So you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why – Christmas With The Kranks has been blasted as 'one of the worst Yuletide films ever made'.
And one viewer was so utterly incensed by its awfulness, they even went so far as to say the whole thing 'makes you want to hate Christmas'.
With a woeful five per cent on movie aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, it appears many feel the same way about the Tim Allen movie, currently streaming on Prime Video.
Released in 2004, the festive un-favourite sees Luther ( Tim Allen ) and Nora Krank ( Jamie Lee Curtis ) plan to forgo Christmas tradition in favour of a Caribbean cruise.
This move does not sit well with their Yuletide-obsessed neighbours, including Vic Frohmeyer ( Dan Aykroyd ), who are hell-bent on winning the annual ‘best decorated street’ competition.
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The beleaguered Kranks soon find themselves social outcasts because of their perceived lack of Christmas spirit.
And it’s this alarming theme of ‘conform or die’ that's got a lot of people’s backs up.
As IMDb contributor Steve Pulaski succinctly wrote: “What kind of Christmas movie is this?
“Christmas With the Kranks is not jolly, whimsical, wholesome, or humorous like the typical American Christmas film, but a wretched, loathsome comedy capitalising on the things the holiday season isn't about such as competition, self-centeredness, cruelty, and worst of all, conformity”.
Indeed, Christmas With The Kranks does seem to revel in portraying the non-conformist Kranks as a real enemy of the people.
As Steve points out: “Since when did the message of being an individual and being unique, things we've been told since birth, be traded for the message of conformity by force?”
Approved critics on movie aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes were just as unforgiving.
'Relentlessly, oppressively awful ... the worst Christmas film I have ever seen'
Critic Daniel Barnes posted: “This exhausting parade of people's Christmas problems offers only banality, blandness, and the most desperately unfunny sitcom high-jinks imaginable”.
Debbie Lynn Elias wrote: “We loved him (Allen) as Santa. We loved her (Curtis) as the hooker with a heart. We love Christmas … After seeing Christmas with the Kranks, all I can say is it put me in one kranky mood for the holidays over such a waste of talent!”
Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy said “Forget the 12 Days of Christmas; there are at least 12,000 ways that 2004's fascistic Christmas With The Kranks earns the honour as the worst Yuletide film ever made”.
Richard Luck of Film4 added: “Christmas With The Kranks is the sort of film that leaves you thinking Ebenezer Scrooge might have had the right idea about the festive season”.
Kam Williams of Ellsworth American posted: “Some pathetically predictable plot twists and syrupy sentimentality, which could only amuse a five year-old, lead the Kranks back to their materialistic senses in time for a Kodak moment which shouts a rather shallow Merry Capitalism to all!”
While Mirror reader Mark Walter said: “'Relentlessly, oppressively awful ... the worst Christmas film I have ever seen. And it comes with a message that makes you want to hate Christmas'.
'It is hard to believe this story seemed funny on paper'
Christmas With The Kranks has a lowly 5.4 on IMDb, with user rbverhoef scathingly writing: “The movie rolls from one stupid event into another, never funny, most of the time it is just annoying.
“It is hard to believe this story seemed funny on paper and that gives us the obvious question of why this movie was even made. Probably because it is about Christmas and could make some money, which it did. If there is one Christmas-movie to avoid in whatever year it definitely is 'Christmas With The Kranks'.
The film wasn't loathed by everyone though, and commanded a respectable £81m at the box office.
What do YOU think to Christmas With The Kranks? Maybe you like it? Let us know in the comments below
