Four Christmases

Released: 2008
MPAA rating: PG-13
Run time: 1:28

Well, the holidays are over.  All the decorations are put away.  What a perfect time to pop in a Christmas movie!!  "Four Christmases" follows Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) as they are faced with spending their Christmas day with all four of their divorced parents separately.  Originally, they had planned to spend it in Fiji, but when weather shuts down the airlines, they run out of excuses and find themselves having the Christmas they have been avoiding for years.  The movie has a great supporting cast in Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Voight and Sissy Spacek.  Disclosure alert:  I almost always like Vince Vaughn in his movies and, yes, I am aware he always plays....Vince Vaughn.  I am also a huge fan of Robert Duvall.  Having said that, the movie is neither better than I expected nor was it as bad as I have feared.  It's sort of a straightforward dysfunctional family Christmas movie that finds Brad and Kate directly facing the people that have made them decide they never want to get married or have children.  Of course, being a Christmas movie, you can imagine that agreement will get tested, despite the families being pretty much as bad as they imagined.  The movie has its very funny moments, some sweet family times and some intense relationship scenes, leading to a heartwarming Christmas tale.  As stated the cast is very good, the script is not awful, but there is really no new ground broken here.  I enjoyed it, but don't really see it being added to the annual Christmas movie rotation.

Grade: C

Trailer: