You know you're off to a bad start when you're watching a Christmas film in October. That was just the final nail in the coffin of Surviving Christmas, which DreamWorks elected to release in a thoroughly unseasonable slot so as not to clash with their other Ben Affleck film, Paycheck (which, as everybody knows, was a stonking success and didn't dissipate into obscurity). Another bad sign: the film was released on DVD just two months after the theatrical run ended. Oh, and the other big issue with Surviving Christmas it that it's bloody awful. Spectacularly terrible. Awful Christmas films are a dime a dozen, but rarely do they star so many actors who should've known better. And rarely are they ranked 91st in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 7%, on Rotten Tomatoes, or do they earn nominations for three Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor and Worst Screenplay. Gandolfini can't be blamed for this whole mess, obviously, but his part as Tom Valco - a suburban dad who deals with Affleck's aggrieved ad exec showing up an demanding to spend Christmas with his family, because they live in his childhood home - didn't much help matters.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
