‘Kranks’ is slap-silly holiday romp

Evan Marmol

“Christmas with the Kranks” is a perfectly serviceable, if not

entertaining adaptation to the outlandishly hilarious John Grisham

paperback entitled “Skipping Christmas.”

When the Kranks (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) drop their

absolutely lovely daughter off at the airport for a stint in the

peace corp. they have plenty to carp about. Primarily among Luther

Kranks complaints is the $6,100 that was spent on what he deems

“trivialities” on the previous Christmas. As an accountant he

itemizes the expenses down to ornament repairs. With this gnawing at

his better logic he concocts a mad-capped, hair-brained scheme to

skip out on Christmas.

His plan appears simple enough. Convince his conventional wife to

skip Christmas and join him on a Caribbean pleasure cruise, avoid the

meddlesome neighbors and gussy himself up for the trip.

This is precisely when the film becomes uproariously comical. The

neighbors become unbearable pests. The entire town ostracizes the

Kranks. Luther Krank childishly retaliates at every turn. This film

is Tim Allen slapstick bumbling at its best.

The plot is colorful, fast and fun. Only a few speed bumps present

themselves when the film gets too absurd and when the film diverges

into incongruous sentiment.

Overall, the film is a fun trip, with a lot of sidesplitting

humor. It is great holiday flick.

* EVAN MARMOL is Laguna Beach resident. He graduated from UC

Irvine with a degree in psychology and social behavior. He can be

reached at [email protected].