Movie Review: Surviving Christmas 3 out of 5

Plot Outline: A lonely, obnoxious young millionaire pays a family to spend Christmas with him.

Survivng Christmas was a little funny. Keep in mind this movie is intended to be light and unserious. Yes, Ben Affleck is annoying. But he wasn’t that bad here. The humor was funny, and James Gandolfini did a great job.

I think that the film was shot in the same house that “Home Alone” was shot in.

Setting up the premise took a little too long. And honestly only a few of the jokes seemed to actually work. The critics hated this movie however here is a funny quote by Wesley Morris from the Globe Staff (I think im beginning to like this guy)

"Surviving Christmas" is exactly what's wrong with Hollywood: No one responsible for this thing seems ever to have lived outside the 310 area code or had a family or been lonely. It's the sort of stupid swill that gets spewed out by a studio committee, slapped together without a brain, a heart, or a good idea about where to put a camera or when to cut a scene. The finished product (calling it a movie would be like categorizing Spam as meat) is then pumped out to the megaplexes of America by a machine you can imagine only someone like the Grinch cranking.


Things I learned as a filmmaker:

Ben Affleck’s performance was okay, but I didn’t see him quite as the annoying character. I think he was a bad casting choice. Even famous people may be wrong for the casting.