If youve ever wondered why Ben Affleck thanked Hollywood for giving him a second chance when Argo won Best Picture, then consider the movies he made in the early 2000s: Pearl Harbor, Gigli, Paycheck, Jersey Girl etc. The worst of the bunch (discuss) is Surviving Christmas, one of those it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time festive comedies whose only purpose is to make Scrooges of us all. Afflecks the single (and single-minded) businessman who suddenly decides he wants a nice family Xmas, so he does what anyone would and offers some strangers $250,000 to spend the holidays with him. Its a creepy premise for a comedy, and the real-life revelation that one of Afflecks ancestors owned slaves means that certain sequences are unintentionally horrifying. Hiring an actor to play your grandfather is one thing, but having an African-American be his understudy? Dont go there.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
