While this Christmas Comedy is a good comedic break from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it won’t make my top 10 favorite Christmas Movies.

The movie is carried by the relationship concept between the main characters of Brad and Kate and their families that most audiences will find relevant and easy to relate to…

 “Four Christmases”

(2008) (rated: PG-13 for some sexual humor and language) (1 hr, 22 min)

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, Peter Billingsley, Carol Kane, Colleen Camp

Director: Seth Gordon

Genre: Comedy/Christmas

The Plot: A couple struggle to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day.

MY TAKE:

Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have a mission to avoid their dysfunctional families on Christmas and they nearly pull it off again this time, until fog grounds their flight to Fiji.   As you’ve probably seen in the trailer – they are then forced to spend Christmas with each of their divorced parents and siblings, making four stops in one day, hence the title of the movie.

While this has all the makings of becoming a holiday classic: a couple, holiday travel, dysfunctional families, comedy, a good cast, a fresh concept, it falls a little short along the way.

As I mentioned above this isn’t a new holiday classic, but the story does have a lot of heart, not just all jokes, pranks, gags, and physical humor.    Unfortunately some of the best lines and moments are in the different trailers and clips on tv, so if you can manage to avoid some of them you’ll still be laughing when you get to the theater.

The really good ensemble cast (which includes a grown up Peter Billingsley who played Ralphie in 1983’s A  Christmas Story) helps remind us about how truly blessed we are despite our messed up families.

As we’ve seen in his previous comedies - inlcuding last year’s Christmas Comedy that also missed making my list of classics – there was a lot of ad-libbing from Vince Vaughn, playing the character of Ben the way he’s played most of his other comedic characters in Fred Claus, Wedding Crashers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Dodgeball, and Old School.

I’m not saying Vaughn’s acting is always the same, because its not – check out his serious roles in Domestic Disturbance (2001) or Clay Pigeons (1998) for example… you’ll see why he was offered so many roles in the last few years.

Reese Witherspoon did a pretty good job of trying to keep up with Vaughn’s comedy, although she plays it slightly more of the “straight man” to Vaughn’s comedic performance.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Its one of the better holiday comedies since Elf (2003) and while I wanted to like it more, I can’t give it a great review… I give it 7.5 out of 10… remembering the movie is a holiday comedy, that is supposed to make you laugh and feel good in the end, but its just not one of the best ever in this category.

So what did you think?  Please post a comment!

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“Four Christmases” poster courtesy New Line Cinema

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