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List Price: $28.98 | | Label: New Line
Salesrank: 115
Released: November 24, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.82 |
| Used Price: $12.41 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A COUPLE STRUGGLES TO VISIT ALL FOUR OF THEIR DIVORCED PARENTS ON CHRISTMAS DAY.
Description of Four Christmases:
When your significant other tells you you both need an exit "safe word" before you enter his dad's Christmas gathering, you know you're not in Bedford Falls. But while Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon may not be It's a Wonderful Life's George and Mary Bailey, Four Christmases is a modern holiday classic in its own right. For one thing, every family neurosis and dysfunction have taken root in the four families of Vaughn and Witherspoon's characters, Brad and Kate--and the sleek yuppie façade each has built with the other is about to come tumbling down. There are real belly laughs as the couple unexpectedly has to spend holidays with their four extended family groups. "I don't want to speak ill of your mother on Christmas," growls Howard (Robert Duvall) to son Brad, while Brad's bullnecked ultimate-fighter brothers are rassling everything in sight, "but she's nothing but a common street whore." Brad may cringe, but Kate's own family is about to mortify her in abundant ways, from her randy "Gram-Gram" and about-to-pounce cougar mom Mary Steenburgen ("I feel like a Saudi prince in here," marvels Brad as all of Kate's female relatives drape themselves over him), to the revelation to Brad that Kate used to be--how to put this--a bit on the chubby side. If the plot isn't full of surprises, the quips are nonstop and the acting believable and charming. The supporting cast also includes Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau and Dwight Yoakam in a memorable turn as the mega-church pastor Steenburgen's character is involved with. It's a comic Christmas blessing, and there'll be no need to say "mistletoe"--at least not till the viewers are home with their own families. --A.T. Hurley
Four Christmases Reviews:
A Christmas Fruitcake 
2009-11-28 - This movie is like a Christmas fruitcake- you want to like it and it looks like it should be good but... could use more nuts ( funny moments) and definately more bourbon ( more feel good scenes) ...wish I had saved my dollars...even Vince could not pull this one off - get out your copy of Christmas Vacation for holiday laughs !
Snappy Comedy Touches Smothered by Hollywood Overkill in Standard Holiday Fare 
2009-11-26 - This rudely rambunctious, intermittently funny 2008 holiday comedy is a supreme case of Hollywood overkill along the lines of Jay Roach's Meet the Fockers. Running a scant 89 minutes, it stars no less than five Oscar-winning actors in the standard cookie-cutter story of a commitment-phobic couple who are forced to visit each of their four divorced parents on Christmas day. Co-written by first-timers Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson, along with Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (who co-wrote The Hangover), the premise shows promise with Kate and Brad, a pair of self-satisfied, upwardly mobile San Franciscans meeting for what looks like the first time in a bar. Their sharp-tongued banter turns out to be a role-playing fantasy since they are three years into their comfortable relationship. A major fog blanket over the city ruins their plans for a holiday vacation in Fiji. What's worse is that they are caught by a local news camera at the airport. Because they deceived their families into thinking they were traveling overseas to help starving third-world children, they embark on a daylong journey to each of their parent's houses, all conveniently located in the Bay Area.
However, the movie starts to decline precipitously with each visit. The first home the couple drops by belongs to Brad's redneck father, where his other sons, cage-fighting brothers Denver and Dallas tackle Brad with painful wrestling moves. It ends with an uncomfortable gift exchange where Brad's expensive gifts humiliate his blue-collar family. The couple then visits Kate's overly affectionate mother and a den of cougars, an episode in which it is revealed Kate had a childhood weight problem and a possible lesbian past. Brad's therapist mother is next on the itinerary, but he's still angry that she married his best friend, who is half her age, and a game of Taboo reveals the communication gulf that really exists between Kate and Brad. The last stop is at the home of Kate's father, and this is where the tone gets serious-minded as the couple learns a lesson in the value of being with family in spite of whatever personal differences may exist to divide them the rest of the year.
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon - he with his semi-improvised riffing, she with her exacting intelligence - would seem to be absurdly mismatched, but they spar convincingly, even if they do look more like best friends than lovers. Vaughn gets to shine in a Christmas pageant scene where he basks in the limelight of his ham-fisted stage debut. Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, and Jon Voight play the parents with little screen time, and only Duvall leaves much of an impression as an embittered shell of a man. Jon Favreau, Tim McGraw, Carol Kane, and Kristin Chenoweth gamely play various relatives in equally smallish roles. The whole venture is directed by Seth Gordon, whose only previous feature-length credit is the critically praised video-game documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, and his storytelling inexperience shows in the sometimes ADD-level pacing of the story. The 2009 DVD, being released for the holidays, doesn't offer much in terms of extras other two different screen formats.
Four Christmases
2009-11-26 - Four Christmases is one of those Christmas-themed romantic-comedies that come out every year and it doesn't differ from the typical formula. Here, the two leads go visit their families for the holiday and they're subjected to varying degrees of embarrassment. While Four Christmases doesn't do much of anything different for the genre it has the advantage that most of these films don't due to the five Academy Award winning actors starring in it. However, it also had four screenwriters and you would think a script with some originality would spawn from that.
The opening scene is so ridiculous, I won't even describe it here but it introduces us to Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon), a couple with no desire to get married since both come from divorced families. To avoid the stress of Christmas, the two tell their families they're doing charity work in a foreign country and then go on vacation. This year, they're taking a trip to Fiji until their flight is cancelled and their faces end up on the news. With their plan exposed, they're left with no choice but to go home and visit their families. With divorced parents, the pair is given four stops to make allowing the writers to write episodic segments in which Brad and Kate are embarrassed and ridiculed to the fullest, most illogical extent possible.
At the house of Brad's father (Robert DuVall), he's attacked by his two brothers Denver and Dallas (Jon Favreau & Tim McGraw), semi-professional UFC fighters. Brad tells Kate his childhood was "just like The Shawshank Redemption, except I didn't have some kind, older, soft-spoken, gentle black man to share my struggle with."
The film has a great cast, as I mentioned, that includes Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Sissy Spacek, and Jon Voight and all the actors look like they're having fun here but when you have a script that uses projectile vomiting, kids beating up Vince Vaughn, and Reese Witherspoon beating up kids to fill it's short 88-minute running time. Other problems with the writing are the way Kate's fear of maternity are hammered into the ground, as if they believed their audience was so unintelligent they don't forget it if they weren't reminded constantly and the way the plot turns serious for a moment towards the end, only to come a predictable conclusion.
As for the acting, all the actors bring great charm to the film. It seemed to me like a group of famous friends who were hanging out and decided to make a movie, as everyone looks like they're having fun. Vaughn is playing the same character he plays in just about every comedy, which is good or bad depending on what you think of him.
There is an audiences for these kinds of movies and there's about twenty of them a year. I hate to admit it, but Four Christmases did make me laugh on several occasions due to the natural screen charisma and natural ability of the two leads to be funny. Even Tim McGraw (not a fan) is pretty amusing in his small role. This is a cute movie; it's not smart, original, hilarious, or great but it provides a few genuine laughs and kills boredom. I wouldn't watch it more than once, most likely but it's worth checking out.
GRADE: C
I wasn't impressed 
2009-11-25 - Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon "who could do much better than this movie" play an unmarried couple looking to spend their Christmas vacation on an exotic island. Things don't go as planned when their flight is canceled and they wind up visiting relatives which they wanted to avoid doing the most.
I found the movie a bit un-involving and even boring at times. Vince Vaughn seems to just do movies if they are a comedy and Jon Favereau is co-starring in it with him. I don't think he even reads the scripts to his films any more. Fred Claus wasn't fantastic, yet this movie makes that look like a Christmas classic. Plus that at least had some charm and heart-warming moments. I'd honesty even watch Christmas with the Kranks again over ever viewing this again. The film has mild laughs but it lacks fun or joy even.
Great Holiday Movie! 
2009-11-24 - My Husband and I saw this movie in the theatre last December and we both thought it was really funny. We just purchased it on dvd to watch again this Christmas.
