2004 Directed by Mike Mitchell
Drew Latham is an executive leading an empty, shallow life with only wealth on his side. Facing another lonely Christmas ahead, he revisit his old childhood home in the hope of reliving some old holiday memories – but he finds that the house in which he was raised is no longer the home in which he grew up.
Jingle Bells - Eine Familie zum Fest., Sobreviviendo a la Navidad
It was never quite clear if Affleck's character was meant to be mentally challenged.
Any studio comedy that commences shooting without a finished script basically guarantees some cursed Walt Becker energy, but consider this moment in time: Ben Affleck is circling one of his numerous career nadirs, and James Gandolfini is at the height of his power on The Sopranos. Gandolfini never phones it in, not even once, and Affleck—somewhat miscast in a role that feels more suited to an Adam Sandler type—is forced to abandon pride and give it his all for a television titan he surely adores. The resulting cinematic-clusterfuck-meets-demented-magic situation is exactly what I hoped for and is malignantly fascinating, never moreso than when Affleck eats the last of Gandolfini’s lunch meat. The gabagool!
Surviving Christmas is one of those movies you previously enjoyed, even though it was mostly forgettable. I saw it years ago and decided to revisit it. Man, the internet does not like this movie. Yeah, I can see the flaws, but it has moments.
THE GOOD:
* James Gandolfini, he's the best thing about it
* Catherine O'Hara, love her, especially in Christmas movies
* Christina Applegate
* The relatable premise of wanting a perfect nostalgic Christmas
* Succeeds in giving cozy Christmasy feels
* It made me laugh several times
THE BAD:
* Not having Christina Applegate appear until well into the movie
* Ben Affleck seems to be straining himself trying to appear overly enthusiastic at times
*…
Yuletide's a bitch, ain't it?
-Doo-Dah Understudy
Paying $250,000.00 to spend Christmas with James Gandolfini seems perfectly reasonable to me. A bargain really.
At it's best it's mediocre, at it's worst it's kinda horrible. Reading that they made the film without a complete script explains a lot. There's some outdoor scenes that are clearly on a soundstage. Like they weren't even trying to hide it. Like it was during the point where everyone was just like "Fuuuuuck... let's just get this over with!"
This should be remade into a psychological thriller. Imagine a rich bastard paying a family to spend Christmas with them and as each day comes and goes he demands weirder and crueler shit from the family while increasing the final payment as he goes. The family turns against each other for money and does some really fucked up shit. Merry Christmas!
'Nuff Said
Any one who thinks Ben Affleck’s worst performance was Batman has never seen this movie.
Several years after the events of "The Sopranos" Tony, having survived the attempt on his life, is in witness protection having turned states witness. One night, after eating some spoiled gabagool, he falls into a deep fever dream where he believes that he's in a terrible Christmas film with a painfully irritating Ben Affleck. This is what I chose to believe as it's the only way this dumpster fire becomes even bearable to watch.
Getting $250,000 for allowing Ben Affleck to live with me sounds like fair compensation.
For the past decade plus, I've been pretty responsible about avoiding the glut of wretched-looking studio Christmas movie star vehicles from the 2000s. Even with great casts, none of them seem appealing anyway. "Four Christmases", "Fred Claus", "Christmas with the Kranks", "Deck the Halls", "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past", and critics say they were all garbage. But I wanted something unseen, new-ish and easy to try out this holiday season in-between chestnut re-watches, and no that doesn't qualify the landfill of titles made for Hallmark or Netflix or wherever else they're being churned out by the hundreds every year. However bad a theatrically released version of lame Christmas shenanigans and cheap sentiment might be, it's still more my jam than those…
