Four Christmases

Synopsis

Vince Vaughn, The Break Up) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon, I Walk the Line) are on their way to a relaxing sun-filled vacation to enjoy Christmas alone until the unexpected fogbank happens and grounds all planes. News crews are at the airport and capture the happily unmarried couple on TV for their parents to see. With no excuses, they must now visit their divorced parents and step families. This means four crazy Christmases in one day with parents, stepparents, siblings and a host of other people.

Review

It didn’t take long at all to unwrap this movie. This flick is only 88 minutes, and it really has a lot of funny scenes. I thought the flick matched the trailer dead on. So if you like the trailer, then you’ll feel the same about the movie. I don’t believe this is the greatest comedy or Holiday movie, but it’s a good one to see a lot of great actors from the young, Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn and Christen Chenoweth to the old Robert Duvall, John Voight and Sissy Spacek.

Four Christmases is exactly what the title is. Four Christmases being attended by the loving happily unmarried couple Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) because both their parents are divorced and leading separate lives. Usually the couple every year foregoes the holidays with the loud and crazy siblings, wild and untamed kids and all the deep seeded secret wounds inflicted from childhood and life at home to travel to exotic islands for exclusive vacations with just the two of them.

Wow, that sounds nice right now with all this snow I’m seeing outside and frigid temperatures. I even have the nerves to be going to sit for 4 hours at a Steelers game. I checked the Weather Channel and they say it’s 21 degrees, but it has the nerves to feel like 6 degrees with the wind. UGH! Why Mother Nature? WHY?

Anyhoo, this year for Brad and Kate would have been no different except an extreme fogbank cancels every outbound flight. What’s even worse is a local news crew is all up in the Airport and shoves a mic and camera in Brad and Kate’s face showing their whereabouts to their families to see. They’ve been exposed and now have no excuse, but to celebrate four Christmases in one day. First of all, the holidays are a wonderful thing, but I’m not trying to visit four homes in one day especially if I was all set to travel to an exotic island for fun and sun.

Four Christmases have several great actresses and actors. Of course the main two leads Reese and Vince are probably the most popular right now. Poor Reese looked like she was wearing 5-inch heels just to gain some height and not look like a little girl next to the giant Vince Vaughn. I really liked these two together. The couple really had some genuine chemistry and just a great relationship. They came off as such a loving couple that was so cute not wanting to fight. I was thinking awww. Now, the families on the other hand, I can’t say the same for.

Brad’s family was straight up ghetto in their rough-redneck type of way. And I just found out that Brad’s brother Dallas is the country singer Tim McGraw. Who knew? How did he get this gig? Oh, who cares? He had several SHORT lines and fit right in. Brad’s other brother Denver was played by the multi-talented Jon Favreau (The Break-Up). Jon truly added a lot to the movie when he had his scenes. He was the scene-stopper and made you think that some people have a brother just like him – beefy and rough.

Vince always does a good job and whatever comes out of his mouth as he speaks a 1000 words per minute is funny. The only thing I wonder is if he’ll ever fall out of the comedy rolls? Will he ever play a very dark character kind of how crazy comedian Jim Carrey broke the shackles of comedy and did a serious thriller-drama like The Number 23? You know what? Maybe Vince has and I missed that movie. I must admit, I haven’t seen all of his films.

Four Christmases isn’t a boring movie. It moves along quickly, has a nice set up and it makes it through all four homes as the sun went down. Some folks will think this movie is juvenile and has your typical gag jokes like baby puke, getting beat up and humiliated by family. Sure, it has all these things, but if you just want to chill and get some laughs in on a Saturday afternoon with Vince and Reese, go on and check it out. I must warn Reese fans that this is not an Oscar winning performance. Trust me! It’s just to see Reese side by side with the silly funny man Vince.

Going to a matinee to see Four Christmases is cool. It’s a quick film and the ticket price is cheaper. If you are skeptical about the flick, wait until DVD. I liked the movie and cracked up at a lot of the scenes. I didn’t feel like I wasted by 88 minutes. And I bet if after a year when it is on HBO or Showtime, I’ll watch it again from beginning to end.

My Rating ~ 3 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)