Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Christmas with the Kranks Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 22, 2022

Christmas with the Kranks is based on the novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham of all people, the author best known for his legal thrillers (several of which have been translated to film, including The Firm, A Time to Kill, and The Pelican Brief). This is a fairly straight Christmas tale, a lesser experience on the screen to be sure than it on the written page, exploring the usual up-and-down comedic cadence of a Christmas season gone awry. The film lacks the character nuance, detail, and subtlety Grisham wrote of in the book, but it musters enough of a superficially funny cadence to keep the motor running and crank out a passably entertaining, if not flawed and overly strait-laced, Christmas Comedy.

It is the day after Thanksgiving, and Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) are saying goodbye to their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) who is leaving home for a year to work for the Peace Corps. She’ll be home for the following Christmas, she tells them, but this year its just going to be Luther and Nora, home alone. Both are sad to see their little girl go, but Nora is particularly distraught. When she sends Luther on an errand for groceries on a particularly rainy evening, he finds himself soaked but struck with an idea: ditch Christmas and go on a cruise to the tropics, just him and his wife. It wouldn’t cost half of the $6,100 the family spent on Christmas last year, and with nobody in the house, a 10 day Caribbean cruise sounds just the ticket to escape their sorrows. Nora is reluctant at first and is never full on board, particularly when Luther calls for a total boycott, which means no decorations, no donations, nothing. But who knows, maybe it’ll work out for the best. Or not.

News of their plans to skip Christmas shocks the community: their friends, their co-workers, diners at a restaurant, local carolers, cops, and even the Boy Scouts pitching Christmas trees around the neighborhood, especially since Mr. Krank has, in years past, been one of their most reliable customers. The decision reaches the attention of neighborhood leader Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) who cannot budge Mr. Krank from his determined destination. As they struggle with becoming pariahs in their own neighborhood, as the insults and mean looks and threats mount, their plan comes crashing down when Blair calls with news: she’s coming home for Christmas as soon as her flight lands. And, she’s bringing home a boyfriend who has never really celebrated Christmas before. That puts an end to the dream vacation and begins a mad scramble to put together the best Christmas ever with only hours before Blair arrives home, expecting all of the warmth, decorations, food, fun, festivities, friends, and family that’s been part of her annual Christmas tradition.

The film gets off to a slow start – literally – with the scene putting Luther out in the cold, driving rain. The lingering on both him getting soaked and her mourning in the car takes forever to move through, instantly killing whatever minimal momentum the trite opening sequence had built. Fortunately, the film never falls prey to such tedious pacing beyond that, but narrative tedium does settle in rather quickly. The film cannot match the mood of Grisham’s novel, content to create Christmas chaos that’s far too typical of the screen in rhythm and cadence. None of it works great, but there’s enough essential Christmastime humor and scenarios to make the movie a passable seasonal watch.

The film enjoys putting the family through the wringer, first as they deal with the response that is shock and awe of not celebrating Christmas and the beratement of their neighbors and community, and then as they hit warp speed to get ready for Christmas and run into shortages and various other obstacles. None if it is particularly memorable, little of it is particularly funny, and nothing about it strikes a chord or resonates as something that might become a Christmas tradition. The film banks on the sudden shift to “no Christmas” and then back to “Christmas” which ultimately lead it to the usual Christmas movie permutations until it arrives at the “true meaning of Christmas” endpoint. It’s all very bland, with even a quality cast unable to inject much life into it. The energy is never that high from the cast or the crew. Read the book instead; it’s much better.

Christmas with the Kranks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony brings Christmas with the Kranks to Blu-ray with a capable 1080p transfer. The picture offers adequately sharp details and a generally acceptable filmic image, but it lacks elegance. Grain appears on the spiker side, albeit never appearing overly heavy. Core details are very good, yielding attractive facial textures, pleasing clothing lines, and crisp environmental details, mostly seen inside and out in the yard around the Krank home and in and around several other neighborhood homes. The film's aesthetic is very straightforward, then, with little diversity of set pieces or visual content. Still, it looks good enough. Colors are a little flat, lacking dynamic fullness and vividness. Skin tones are a little pasty, whites are decently crisp, and blacks are adequately deep, but it is through the whole color range where the image could stand the most tightening. There are no print anomalies or signs of wear and the encode appears fine, too. This is not the best Blu-ray on the market, but it's more than adequate for the film it supports.

Christmas with the Kranks Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Christmas with the Kranks unwraps its audio on Blu-ray by way of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless encode. The presentation is stable, a reliably good listening experience that handles all elements with ease. Spacing is good for music and effects elements like, while clarity holds to a good position for both as well. One of the most prominent effects in the film is the falling rain during the overextended opening sequence; the sense of heavy saturation envelops the listener to good effect. The best musical cue comes when Vic Frohmeyer is introduced; there's plenty of low-end extension at play. Dialogue drives most of the film and it presents with faultless center positioning, clarity, and prioritization.

Christmas with the Kranks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Christmas with the Kranks contains no extras beyond a pair of theatrical trailers: Theatrical Trailer 1 (1080p, 2:32) and Theatrical Trailer 2 (1080p, 2:00). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Christmas with the Kranks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Christmas with the Kranks is not a Christmastime classic, but despite its legion of issues it's a perfectly serviceable film, albeit one with only a little heart and no soul. Grisham's book is better and it's a shame the film isn't its close equal because there's enough there, and enough in the film (namely the cast) that it should play better than it does. Sony's Blu-ray is all but featureless beyond a couple of trailers. Video and audio are fine. Worth a look.