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. Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O'Hara -- get trapped in this embarrassing, disjointed muddle of a movie, and no amount of effort on anyone's part can undo what is simply a bad idea. DreamWorks is releasing this Christmas comedy in late October, long before the lucrative holiday movie season, presumably so no one will confuse it with a real Christmas movie.

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