Deck the Halls

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. (***/*****).

To put it briefly, this was an entertaining movie, gave me a number of laughs and was also extremely stupid and insulting to anyone's intelligence. But, if you look at it strictly as a farce, it will do for a 90-minute diversion. Just don't take any of the characters seriously and try not to get annoyed - which isn't easy - at the typical comedy clichés that are in this movie. And - as some others have pointed out - do not watch this with your kids; it's not "family fare."

Many of the dumb "Hollywood stereotypes" you've endured in comedies the last few decades are in this film. A few examples: the obnoxious kids who say clever things; the typical family story where the men are made to look stupid while the women are smart and sensible; one guy who is a total crook is pictured as sympathetic; things happen in minutes that would take days to occur, unnecessary sex jokes, on and on. Yet, through it all, there are some funny lines of dialog and the Christmas lights on Danny DeVito's house are great fun to see.

This comedy also reminded me a lot of "What, About Bob?" as DeVito slowly drives neighbor Matthew Broderick almost crazy as Bill Murray did to Richard Dreyfuss. I'm told it also was like the National Lampoon's Christmas Story but I never saw that.

What was very interesting were two five-minute featurettes which came with the DVD. In it, is explained and shown how the movie makers built the two houses from scratch, put in all the incredible lights and light show and how it was made to look dark. The story takes place in a mythical town in Massachusetts (where nobody in the film, by the way, has an accent!) but was filmed in Vancouver in July where they were only getting six hours of darkness per night. Most of the film takes place at night so they also built as 60-foot high ark-like building over the two big houses! Incredible!

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.

Great storyline, good looking ladies, veteran actors, all add up to an enjoyable movie. The conflict between DeVito's Buddy Hall, and Broderick's Steve Finch is played excellently from two of Hollywood's veteran actors. Buddy Hall is one of those guys who is always looking for special meaning in his life. When he moves next door to Steve Finch, he thinks he's found it when he decides that he would like for his Christmas lighting to be able to be viewed from space. Unfortunately, Steve just happens to be the "chief" of Christmas lights in his little hamlet, and he develops a quick dislike for all things Buddy. The movie is chock full of pranks that they pull on each other, while their beautiful, and understanding wives tolerate them at best. In the end, the challenge for them both is to discover the true meaning of Christmas in time to save their holidays, and maybe even their marriages. If you like a good sentimental Christmas film, then you'll probably like this one. Lots of funny scenes with plenty of drama mixed in. I give it a solid 8 out of 10 for a Christmas themed film.

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