Christmas with the Kranks

"Their Christmas will turn the town upside down!"

2004 1h 39m EN

😐

6.2

MID

★6.2TMDB · 1,346

ComedyFamily

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When their only daughter Blair leaves the family nest, Luther and Nora Krank decide to book an island cruise to beat the yuletide blues and just skip the holidays. But their decision to boycott tradition has the whole neighborhood in an uproar, and when Blair calls on Christmas Eve to announce a surprise visit with her new fiancée, the Kranks have just twelve hours to perform a miracle and pull themselves and their neighbors together to throw the best celebration ever!

“Their Christmas will turn the town upside down!”

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Cast

Tim Allen
Luther Krank
Jamie Lee Curtis
Nora Krank
Dan Aykroyd
Vic Frohmeyer
M. Emmet Walsh
Walt Scheel
Elizabeth Franz
Bev Scheel
Erik Per Sullivan
Spike Frohmeyer
Cheech Marin
Officer Salino
Jake Busey
Officer Treen

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joe Roth
Writers: Chris Columbus
Languages: Spanish, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 22 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joe Roth, shot by Don Burgess. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Debney. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Nick Moore shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Their Christmas will turn the town upside down!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joe Roth directs. Don Burgess behind the camera. John Debney scores. Nick Moore cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Spanish, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Released 22 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.
4Directed by Joe Roth, shot by Don Burgess. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by John Debney. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Nick Moore shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Their Christmas will turn the town upside down!".
9IMDB entry: tt0388419 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "chicago, illinois", "husband wife relationship", "based on novel or book", "holiday".

The technical file

Cinematography: Don Burgess
Original score: John Debney
Editing: Nick Moore
Production design: Garreth Stover
Costume design: Susie DeSanto
Makeup / hair: Toni-Ann Walker
VFX supervisor: Sheena Duggal
Stunt coordinator: Ernie F. Orsatti
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $60,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

Also by

Joe Roth

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Community reviews

What people are saying

r96sk2020-12-16
★ 7/10
Suitably amusing. With that said, <em>'Christmas with the Kranks'</em> certainly starts brighter than it ends. I found fun in the opening portion, especially with the two leads. I didn't like the ending as much, I found it too sappy and untidy. The run time is short though, so that doesn't hamper things much. Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis are enjoyable at the forefront of the film, with Dan Aykroyd joining them in that bracket with his arrival. The rest of the cast are fine. The plot isn't anything majorly fresh, but it entertained me enough. Fun film.
Wuchak2023-12-30
★ 6/10
Harmless Christmas fun with Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd When the Kranks’ daughter goes off to Peru after Thanksgiving, they decide to skip Christmas and spend the money on a Caribbean cruise, but their neighbors browbeat them for it. At the last minute, they decide they have to celebrate the holiday anyway, but how will their offended neighbors respond? “Christmas With the Kranks” (2004) is one of those Christmas flicks that you can just roll with and enjoy or be a Scrooge and pick apart. As far as the latter goes, what’s wrong with NOT blowing money on Christmas lights and so on? Who joins the Peace Corps to help out the world and comes back in a month? If you can ignore such questions, it’s entertaining enough and warmhearted. While everything is usually exaggerated in movies, especially ones like this, there ARE neighborhoods in which neighbors are coerced into displaying unison decorations for the holidays. The movie runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in studios of the Los Angeles area, e.g. Downey, with second unit work done outside Chicago. GRADE: B-