Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
19
(29 sources)
19
(29 sources)
-
63
Chicago Tribune
As light, fluffy, cockle-warming holiday entertainment, this thing is pretty sweet. Read Full Review » -
50
Christian Science Monitor
There are a few amusing moments, helped by subdued performances from Affleck and Gandolfini, but this is no "Bad Santa" despite its obvious ambition to play similar holiday tricks. Read Full Review » -
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
This is pseudo-cynical comedy, however, not social satire. All the sharp corners are smoothed over and what's left is little more than a big screen sitcom. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Reader
Another go-round for the premise of an overaged kid insinuating himself into a stranger's family. Read Full Review » -
40
-
40
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Affleck's psychotic enthusiasm aside, no one seems to be having a good time, and the ill will becomes infectious. Read Full Review » -
40
TV Guide
Just like many real-life holiday get-togethers with the family, this comedy starts out pleasantly enough but degenerates into awkwardness and furtive watch-checking to see how much longer you have to suffer before you can leave. Read Full Review » -
38
USA Today
Some screwball moments elicit a chuckle or two, but the script is weak and the characterizations clichéd. Read Full Review » -
38
ReelViews
Can't decide whether it wants to be a black comedy, dumb farce, or sentimental sit-com. Read Full Review » -
30
The New York Times
As you watch the comedy lurch along, the woozy, sinking sensation it produces suggests a movie slapped together after the consumption of far too many gallons of that spiked eggnog. Read Full Review » -
30
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30
Los Angeles Times
A dismally formulaic hodgepodge of crude humor and wan attempts to tug at the heart. Read Full Review » -
25
Chicago Sun-Times
Pulling off a premise this creepy and cockamamie would require a lot of skill, far more than can be found in the director of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" and the writers of "A Very Brady Sequel." Read Full Review » -
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Remember that the director, the renowned Mike Mitchell, is the genius who helmed "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo," and be sufficiently generous to accept that such a high level of excellence is hard to sustain. Read Full Review » -
25
New York Daily News
Ben Affleck's goose is cooked with Surviving Christmas, a movie that makes "Gigli" look like one of the crowning moments in his career. Read Full Review » -
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Everything about it is manufactured -- the emotions are false, the sentiments are phony, and the story is a construction of mirthless silliness. It's a product, not a creative expression. Read Full Review » -
25
Miami Herald
Bad enough to make even James Gandolfini and Catherine O'Hara seem dull. Read Full Review » -
20
Dallas Observer
Wrenches paltry giggles and cheap warmth from a screenplay that makes "Son in Law" seem like Sam Shepard. But wretched Affleck is the real liability. Read Full Review » -
20
Variety
An almost mirth-free, poorly conceived comedy destined to offer Ben Affleck bashers satchels full of new ammunition. Read Full Review » -
20
Empire
As it is, an unbearably irritating, shouty, gurning Affleck takes the anaemic script and injects it with strychnine. Read Full Review » -
20
Film Threat
Affleck may finally have found a use for his obnoxious personality, because Drew is amazingly annoying. Read Full Review » -
12
Boston Globe
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. Read Full Review » -
10
Newsweek
The folks who served up this formulaic swill seem to think comedy grants you a free pass from credibility. Our lonely hero's artificial Yuletide enthusiasm is more than odd: it's not recognizably human. Read Full Review » -
10
The Hollywood Reporter
A lame comic premise, a tiresome-bordering-on-obnoxious protagonist and a script devoid of humor is a lot to overcome for any movie, and Surviving Christmas is not the one to do it. Read Full Review » -
10
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0
-
0
New York Post
A crass, shrill and laughless disaster of a holiday comedy with a desperately mugging Ben Affleck that should be banned under the Geneva Convention. Read Full Review » -
0
Philadelphia Inquirer
So bad you're nostalgic for "Gigli." So painful you need an epidural. So mindless you'll lose yours wondering, "What were they thinking?" Read Full Review » -
0
Village Voice
This ghastly comedy emits the subliminal whine of a sucking chest wound. Read Full Review »
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