving while the community behaved like assholes and only gave once they got what they wanted.

It’s definitely not a community we would want to be part of. We love this season and we enjoy celebrating it! But we here think that people have the right to do what they wish, and to live their lives how they wish, as long as they are not harming anyone!

The Kranks simply wanted to do something different for Christmas that year! They wanted to do something for themselves! They spend $6,000 a year, typically, during this season! They have a right to change it up if they damn well choose to!

We found ourselves rooting for the Kranks and wanting to slap their friends and neighbors for behaving so poorly simply because the Kranks doing something different is inconvenient for them.

We believe that there is a lesson to be had, but not the one that the movie wanted the audience to take away from it. We think that the lesson here is to stop people pleasing all the time and to stop living our lives for other people.

Take some time for you! Take some time to do something for you! Do not buy into this toxic message that needing a break and doing something kind or different for yourself is wrong. It isn’t! We all need a break sometimes! We can all use some change sometimes! Mix things up! Do something different!

Try your best to set some boundaries people pleasers! As chronic people pleasers ourselves, we know how truly rough it is to get there, but it is so worth it! It is worth it to live your life in the manner that serves you the best.

There will always be people that are not going to like you growing or making any changes or setting boundaries, especially the people who have benefited from you and want to continue to do so.

They will rail against you just like the awful people surrounding the Kranks did in the film. They will continue to try to get what they want from you.

It is difficult and if you do give in like the Kranks do, try to be kind and gentle with yourself. This is hard, the holiday season is not easy and people like that are difficult to deal with. Take it one day at a time. One small victory at a time.

If you are one that enjoys a lot of cheese, a lot of slap stick, and people being oddly controlling and creepy; then this is the movie for you! We did get some laughs out of it, not as many as the movie intended but still!

We here think that we should all to tip our hats a little bit to Luther Krank (as silly and extreme as he is) and do what makes you happy this holiday season!

We give this movie, 2 Hot Toddies out of 5!

Christmas with the Kranks Drinking Game

Take a sip anytime:

1.     Luther and Nora bicker or fight

2.     Anything bad happens to Luther (bad luck, self-inflicted, etc.)

3.     Anything bad happens to Nora (bad luck, self-inflicted, etc.)

4.     Anyone says "skip Christmas" or "skipping Christmas"

5.     Anyone says Frosty

6.     Frosty on screen

7.     Anyone is aggressive or creepy about Christmas

8.     Anyone looks baffled or disappointed by skipping Christmas

9.     Anyone says “Krank”

10.  Anytime Luther is called "Old Man"

11.  Nora screams

12.  The Kranks talk about their cruise

13.  Nora and Luther are hiding in their own house

What did you think?? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it!? Do you have suggestions for films we should consider?! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!