One of the things I like best about Turner Classic Movies is the plentitude of movies that fit no one’s definition of “classic,” unless you mean that as a euphemism for “old.” I don’t mean bad movies, but simply the satisfying ones Hollywood used to grind out on an assembly line to keep the theaters filled week after week. I especially enjoy the comedies, most of which have at least a few familiar faces and no ambition other than to provide a few laughs before you forget about them.

That’s the spirit in which I enjoyed Four Christmases, a comedy that no one is likely to remember six months from now but which will probably bring a few chuckles to audiences discovering it on cable for however long old movies keep littering the universe. Ever since the surprise success of Bad Santa, Hollywood has cranked out one movie every Christmas that promises to spit in the face of sentimentality and tradition. The formula has become watered down to the point where the pretense gives way by the end of the film in time for a full dose of holiday spirit.

Last year’s entry in the genre was Fred Claus, starring Vince Vaughn as Santa’s black sheep brother. Vaughn is back in Four Christmases as an LA yuppie who has managed to spend all of his adult Christmases away from his family by claiming to be off on humanitarian missions. He’s joined by Reese Witherspoon as his girlfriend who is equally uninterested in spending time with her family. (As Vaughn puts it, “You can’t spell ‘families’ without ‘lies.’”)

But when plans go awry, they’re forced to spend December 25 making the rounds. And because both of their parents are divorced, they have to visit four households filled with people who remember them when they were young, insecure, and in less than optimal physical condition—with the scrapbooks to prove it.

As directed by newcomer Seth Gordon, whose previous feature was an indie, The King of Kong, that never played Buffalo, Four Christmases is nothing if not efficient. We know where it’s going, and it doesn’t waste time getting there. It starts out with the slapsticky comedy (Vaughn, whose substantial height is always comically useful, being relentlessly beaten by his white-trash wrestler bothers and nephews) into more psychologically damaging humor (Witherspoon’s hideous childhood being trotted out by her solicitous mother and aunts). Along the way are a large cast of hideously rude children and recognizable actors whom you wouldn’t expect to find in a film this modest, among them Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Christmas movie junkies will want to note the airport ticket agent in an early scene. He’s played by a grown-up Peter Billingsley, “Ralphie” from A Christmas Story.

It’s hardly a film for the ages, and I’m willing to admit that I might have been harsher on it had I paid to see it. But at least it’s a comedy made by and for adults, which on its own qualifies it for a spot in the marketplace.