Four Christmases (Blu-ray) (2008)

"Refreshingly tart and lean, forgoing the usual schmaltz and syrup.  A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"Crassly enjoyable.  Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Editor's Note Documentarian Seth Gordon (THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS) makes his feature film directorial debut with FOUR CHRISTMASES. Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughn) are a happily unmarried couple who avoid spending Christmas with their families at all costs and instead travel to exotic locales. But when they find themselves fogged in at the San Francisco airport and their flight to Fiji cancelled, they have no choice but to spend the holiday with their divorced parents and the rest of their dysfunctional relatives. From his wrestling brothers and cradle-robbing mother to her oversexed grandmother and perfect sister, the couple is forced to face their worst nightmare head-on. Kate and Brad's greatest fears are realized as their families share their most personal secrets. This film addresses broader themes of how people really know each other and the importance of connecting with family, no matter how crazy they might be. Vaughn and Witherspoon have nice chemistry as a couple that thought they had everything they wanted, improvising and playing off of each other well. Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek appear as Brad's parents, while Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen play Kate's parents. Jon Favreau and Tim McGraw are a hoot as Brad's tormenting brothers, and Kristen Chenoweth fits the bill as Kate's sister. Parents should be aware that the film includes adult language and themes, and some comments about Santa that may upset young children.

	Reese Witherspoon
	Dwight Yoakam
	Jon Voight
	Robert Duvall
	Mary Steenburgen
	Kristin Chenoweth
	Vince Vaughn
	Jon Favreau
	Sissy Spacek
	Tim McGraw
	Michael Disco - Executive Producer
	Guy Riedel - Executive Producer
	Reese Witherspoon - Producer
	Jonathan Glickman - Producer
	Jeffrey L. Kimball - Director of Photography
	Mark Kaufman - Executive Producer
	Alex Wurman - Composer
	Roger Birnbaum - Producer
	Tobias Emmerich - Executive Producer
	Peter Billingsley - Executive Producer
	Vince Vaughn - Producer
	Caleb Wilson - Screenwriter
	Gary Barber - Producer
	Matt Allen - Screenwriter
	Seth Gordon - Director

New York Times
"[T]he picture, briskly directed by Seth Gordon from a snappy, many-authored script, is refreshingly tart and lean, forgoing the usual schmaltz and syrup....It's an efficient and stress-free entertainment package." 11/26/2008

Entertainment Weekly
"It's four home-for-the-holidays comedies in one, and the variety-pack structure works for the movie....The quartet of house parties are sprinkled with witty actors like Jon Favreau..." 12/05/2008 p.51

Box Office
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon -- America's Lothario and America's Sweetheart -- are an oddly apt pairing..." 11/26/2008

ReelViews 6 of 10
This is what happens when a successful indie documentary filmmaker gets sucked in by the Hollywood system. As one can guess from the number of writers involved in this project, Four Christmases is wildly uneven, veering from screwball comedy to would-be heartfelt drama with an inelegance that is more likely to cause whiplash than an emotional catharsis. For a while, Seth Gordon's (The King of Kong) feature tries to stake its claim alongside other misdeed-strewn Christmas comedies like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but its implosion and collapse into unfulfilling melodrama during its final third represents as close as a movie like this can get to self-immolation...Most of the supporting characters prove to be more effectively comedic than the two leads. Both Vince Vaughn (now in his second straight sub-par Christmas movie, following Fred Claus) and Reese Witherspoon are boring. Neither exudes much in the way of energy. Jon Favreau (Vaughn's long-time buddy and occasional collaborator) has a great time playing Brad's dumb, buff bro. Kristen Chenoweth doesn't get to sing but she does have ample opportunities to display her cleavage as well as the perkiness that makes her character of Olive in Pushing Daisies so endearing. And Robert Duvall gets a chance to play the father whom no one would want to visit on Christmas...Every year, it seems that studios toss a seasonal movie or two into theaters in the hopes that viewers will use it as a means to whet their holiday appetites. Quality is rarely present, nor is it much of a factor. Four Christmases is waste of time and a disappointment, but it's also relatively painless. Some of the jokes work, there are some laughs to be had and, if it all falls apart in the final third, it's over soon enough that such a major structural fault is easily overlooked. We as audiences have come to expect very little from holiday themed movies, and that's precisely what Four Christmases delivers. - James Berardinelli