Four Christmases 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: Oh, the hilarity of hating your family at the holidays. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Four Christmases is refreshingly tart and lean, forgoing the usual schmaltz and syrup of the season. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: 'When in doubt, bring on the projectile baby vomit' appears to be the guiding comedic principle behind Four Christmases. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: 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. Read more

Suzanne Condie Lambert, Arizona Republic: Is it funny? Yeah. Sometimes very. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: When will filmmakers learn that if you start with Bad Santa and finish with It's a Wonderful Life, you just end up with curdled eggnog? Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: We've enjoyed their cocky selfishness; just as much, we bask in schadenfreude when they get guilted into making the familial trail of tears. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The acrid, wince-worthy Four Christmases may well be part of the war on Christmas Bill O'Reilly's always fog-horning about. Christmas and Christianity will survive it. But barely. Read more

Joe Leydon, Houston Chronicle: Ho, ho, ho? No, no, no. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's four home-for-the-holidays comedies in one, and the variety-pack structure works for the movie: Each nightmare household has a wacked flavor all its own, and none wears out its welcome. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Seems intent on being as generic and lowbrow as possible, with broad slapstick emphasized over witty dialogue or interesting characters. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Vaughn makes the movie tolerable here and there, but this kind of slapsticky physical comedy doesn't suit Witherspoon at all. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Like a gift card in your stocking, the romantic comedy Four Christmases is pretty generic, though you might still be grateful for it. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It really needs to be stamped Don't Open Until DVD. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Gordon's stars are charmless, his script cheerless, and his sterling supporting cast can't seem to figure out what they've been brought on board to do. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Think of it as fun tear-away wrapping on what's essentially a boring pair of socks. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The difference between the average unfunny comedy and this one is the difference between Grandpa telling you knock-knock jokes and Grandpa telling you knock-knock jokes with his bathrobe open as his hand creeps up your thigh. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This comedy about a happy couple made miserable by having to visit four divorced parents begins with a bang but settles into sentiment so maudlin that even this cast can't save it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is what happens when a successful indie documentary filmmaker gets sucked in by the Hollywood system. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: That's funny? Read more

Christy DeSmith, Minneapolis Star Tribune: In the end, a musty procreation moral is left to push forth this flimsy plot -- and that's neither original nor particularly funny. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: This being a Christmas comedy of sorts, it demands a happy ending of sorts. And a moral too. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: It's Four Christmases in need of a wedding, or maybe a funeral. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Dismaying, indeed, that a movie purportedly selling itself on refreshing nay-saying scepticism should so cravenly succumb to the same old schmaltz. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: One and a half Christmases is about all that's worth celebrating in Four Christmases. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: [An] oddly misanthropic, occasionally amusing but thoroughly cheerless holiday attraction. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: To brand, then dismiss, Four Christmases as a disappointment would be giving it too much credit -- never, for a second, did this New Line Cinema cast-off scream or even whisper decent in the run-up to its opening. Read more

Dan Zak, Washington Post: Several maraschino cherries short of a fruitcake. Read more