Christmas with the Kranks

Christmas with the Kranks centers on Luther and Nora Krank, a couple who decide to skip Christmas entirely once their daughter Blair moves away. Instead of decorations, gifts and the usual neighborhood festivities, they plan a Caribbean cruise. Their choice upsets the people around them, especially their neighbor Vic Frohmeyer, who takes the community's Christmas decorating contest seriously. The plan falls apart when Blair announces she is coming home for the holiday with her fiancé, leaving her parents little time to prepare a celebration and mend fences with the neighbors.

The 2004 American comedy was directed by Joe Roth, his third feature after Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise and America's Sweethearts, and would be followed by Freedomland. Chris Columbus wrote the screenplay and produced with Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan. Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis star as Luther and Nora, with Dan Aykroyd as Vic, plus M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth Franz and Erik Per Sullivan. The production cost about 60 million dollars.

Audience responses were mixed: the film holds a 5.5 rating on IMDb from roughly 65,000 votes and a 6.2 on TMDB from far fewer voters. A critics' rating of 3.3 out of 10 from 131 reviews is considerably lower than either audience figure.