Movie Review- Four Christmases

It used to be so easy. You come up with a concept for a comedic film, you cast Vince Vaughn, he improvises for 2 hours and you make a $100 million. But after a while fans catch on. You can't play the same characters over and over for a decade and fans just accept it. You almost insult their intelligence. Just ask Will Ferrell.

"Four Christmases" looks good on paper. Funny Vince Vaughn and cute Reese Witherspoon together having to go to four different Christmases with their weird family. But something got lost between the paper and filming, and that's real unfortunate.

Plot:
Happy couple Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) spend every Christmas avoiding their families. But after a travel mishap the two are forced to visit their families all in one day.

PROS:
Vince Vaughn is funny, and as old as his shtick gets, he still manages to get real genuine laughs. His best scene was at Kate's mother's boyfriend's church where he is tricked into playing Joesph in the church's nativity play. In that one scene he showed exactly why he is so famous. You might not roll on the floor laughing, but its light-hearted and fun enough to provide solid laughs.

CONS:
The movie just seems half-assed. It seemed slapped together. The jokes were set-up properly, but the jokes didn't land. They had a real chance to pile it on some good laughs by making the family members eccentric and out of the ordinary. But all the families were one-note and had no depth to them. Though they followed some of the traditions of family/holiday comedy, they rushed all the storylines and dove head first into a lackluster climax. Vaughn and Witherspoon lacked chemistry and Witherspoon seemed lost during some of Vaughn improvisation tirades, which all seemed like an attempt to save a weak script.

Recommendation:
Wait til it comes on HBO

Written By:
Matt Allen
Caleb Wilson

Directed by:
Seth Gordon

Main Cast:
Vince Vaughn ("Old School", "Fred Clause")
Reese Witherspoon ("Walk the Line", "Election")
Robert Duvall ("Apostle", "Tender Mercies")
Jon Favreau ("Rudy", "I Love You, Man")
Tim McGraw ("Flicka", "Friday Night Lights")
Mary Steenburgen ("Melvin and Howard", "Stepbrothers")
Kristin Chenoweth (TVs "Pushing Daisies", "RV")
Dwight Yoakam ("Sling Blade", "Crank")
Sissy Spacek ("Coal Miner's Daughter", "Hot Rod")
John Voight ("Coming Home", "Transformers")
Katy Mixon (TV's "Eastbound and Down", "State of Play")

Similar Titles:
Nothing Like the Holidays, The Family Stone

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