(Cert PG, 98mins): Starring Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Julie Gonzalo, Jake Busey, Cheech Marin and M Emmet Walsh. Directed by Joe Roth.

Destined for Boxing Day TV slots for evermore is this shamelessly sentimental, lacklustre comedy about, you guessed it, christmas cheer.

When their daughter Blair leaves for Peru to work for the Peace Corps, Luther Krank (Allen) and his wife Nora (Curtis) realise they are facing their first Christmas alone.

Tired of the commercialism of the yuletide season and the considerable expense, the Kranks book a ten-day Caribbean cruise and look forward to spending Christmas with their feet up.

However, once their friends and neighbours discover their covert plans, Luther and Nora realise that getting away for the holidays might be trickier than they thought.

Adapted from John Grisham's short novel Skipping Christmas, it's not the worst festive feature ever made (think the Star Wars Christmas Special) but is still one that's best skipped.

Warm and earnest performances by Allen and Lee Curtis make it a bit more tolerable but supporting characters are two-dimensional and writer Chris Columbus strikes a queasy balance between laughter and tears, clumsily introducing a cancer subplot to milk the tears in the final frames.

Laughs are scarce, the tinsel-thin story plays out like a shallow succession of gags and the soundtrack is littered with the likes of Frosty The Snowman and Jingle Bell Rock.

Too much sugar for my palate.