Dr. Venkman Reviews: Four Christmases

For some reason this movie really didn't bring on the Christmas spirit. Sure the movie is called ‘Four Christmases' and it takes place during Christmas, on top of that the film was released during the Holidays. It still didn't seem like a holiday type film to me. I have to gracefully disagree with The Dude on this one.

This film was a movie about the relationship between two people and how they go from being selfish to selfless. You can't really call it a romantic comedy because it was not really that romantic. But the movie did have it's funny moments. The comedy in the film is not gut busting great, but you have a few laughs. I will agree with The Dude that the most funny part of the film is when Vince Vaughn plays Joseph in a church play of the nativity scene.



The movie is about a couple named Brad and Kate who have managed to avoid their families during Christmas by going on vacations every year and then telling their families they are going somewhere to help people in need. This year they planned to go to Fiji, but due to bad weather their flight gets cancelled. They end up on the news and their families see them, so they can no longer avoid them. Brad and Kate make plans to visit their four divorced parents in one day before their next flight to Fiji leaves the next day. As they visit their families they begin to learn things about each other that they didn't know before and the problems begin.



I thought ‘Four Christmases' was going to be much funnier than what it turned out to be. I am a huge fan of Vince Vaughn, I have enjoyed most of the movies that he has made, and he brought his same comedic effort into this film, which means you are going to get to see Vince Vaughn play the same character again that he always plays. It can be enjoyable at times and in certain movies, but I was just kind of board with his performance in this one. I have seen him do better. Now when he teams up with Jon Favreau in a film the magic is suppose to happen, and I was looking forward to it in this movie. Jon has a small role in this film as Vaughn's brother Denver, but there really was not a lot of interaction between the two characters to bring on the magic. I was a bit disappointed in the film and expected a little bit more.



This limited interaction problem between Vaughn and Favreau in the movie carried over to most of the other characters as well. The film has such a great cast, but there are so many different characters in the film you don't get enough time to really feel the characters out or see any type of chemistry between them. There are other films with big casts and great actors that are able to find a way to bring the chemistry together, this one just didn't pull it off in my eyes.The four family visits happen pretty fast with a couple gags with each one, most of them you get to see in the preview of the film.



The movie also stars: Reese Witherspoon as Kate, she did a fine job nothing to memorable or different from anything else she has done. Robert Duval as Brads father Howard was pretty fun to see. Sissy Spacek as Paula was quite boring. Jon Voight as Creighton was a waste of time, he was hardly in the film and maybe had 2 or 3 lines. Jon Favreau as Denver, you get to see Jon like you have never seen him before and its pretty funny. To bad he wasn't in the film more. Then you have Tim Macgra as Dallas, Dwight Yokem as Pastor Phil, and Kristen Chenoweth from ‘Pushing Daisies' as Kate's sister Courtney.

Vaughn and Witherspoon did work well together and the relationship was believable.



I was expecting a better movie and funnier film. What I got was a movie about a selfish relationship that realizes it needs some work. This story is mixed in with some good decent comedy and some not so good comedy. As for my wife, she really enjoyed the movie so maybe it is more targeted toward women than men. I guess I would say this movie is more of a chick flick than anything.

Maybe I am being to hard on the film, maybe I just wasn't in the mood to see it, but it just didn't hit the spot for me. I am sure some of you that have seen it will really like it like The Dude did, so don't count it out on account of me not really liking it.