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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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57
Special
79
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67
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82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
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59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Let the Right One In
80
Frost/Nixon
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
73
Hunger
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
69
Black Balloon, The
68
August Evening
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
JCVD
64
Appaloosa
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
32
Let Them Chirp Awhile
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
29
Nobel Son
28
Fireproof
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Lake City
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Local Color
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Four Christmases
New Line Cinema (Warner Bros. Pictures)
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|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sexual humor and language
Starring
Vince Vaughn,
Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall,
Jon Favreau,
Mary Steenburgen,
Dwight Yoakam,
Tim McGraw,
Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Voight,
and
Sissy Spacek
No one enjoys the holidays more than Brad and Kate. Every December 25th, this happily unmarried, upscale San Francisco couple embark on a holiday tradition they have shared every year since they met—ditching their crazy families for a relaxing, fun-filled vacation in some sunny exotic locale. But not this year. Shorts and sunglasses packed, Brad and Kate are trapped at the San Francisco airport by a fogbank that cancels every outbound flight. Worse yet, they are caught on camera by a local news crew, revealing their whereabouts to the whole city…and to their families. With no escape and no excuses, they are now expected home by Brad’s father. And Kate’s mother. And Brad’s mother. And Kate’s father. Four Christmases in one day. (New Line Cinema)
GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
WRITTEN BY: |
Matt R. Allen
Caleb Wilson
Jon Lucas
Scott Moore
|
DIRECTED BY: |
Seth Gordon
|
RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: November 26, 2008
|
RUNNING TIME: |
82 minutes, Color |
ORIGIN: |
USA | Germany |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Four Christmases works because of some genuinely funny setups, a pace that never dwells on one gag (or even one family) too long and a careful mix of slapstick and bawdy humor. But mostly, the film works because of the astonishing acting talent the filmmakers brought together to make it.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Vaughn delivers every line with his usual deadpan glibness, which suits the part. But I smiled as I watched the big-bellied, multi-chinned actor connecting with the porcelain, model-thin Witherspoon.
70
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Refreshingly tart and lean, forgoing the usual schmaltz and syrup.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Gordon's best not-so-secret weapons, though, are his two stars: Vaughn and Witherspoon are an inspired pairing, not least because they're such a mismatched set of salt-and-pepper shakers.
67
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Crassly enjoyable.
67
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
It's pleasantly funny, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, from start to finish, even when it's staging broad, easy gags about baby barf and fat kids.
50
Washington Post
Dan Zak
The only laughs come from Vaughn, a master of ingratiation. Witherspoon is no Roz Russell or Lucille Ball. But she fills space nicely.
50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
This is marginally better than most, with a few offbeat comic ideas, a reliably droll performance from Vaughn, and, as the parents, four watchable old troupers in search of a fat paycheck.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Four Christmases is waste of time and a disappointment, but it's also relatively painless.
50
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The film has its funny moments, but they are too few to make the holiday excursion worthwhile.
50
TV Guide
Cammila Albertson
It's well acted and it's entertaining -- and who can resist a movie where Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau are brothers, and Robert Duvall is their dad?
50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
We got two gold-record singers and they don't sing? So? We got five Oscar-winning actors, and they don't need to act much.
42
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Neither clever nor heartwarming, Four Christmases is the coal in the stocking of holiday movies.
42
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The result is two bad movies in one: a gimmicky romantic comedy, and one of those seasonal headaches that submits loud family dysfunction as a vehicle for Christmas cheer.
40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Oddly misanthropic, occasionally amusing but thoroughly cheerless holiday attraction that is in no way a family film.
40
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Like the last gift buried under singing Billy Bass fish, dancing Coke cans, joke books and mounds of wrapping paper, there's a glimmer of fun in Four Christmases that almost gets vacuumed up with the tinsel.
40
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
To put it in the best light possible, I recommend thinking of Four Christmases not so much as a really short movie but as a very special holiday episode of a sitcom.
38
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
A generic oven-stuffer that wants to be a stocking-stuffer, is a turkey, despite the foil wrapping and some artfully deployed tinsel.
38
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Four Christmases is essentially "Meet the Parents" quadrupled.
30
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Bad enough to create one of the most joyless Christmas movies ever, but then to go for an unearned feel-good ending adds insult to injury.
30
Austin Chronicle
Steve Davis
This year's entry in this lowly subgenre is Four Christmases, a D-list comedy with A-list actors.
30
NPR
Bob Mondello
Alas, there's scarcely a moment of ingenuity or surprise in this tale of the supremely smug, unmarried-but-made-for-each-other Brad and Kate.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
This is a movie of excesses that doesn't know when to settle down. It aims to be a slapstick comedy, a romantic comedy and a plain old romance but falls short of each goal.
25
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Four Christmases is sour to the point of curdling, a satirical look at the holidays a la "Bad Santa" that does exactly what that film avoided: come off as both off-puttingly misanthropic and gloppily sentimental.
25
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
As Vaughn's therapist mother, Sissy Spacek comes off best. But she's a rare bird of whom it truly can be said: She's always good. No matter how grim the material.
12
New York Post
Kyle Smith
The movie boasts five Oscar winners. That figure exceeds by five the number of times I laughed at this cheap collection of icky jokes.
10
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
The movie doesn't offer a single surprise within its scant 82 minutes, which feel like at least twice that.
The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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