Slapstick humor gets a full-body workout in Christmas with the Kranks. Critics were unanimous in their derision; and John Grisham must have gnashed his teeth over what studio-boss-turned-director Joe Roth did to his bestselling novel Skipping Christmas; to which this broad-stroked comedy bears little or no resemblance. The title characters are played by Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis; who decide to skip Christmas because their daughter's in Peru with the Peace Corps. Thus begins a rabid program of enforced conformity when their neighbors (led by Dan Aykroyd) coerce the Kranks into changing their holiday attitude--a change that comes easily when the daughter announces she'll be home for Christmas after all. Imagine if a suburban lynch mob said "Have a Merry Christmas or we'll kill you;" and you'll get some idea of what spending Christmas with the Kranks is really like. And if you laughed at the frozen cat; you're probably on Santa's "naughty" list. --Jeff Shannon