It’s almost worth the price of admission to see Gandolfini whack Affleck in the head with a snow shovel, but things mostly go downhill from there.
Comment
10/21/04
Surviving Christmas (2004)
7
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:108
Fresh:8
Rotten:100
Average Rating:3/10
Consensus: Surviving Christmas is unpleasant characters attacking each other for 90 minutes before delivering a typical, hollow anti-consumerist message
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Academy Award® winner Ben Affleck ("Good Will Hunting"), Emmy winner James Gandolfini (TV’s "The Sopranos") and Christina Applegate ("View From the Top," TV’s "Married With Children") star in the... [More]
Starring: Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, Catherine O'Hara
Director: Mike Mitchell
Reviews for Surviving Christmas
Surviving Christmas is unable to induce that all-important holiday tear.
10/21/04
Some screwball moments elicit a chuckle or two, but the script is weak and the characterizations clichéd.
10/21/04
The film is well cast, with James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Josh Zuckerman and Christina Applegate as Drew's rented family, but they're wasted on subpar material.
10/21/04
Top CriticThis is a dump job worthy of Tony Soprano.
10/21/04
The woozy, sinking sensation this Christmas comedy produces suggests a movie slapped together after the consumption of far too many gallons of spiked eggnog.
10/21/04
Top CriticIt aims for mediocrity and hits the bullseye.
10/21/04
It is, from conception to execution, an unalloyed, unqualified, unmitigated disaster.
10/21/04
Ben Affleck's latest loser is chronologically short (less than 90 minutes) and psychologically eternal.
10/21/04
This crass, sloppy comedy is Affleck's fifth consecutive lousy movie.
10/21/04
It's appropriate that this would-be comedy should be released so close to Halloween. It's a real horror.
10/21/04
Gandolfini and O'Hara are so gritty and wryly burned-out together that you want to express-mail them to another movie in time for next Christmas.
10/21/04
There are a few amusing moments, helped by subdued performances from Affleck and Gandolfini, but this is no Bad Santa despite its obvious ambition to play similar holiday tricks.
10/21/04
The ludicrous premise is but the latest expression of that bourgeois guilt that crops up in Hollywood like clockwork around this time of year, spawning films in which modern-day Scrooges learn that money, or at least money alone, can’t buy true happiness.
10/21/04
As light, fluffy, cockle-warming holiday entertainment, this thing is pretty sweet.
10/21/04
Failed attempts at humor land with a crash on top of failed attempts at plot.
10/21/04
It’s apparent why ‘Affleck’ and ‘comedy’ (at least of the intentional variety) aren’t normally said in the same sentence.
10/21/04
With any luck, Surviving Christmas will be gone from theaters before Thanksgiving.
10/20/04
A grating tribute to checkbook cheer, that warm and fuzzy feeling achieved from buying and buying and buying.
10/20/04
No worse or better than your average television sitcom.
10/20/04
Latest News for Surviving Christmas
October 17, 2007:
Total Recall: Ben (Affleck's) Bits
In Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck directs younger brother Casey in a mystery surrounding the case of a missing Boston girl. In the spirit of Total Recall, we decided to take a look... More...
March 12, 2007:
Ben Affleck Goes Straight to Video With "Man About Town"
Okay, we all knew Ben Affleck was having some problems, and earned a few Razzie nominations several years in a row, but he's still a movie star. Could it really have gotten to... More...
December 15, 2005:
Critical Consensus: A Sly "Family Stone," A Towering "Kong"
This week at the movies, we have a giant ape {"King Kong"} and some yuletide dramedy ("The Family Stone"). Will the critics go bananas for these flicks? More...
October 25, 2005:
"Sky High" Director to Helm "Claus" Comedy
The Hollywood Reporter brings news of a new holiday-themed comedy from Mike Mitchell, director of "Sky High." It's about Santa's disgruntled older brother, and it's... More...
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