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48 utilisateurs sur 55 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Can't spell "families" without "lies", 1 décembre 2008

Auteur : Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) de Chicago, Illinois

Four Christmases starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, I suppose I can accept it, just very strange seeing them as a couple on screen together. But anyways, every year we get a Chrismas movie, it's either going to be fun or really bad, sorry to say, but Four Christmases is nothing special, another year with an easy to forget movie. But still while this movie doesn't really stand out and it is incredibly predictable, there are some really fun moments. We at least finally have the split up family vs just one crazy family. Reese really turned on the charm and stole this movie, she was so adorable and she was great in the jump jump scene with the evil kids. Vince had some moments as well, but it's more the supporting cast that was just a fun addition to the story.

When upscale, happily unmarried San Francisco couple Kate and Brad find themselves socked in by fog on Christmas morning, their exotic vacation plans morph into the family-centric holiday they had, until now, gleefully avoided. Out of obligation-and unable to escape-they trudge to not one, not two, but four relative-choked festivities, increasingly mortified to find childhood fears raised, adolescent wounds reopened...and their very future together uncertain. As Brad counts the hours to when he can get away from their parents, step-parents, siblings and an assortment of nieces and nephews, Kate is starting to hear the ticking of a different kind of clock. And by the end of the day, she is beginning to wonder if their crazy families' choices are not so crazy after all.

I would recommend Four Christmases just if you wanna see a cute holiday movie in the theater this year. Vince and Reese had good chemistry and this movie just represents the craziness of having to go to all the families every year for Christmas. There are some really good laughs here and there, I loved the scene where Reese played the Virgin Mary and Vince was Joesph in their church play and Reese just gets stage fright and freezes while Vince just makes a fool of himself on stage. Over all this is a cute movie, there's nothing special about it, but it's worth the look.

6/10

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42 utilisateurs sur 71 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Pleasantly Surprised, 27 novembre 2008

Auteur : Robert_Scott de Etats-Unis

To be fair, I should explain right away I had no intention of seeing this movie at all not to mention Vince Vaughn hasn't done anything very good like Swingers and Made in some time (to me, Wedding Crashers and The Break Up were just O.K.). In fact, the bitter taste from last year's disappointing Fred Claus was still present when my girlfriend said she wanted to see this movie tonight. Of course, I cringed at the idea while mildly protesting but eventually gave in with the prospect of secretly indulging in an unspoken "I told you so". Only kidding, that thought never crossed my mind...

Anyways, I didn't even really know what this was about before seeing it but it didn't take long for the plot to be outlined after a pretty funny scene at the airport. Basically, after 3 years of avoiding spending time with their families on Christmas (remember, you can't spell families without "lies"), Kate and Brad find themselves in an unfortunate situation this year that forces them to spend Christmas with their divorced parents and very dysfunctional siblings. This concept could go either way for me because I really liked Christmas Vacation but disliked The Family Stone. Fortunately, just as it started out great this continued to be more like Christmas Vacation all the way through with several laugh out loud funny dialog and various slapstick that had the whole theater roaring with laughter. One of my favorite parts was a Nativity play where Vince Vaughn effectively delivers some hilarious over the top scenery chewing that had everybody in stitches... well, except Kate.

As funny as I thought this was, it wouldn't be a real Christmas movie without delivering some sort of constructive message among all the chaos. Since I can empathize with Vaughn in his situation with Kate, the film's resolution probably had more personal impact for me. I can also understand the criticism that most of the talented cast was wasted in comparison because the family situations were not addressed equally. What I liked the most about the film's brief serious turn is it wasn't syrupy while providing some genuine touching moments thanks to the believable acting skills of Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn and of course the two screen legends, Bobby DuVall and Jon Voight. Best Christmas movie I've seen since Bad Santa and yes, I will listen to my girlfriend's suggestions without being such a Scrooge from now on:)

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23 utilisateurs sur 36 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Reese, Sissy, Robert, Mary and Jon should get plenty of coal for Christmas..., 28 novembre 2008

Auteur : Tyy Tad de Etats-Unis

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

If you laugh hysterically at babies vomiting, Four Christmases is the movie for you. For everybody else, I would encourage you to avoid this film like the plague.

Doing a little research on the film, I noticed that the movie was filmed in December of 2007 during the Writer's guild strike. During this time, under guild rules, the screenplay could not be changed at all. Further woes came from the distributor, New Line Cinema, being absorbed in Warner Brothers Pictures and the fate of the movie was up in the air. With all this hassle, I expect the end product to be worth all the fight it took to make it. To put it bluntly, I would rather see a documentary of these actors balancing their checkbooks.

The movie stars Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. Reese, who is usually brilliant in these kind of comedies, plays Kate, who is madly in love with Vince's character (Ben), but neither wants to get married. And why get married, when there will be a sudden urge to work on making a relationship work, instead of being together for fun? They aren't people that follow tradition, and it isn't just their attitude towards marriage that would get somebody like Pat Robertson in a tiffy. Every Christmas, Kate and Ben decide to go on expensive trips far away from their family. Not only that, but they lie about their intentions, instead saying that they are going to do something like breast feeding orphans in third world countries. I'm not a psychic, but I think there could be some serious coal in Kate and Ben's stockings from Santa.

After one of the dumbest, forced circumstances (too much fog at the airport, which is apparently important enough for the local news crew to do an on location story about fog ruining traveling plans and they interview people on how disappointing this is) that I assume the screenwriter tacked on at two in the morning one day after days of writer's block, Kate and Ben are forced to go to four Christmases. (Hey, that's the name of the movie!) Why four Christmases? Because both Kate and Ben come from divorced families, so they must go to Kate's mom and dad AND Ben's mom AND dad. Why, this has "comedy gold" written all over it, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it doesn't.

Unless, of course, you consider "comedy gold" to be Ben's brothers doing extreme wrestling on Ben. That takes up about five minutes. Oh, and for added bonus, I counted two uses of "bitch" uttered by a kid. That's so taboo, hee hee. Speaking of Taboo, at the house of Ben's mom, they do play the game Taboo. Ben's mom doesn't know how to play right and buzzes people at inappropriate times, hee hee. Further laughs could be had with Ben's old best friend now dating Ben's mom. There's even a part where Ben's mom kisses Ben's old best friend. Ew, hee hee. Speaking of "ew," at the Christmas at the house of Kate's mom, a baby throws up all over Kate, and Ben gags because he hates the sight of puke, hee hee. Sadly, there aren't too much laughs to be had at the house of Kate's dad, as he's too busy filling in the necessary drama relief. Blah, blah, blah, "I love you no matter what you do" and we're back to puke laughs. Movie ends.

The biggest disappointment of the film is that there are five Academy Award winners star in this. We have Reese Witherspoon, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall and Mary Steenburgen, all who won their Oscars for acting. My question: how could five people go from being considered the best actor of a given year to phoning in a performance in this movie, which I assume is too mature for kids to like and too childish for grown ups to enjoy? Did the screenplay scream out quality, and it reminded them of movies like In the Bedroom, Coal Miner's Daughter, Carrie, Walk the Line, Election, Pleasantville, The Godfather, Network, The Apostle, Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, Coming Home, Philadelphia and Melvin and Howard? Or did, and I gasp to report this, they saw dollar signs and decided to appear in this stinker? If it is the latter, which I assume unless these five actors completely forgot the difference between a great movie and a crappy one, I am afraid they might wind up like Kate and Ben and get a lot of coal for Christmas.

Rating: * out of ****

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25 utilisateurs sur 44 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Has about as much Christmas spirit as a Friday the 13th film - although the horny characters are still present., 8 décembre 2008

Auteur : c_p_c de U.S.A.

It's been a while since Hollywood gave us a genuinely good Christmas movie worth seeing. If you notice, the Christmas TV line-up is the same each year and the most modern film usually on the list is THE SANTA CLAUSE (1993). This just goes to show that, sadly, Hollywood isn't creating Christmas classics as it once did. Perhaps one of these years we will get a Christmas film reminiscent of the ones we love to watch on TV every year, but this ain't that year - or at least FOUR CHRISTMASES isn't that film.

The problem doesn't lie within the film's premise, but in the actual events that play out in the film. Kate and Brad live life with and for each other and that's it. They don't have much contact with their families - where each parent is divorced and some remarried - and each Christmas opt for a tropical vacation, telling their families they are doing charity work instead. All in all, they are happy with each other, but have buried their family issues. However, this year they get caught in their lie and are forced to visit each parent individually, celebrating a total of four Christmases. In the hands of an able and creative script writer this film could have been quite enjoyable as both Kate and Brad learn to appreciate their families and not exclude certain things - mainly marriage and children - in their lives just because their parents are bad examples of them. Instead, each visit with a parent seems to be a drawn out slapstick or sex joke and nothing else and is just not in any way funny or clever.

The film suffers from a lack of intelligence and it is shocking that it attracted the star power it did. The star's talents are hardly used and instead the film opts for over-sexed relatives, ultra violent brothers and insanely disobedient children - who get no reprimanding for their actions. As a genre of film that almost lends itself to families this one missed the mark and is not recommended for the kids. As an adult-geared Christmas film it just isn't funny. Adult humor can be funny and appropriate if there is other substance backing up the film - see 'KNOCKED UP' or 'FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL.' All we are offered in FOUR CHRISTMASES is one boring and uninspired vignette after the next with paper-thin character development and uninteresting characters.

With rarely an enjoyable moment and an atmosphere that provides almost no Christmas spirit, FOUR CHRISTMASES shouldn't be on anyone's list of holiday films. It is the awkward gift given by a relative. You know the type. It comes in a pretty package, but upon opening you find that it is a pair of underwear or a sweater that is designed to sit at the back of closets. This film surely will.

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26 utilisateurs sur 46 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Hateful characters, forced humor, and wasted talent, 12 décembre 2008

Auteur : Ravel555-1 de Etats-Unis

Imagine making a series of visits to your parents and relatives, as well as your companion's parents and relatives, only to discover that they have prepared a string of physically and mentally strenuous situations that boundlessly embarrass you and your companion in front of each other. In addition, this is all in the context of Christmas. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are Brad and Kate, the victims of this unfortunate predicament, which is the premise for one of the most contemptible movies of recent times.

Brad and Kate are a couple who live in San Francisco and are perfectly happy together as long as they remain unmarried. They do not want to be bothered with the pressures and responsibilities of marriage and a family. For Christmas, they are planning to take a vacation to Fiji in order to avoid spending the holiday with their divorced parents, all of whom are unaware of Brad and Kate's plans.

Unfortunately, a massive amount of fog has developed in San Francisco causing every single airline flight to be canceled. To make matters worse, Brad and Kate appear on a live television newscast that is reporting the events taking place. Naturally, their parents are watching the news and at this point, the couple feel they have no choice but to visit all four of their parents, resulting in "Four Christmases," which turn out to be odious scenes of either Brad or Kate, or both of them for that matter, being name called, physically attacked, vomited on, or reminded of past experiences that are best forgotten.

This movie has a noticeably mean spirit to it, which is brought out substantially by the characters. Most of them are boorish, repulsive, and just plain obnoxious. The cruel, forced humor only magnifies their unappealing qualities. The movie might have worked better if the characters were more good-natured, and the comic situations and gags were not presented in such a ruthless manner. A movie can be funny when the main characters wind up in situations that subject them to more trouble than they deserve. But when the other characters purposely initiate these troubles in a callous way, it is not amusing, but preposterous and repelling.

To further illustrate this idea of humor, it helps to compare this movie to the 1991 comedy, "What About Bob?," which has similarities to "Four Christmases," as far as humor is concerned. There are noticeable differences as well. In "What About Bob?," Bill Murray plays a disturbed, multi-phobic individual named Bob Wiley, receiving therapy from a successful psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin, played by Richard Dreyfuss. Bob clings to Dr. Marvin so much that he practically smothers him. Dr. Marvin's wife and two kids grow quite fond of Bob and they practically make him one of the family, much to Dr. Marvin's dismay. All of this gradually drives Dr. Marvin to insanity and he, like Brad and Kate, winds up in plenty of embarrassing and frustrating situations.

Now, why does the humor in "What About Bob?" work so well? Because the characters are more pleasant and likable, and their actions and behaviors are not meant to intentionally disconcert the poor, innocent victim. What makes it even funnier is how slowly and gradually Dr. Marvin loses his mind while Bob and Dr. Marvin's family remain completely unaware of this. Humor of this sort has a more lighthearted nature and is not contrived or irrational. It does not have to rely on cheap, senseless sight gags such as Brad being attacked repeatedly by his brothers or Kate being knocked around by a bunch of bratty kids. In "Four Christmases," it feels as if many of the characters are deliberately attempting to embarrass Brad and Kate. If you were to ask what the characters' reasons are for their behavior, well, maybe the only answer would be that they are behaving this way for the sake of being heartless.

Vaughn and Witherspoon's characters fail to provide any felicity. Between the tiresome family visits, we are bogged down with irritating transitions where Brad and Kate are either reflecting negatively on the events that had just occurred or fussing about the current nature of their relationship. When you think about it, this is all disheartening around Christmas time. Yes, the movie tries to incorporate some sweetness and warmth. But that only sets the stage for the predictable ending and that is all that needs to be said about that.

Perhaps the movie would not have been as mean-spirited if it had nothing to do with Christmas and the supporting characters were people other than family members who are supposed to make holiday visits special. Then again, if that were the case, the movie might have been even more dismal. As if that was not enough, the cast contains no less than five actors who have won Oscars at some point in their careers. So what? Their presence provides nothing more than agitation in that their talents are wasted. They are not given any intriguing material to work with. Did the makers of this movie really think that the mere use of award-winning actors would compensate for everything the movie lacks? Who knows?

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13 utilisateurs sur 21 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Four Chrismases without a hint of Christmas, 29 novembre 2008

Auteur : neenee_c_chester de Royaume-Uni

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

After last years foray into Christmas movies with the comedy without the comedy Fred Claus, Vince Vaughn is back this year again with another festive attempt - Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon.

The plot involves a couple Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) as they struggle to spend Christmas Day with all for of their divorcée parents.

No matter the logistical problems of visiting four equally quirky parents the most unbelievable part of the whole movie was believing that the cuddly (fat if you are not a fan!) Vaughn could pull a girl like Reese Witherspoon but oddly enough it did work and there was some chemistry there despite set grumblings that the two did not get on very well.

As with all comedies chemistry is important but so is the comedy. Vince Vaughn is a known to stray from the script and when this works it is hilarious but when it doesn't it truly fails. His one memorable scene and in fact the only laugh out loud scene in the whole movie is the nativity scene.

I would give the movie 5/10. It was released well in time before the main Christmas Films in order not to completely bomb at the Box Office.

The movie was good but I would wait a year and rent it next Christmas. It is the Christmas comedy which forgot all about the Christmas...and the comedy.

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19 utilisateurs sur 34 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Bounce Bounce and Baby Barf, 28 novembre 2008

Auteur : David Ferguson (fergusontx@gmail.com) de Dallas, Texas

Greetings again from the darkness. Vince Vaughn is starting to remind me of what Woody Allen went through ... "I liked his funny movies". Just wasn't a fan of "Wedding Crashers" or "The Break-up", but I certainly recognize his comedic talents. Here, his quirks play a little better, though I never really bought off on he and Reece Witherspoon as a couple.

Low expectations, a strong cast, a few clever lines, easily relatable family strain, and a true sight "gag" make this one enjoyable enough. The trailer gives away the set-up of the film as Reece and Vince are forced to visit all four pieces of their disjointed families on Christmas. For some reason, director Seth Gordon ("King of Kong") casts Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek as VV's parents and Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen as Reece's. The curiosity stems from the age difference between these actors ... a 15-16 year span. Just struck me as odd. Though not quite as odd as Jon Voight offering parental advice. Now THAT is comedy! Despite the hi-jinx, the messages abound: we all have the weirdest family, it is never easy to really connect with another person, and it's always a good time for cheese whiz. This is really VV's film as Reece has little to offer save for the bounce bounce scene. Mr. Vaughn is truly at his best in the moments of rapid fire dialogue as he helplessly tries to avoid another ridiculous situation.

One warning to parents: the film is rated PG-13 and there is a segment regarding the Santa secret, so be forewarned. The unwritten rule is broken. The quick lines and uncomfortable family moments make this one worth a few giggles. Not a Christmas classic, but a decent comedy.

I must mention the tribute to the classic "A Christmas Story" as the kids peer into the toy store window early on. That scene is followed by the airport scene, where the ticket agent is played by none other than Peter Billingsley, a grown up Ralphie from that movie (and producer of this film).

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2 utilisateurs sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Give this garbage a wide berth, 10 mai 2009

Auteur : lwaha de Royaume-Uni

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

This is without a doubt one of the worst movies of 2008. The movie suffers from the lack of chemistry between Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. It's the core of the movie and we never believe in them as a couple. We drift through the movie from one embarrassingly unfunny scene to another including a sequence where Vaughn's brothers, who are Ultimate Fighters attack him, an attempt to put up a satellite dish where everyone and everything falls over. More pitiful scenes follow. A reenactment of the nativity scene is presumably added to pad this garbage out and just when you think things can't get worse....they do! The final 10 minutes goes for soppy sentimaentality with the couple's 'relationship' which is totally out of keeping with this surprisingly mean spirited 'comedy'. It doesn't matter since we never believed in them as a pair to begin with. This train wreck is ended when a baby, for the second time, projectile vomits over Reese Witherspoon. An unbelievably awful film.

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2 utilisateurs sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
About as tolerable as getting a filling without anesthetic, but longer, 28 décembre 2008

Auteur : cantrell-4 de Etats-Unis

This dreary movie feels like a scriptwriting committee had a nice brainstorming session, and then transferred it all directly to screen -- without anybody checking whether any of the ideas were funny, interesting, or made any sense.

Part of this movie's problem is its incoherence. The movie's whole premise hinges on the airport being wrapped in fog so thick that no planes can possibly take off all day. Pea soup fog! Everywhere! Making national news! The entire remainder of the movie then fails to contain any fog. Apparently this Fog of Damocles hangs only over the airport, leaving the sun free to shine everywhere else. And so it goes, a string of strained premises, incoherent segues, and eye-rollingly predictable outcomes. The movie's sequence of events, which I will generously call a "plot" for the sake of discussion, serve only as a meager vehicle for the lame jokes.

This can, of course, be just fine. For example, the ludicrous and incoherent plot of "Airplane" works because the movie knows how ridiculous it is. The second major problem with "Four Christmases" is that it takes itself seriously. It tries, genuinely tries, to deal with serious issues -- about conflicting desires in relationships, changing cultural expectations about marriage and family, and the importance of family in spite of personal differences. It fails miserably. Its treatment of these issues manages to be simultaneously predictable, tone-deaf, and mildly offensive.

The offensiveness is the movie's third major problem. I'm not easily offended. Language? Sexuality? Violence? All fine if they serve to tell a good story. No, I mean the people themselves in the movie are offensive: mean-spirited, shallow, unlikeable, offensive people. As the movie grinds along, I don't find myself rooting for anyone -- or loving to hate anyone, for that matter. No, mostly I find myself wishing that I will never, ever have to interact with anybody like any of these characters.

The movie's fourth and largest problem, however, is that the vast majority of the jokes simply aren't funny. Watching the movie is like having a drunken stranger at a bar telling you an endless stream of idiotic jokes, each of which elicits only a blank stare from you, all the while breathing rum and cigarette in your face. You want to leave, but you're afraid they'll follow you home. You want to tell them to shut up, but you'll afraid they'll punch you. So you sit, glare, and nod your head, hoping it will end soon. That's what this movie is like.

I gave it three stars because there were two or three lines that were actually funny buried in there somewhere (though I can't remember now what they were), because the camera, set, and costume work was entirely competent -- and because, let's face it, this movie just ain't "Manos: Hands of Fate."

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2 utilisateurs sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Good For Completely Destroying Christmas Spirit, 28 décembre 2008

Auteur : marcbudgell717 de Canada

Where to begin on this one. I didn't really have high hopes for this one, as the commercial made it look really boring, but I got forced into going. I figured hey, Vince Vaughn is awesome, he will probably make it bearable. Yeah, he didn't.

For starters, he and Reese Witherspoon have no chemistry. Their relationship is annoying and they aren't likable characters who you can cheer for. The whole movie is packed with big name actors, but there isn't a single one who is likable, and it makes it really difficult to care as the movie drags on.

Finally, the most painful part was when they let Vince Vaughn just talk incessantly, especially in the later stages of the movie. I loved his rambling style in other movies, but in this one I just want to reach out and slap him.

Avoid, there really isn't anything good about this movie.

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