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Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick) is smallish Cloverdale, Massachusetts's town optometrist. He also is determined to create great holiday memories at Christmastime for, as he explains, he was an army brat and moved too often to experience a traditional Xmas. Therefore, Steve has his family on a schedule that includes hanging wreaths and singing carols. He is also a big supporter for the town's winterfest celebrations. Enter Buddy Hall (Danny Devito). He and his wife have just purchased the house next door and Buddy has got the holiday spirit, too, in a big way. He wants enough lights on his house to assure it can be spotted from outer space! Buddy and Steve get off on the wrong foot from the start, with Buddy's light-and-music show giving Steve insomnia and stress. Can these two get into the true holiday spirit of forgiveness and harmony? This is a nice addition to the holiday movie repertoire. Broderick and Devito are fine as the quarreling neighbors, with Devito turning down his manic comedy just a bit, with welcome results. The rest of the cast is well chosen, too. The look of the film is arresting and the costumes and scenery quite appealing. Near the end of the flick, there is a sweet moment when the lights go out and the lovely song, O Holy Night, is resonating. What a great way to remind everyone for the true reason for the holiday, amid the humorous chaos of the rest of the picture. If you want to see something new this holiday or in the future, this one will do nicely for a family gathering. It has some laughs and messages that will get everyone in the mood for the annual holiday experiences.

...unless you're maybe 8 years old, in which case the sight gags might keep you amused. For a while. Matthew Broderick should be ashamed for getting himself mixed up in a mess like this. He's good at playing straight men, but his deadpan delivery of this lousy script will have you checking your watch frequently. It's a particular waste of his comedy talent, which is well-documented. Danny DeVito once again demonstrates that his career peaked about 10 years ago as he mopes his way through the story. Just when you think you've got his character figured out, he does something that takes you back to square one. Is he a nice guy? A scumbag? A criminal? It could be any of those things, or none. God knows the ending doesn't give you any ultimate idea. I don't really know, and I don't really care. Avoid this film unless you have nothing better to do at the mall except wait for a swollen molar to subside. It's about the only thing that seems less appealing than sitting through this turkey.

The reviews and the comments were quite harsh, so I decided to take the gamble and go see it. Glad I made that decision. I laughed and so did my wife and 13 year old daughter. The 11 year old boy didn't spend nearly as much time laughing.

Some of the funniest scenes are in the trailers, as with the majority of movies, but there were a number of surprises.

It starts out great and does slide downhill just a bit. Maybe they ran out of good material towards the end... Or possibly they wanted to actually make a statement, about the seriousness of Christmas. Either way, I would not pay to see it again, but I would rent it or watch it on TV.

Merry Christmas...

Every year there is a Christmas movie released, and it's always the typical family friendly flick that gets pretty annoying and predictable, in fact there really hasn't been any good Christmas movies past Home Alone and Christmas Vacation. When I saw the trailer to Deck the Halls, I was so excited, because I'm a fan of Danny and Matthew, they're both great comedic actors and this seemed like a great film for Christmas and how obsessive people are over the holidays.

Steve is a family man who is intending to make the holidays brighter for his depressed kids and over shadowed wife, he is also love by the community. A new family moves in across the street, Buddy and his family are genuinely nice people but rub Steve off the wrong way, especially since Buddy is upset that his house cannot be seen from outer space and figures that Christmas lights will fix that problem. While all the other family members of both guys are getting along great, the guys end up competing with each other to see who will be the Christmas King of the town.

Matthew and Danny who you'd think would be the perfect comedic duo actually didn't spark anything that grabbed me and the jokes were pretty predictable. While this movie was over all a slight disappointment, actually, I'd say there are a few good little laughs her and there, it is a cute Christmas movie, but like I said, just stick with the classic Christmas comedies.

5/10

Local eye doctor and Christmas expert Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick) wants an nice simple Christmas with his wife Kelly (Kristen Davis), his daughter Madison (Alia Shawkat) and his son Carter (Dylan Blue). When the Finch family has new neighbors during the holidays, which they are the Hall family. Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito), his wife Tia (Kristen Chenoweth) and their twin daughters, Ashley (Emily Aldridge) and Emily (Kelly Aldridge). Buddy is a pro salesman in a Car Dealership department but he quickly get bored with the previous jobs, he had. Buddy wants to do something totally different for Christmas, he has the idea to have many colorful Christmas lights on his house that they can be seen from Space! Soon enough, it truly annoys Steve and he feels that Buddy will ruined his Christmas spirit. He decides to do whatever it takes to ruined Buddy's Christmas. Especially they competed against each other during the holidays.

Directed by John Whitesell (Big Momma's House 2, Malibu's Most Wanted, See Spot Run) made an decent Christmas movie with some low-brow laughs and an few moments of mean-spirited gags. Broderick and DeVito are certainly good in their roles. But the script could have been much better, sometimes i wonder if the movie was meant to be darker at times. Perphas the dirtiest joke in the movie, when Broderick and DeVito are amused (and probably turned-on) by watching live performance of "Santa Baby", not realized in these short Christmas skirts and Christmas costumes is their daughters. But the worst thing about the movie is the Christmas lights, especially in DeVito's home in the picture. After watching the movie, it kinda made me sick watching these different colors Christmas lights. Overall, "Deck the Halls" is fairly amusing two-thirds of the way but the movie always goes overkill. Too bad with a brighter script, this feature could have been really good. Watchable but nothing memorable. (***/*****).