Customer Reviews

Deck the Halls

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

This film not only missed the mark, it missed the tournament. DECK THE HALLS is a Christmas movie hopelessly in search of a genre. The plot, which should have been simple, leans one way and then the other. At times DECK THE HALLS seemed to be a "Wanna Be" with blatant similarities to other comedies such as RV, CHRISTMAS VACATION, and PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES. Unfortunately the story trips over the holiday holly.

In the story Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito) moves in across the street from Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick). Finch is an upper middle class Massachusetts optometrist who holds the unofficial title as Mr. Christmas in his community. Finch is de-throned by his neighbor when Hall coincidentally decides to adorn his own home with so many lights that it will be visible from outer space. The gaudy Christmas display across the street only serves to push Finch over the edge. Though visitors and reporters gleefully flock to Hall's ever brighter work-in-progress, Finch is not amused by the noise, bright lights, and traffic blocking his driveway.

Finch loses his patience and attempts to sabotage Hall's efforts. Finch's attempts not only backfire, but draw retaliation from Hall. The obsessions of both men, Hall with his lights and Finch with toppling Hall, finally drive the two men's wives and children from their respective homes. The neighbors realize that in their various selfish pursuits they ignored their families. Finding something in common the two make peace, work together to lure their families back, and discover the Yule tide gift of friendship.

Sorry folks. The plot summary is better than the actual film. There were so many missed opportunities in this movie. From the original theatrical trailer I mistakenly thought that this would be a movie about two neighbors competing against each other with holiday decorations. That would have been a good premise. The film could also have gone deeper into Buddy Hall's story. Hall is a man who, as his wife explains in one scene, never finishes anything in his life. The holiday decorating obsession is just one example of Hall's misguided focus on something other than showing up for work every day. With additional concentration on this theme there could have been an entire movie. Instead it falls by the wayside.

Likewise there is no depth to Matthew Broderick's character. Nice family, beautiful home, promising career, spiteful neighbor. The fact that he is irritated by his neighbor's lightshow is one thing, but it is difficult to believe that this otherwise stuffy traditionalist would dress up in commando garb and assault his new neighbor's electrical utility box.

Unlike PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILE's main characters Del Griffith and Neal Page, Buddy Hall and Steve Finch are not nice people. Any sympathy we have for dreamer Buddy Hall is dashed when we see that he swipes Finch's newspaper, illegally patches into Finch's own electrical box to steal power for his light show, and breaks into the Finch house to set up a stolen Christmas tree. It then appears that Hall is trying to make amends by making a gift of a brand new SUV to Finch -- only to belatedly turn out that Finch is expected to pay for the expensive fully loaded vehicle. Buddy Hall is no Del Griffith.

Finch is no angel either. When he is not planning commando-style raids on his neighbor's holiday lights he is bombarding the Hall home with an arsenal of fireworks. His negative comments to Hall about Hall's outer space dream are just plain mean. In terms of civility Steve Finch is no Neal Page.

There are some isolated funny moments in this film. I did enjoy the scenes involving Hall's over-decorated home. Otherwise this movie goes nowhere. An added disappointment was that the wide screen version of my movie has a repeated chapter. The runaway Santa Claus sled and its aftermath appear twice. If my DVD bears that defect there are probably hundreds others with the same malady.

I really like watching Christmas movies. In part because I like Christmas, but also because I like to see how Christmas and our celebration of it is portrayed over time. It's gone from a reverential celebration of religion and family to a funny(or not) analysis of modern obsessive behavior and over-consumption. Then there are movies like these, which are just time killers. This is Christmas as Product.

It has a few watchable moments. Kristin Chenowith is plenty hot as always and gets to sing a teeny little bit and Kristin Davis is the most adorable lil mannequin come-to-life since her SATC partner originated that act years ago. There is one bit in particular which made me laugh. It's horrible and if you're a father you should hope it never happens to you. I won't ruin it for you but I will say in the next scene DeVito and Broderick are in a church washing their eyes out with holy water, with good reason. It's one of the few scenes that show any signs of life, which is too bad because this thing could have used many more.

Mostly though the movie is lackluster. It doesn't have the manic energy of a Christmas Vacation or the heart warming nostalgia of Christmas Story or the black, outrageous humor of Bad Santa or the child-like joy and goofiness of Elf. It has a few badly paced jokes and more than its share of sleep walking actors. The pace and performances were so slow and half hearted that I felt like I was watching the entire movie through a Valium induced haze.

The movie has no real heart or message, or insight and it's not very funny. It's a place holder, the studio needed to put out something for the Christmas movie-going audience so they cranked up the Eszterhas 3000, set it for "HOLIDAY" and extruded this....."movie". Pretend it's a Christmas stocking folks, and STUFF IT!

If I could give this movie no stars, I would! Bad, lame, boring, cheap and annoying! Deck the Halls is possibly the worst Christmas movie I have ever seen in my entire life! It was boring, and had no point or story line! Dont waste your time snuggling in front of the fire watching this junk!

This could very well be the worst movie I have ever seen. Every gag is predictable, boring and unfunny. I can't believe two performers the caliber of Broderick and DeVito allowed themselves to become involved in this horrible mess. Yeeeeccch!

Christmas comedy movies can range from the sublime (Christmas Vacation, Home Alone) to the pitiful ( Ernest Steals Christmas). "Deck The Halls" sets a new low standard in Christmas offerings with it's horrible script, poor acting and shallow plot. I rented this with the memories of Matthew Broderick's funny and convincing performance in "Ferris Beuller's Day Off", but realized quickly into the movie that Sir Lawrence Olivier couldn't have made a convincing character out of this horrible script. Danny DeVito shows his inability to create a laugh, hoping that his gnome-like smallness will get him the laughs. He fails miserably..
The only reason this movie receives 1 star is due to the lack of a lower possible grade. Save your money and time and let the Griswalds bring some Christmas laughs again.

What a waste of time & talent. I usually love Chrismas movies, but this one totally misses the mark. DeVito is missing his signature wit. Broderick looks constipated. The wives & kids might as well not even be in the movie considering the input they were allowed. The plot was choppy & just didn't make sense at times. It had none of the uplifting scenes you expect from a holiday movie. Save your money.

Within five minutes I knew this movie isn't for me and shut it off. Crude, suggestive humor, definitely not family friendly. I'm SO glad the only expense I incurred was gas to drive to the library and back - fast.

There are two reasons to see "Deck the Halls," and those two reasons would not be the stars Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick. This 2006 Christmas comedy was apparently inspired by "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," or the episodes of "Home Improvement" where Tim tries to outdo the neighbor's Christmas display, or any other movie or television show that is based on the oxymoronic notion of cut-throat decorating at Christmas time, none of which is enough to warrant seeing this film either, especially if you can get your hands on one of those others instead. But still, there are a couple of reasons to check this movie out nonetheless.

Steve Finch (Broderick) is not only the town's eye doctor, he is also Mr. Christmas. However, Buddy Hall (DeVito) has moved in across the street and when he learns that his house cannot be seen from space by an online site that is mapping the Earth, he decides the solution is to deck his house with every Christmas tree light he can get his hands on. Broderick and DeVito can do these roles in their sleep, or at least in low gear, and the script never gives them any reason to rev up their performances. As their respective wives, Kirstin Davis and Kristen Chenoweth, also have little to do until Chenoweth finally gets to sing near the end and serve as a reminder that you just cannot make a living being a singing star on Broadway these days. However, I keep thinking they cast her because she is approximately DeVito's size, setting up the visual humor of their tall blond twin daughters, and not because she is a talented Broadway musicale actress. For that matter, Davis is just spinning her wheels waiting for the "Sex in the City" movie to give her something decent to do.

This is not a particularly funny movie, also hindered by the fact that neither of the main characters are the types you want to identify with, especially in from of family members. However, there are two things this movie--whose winter night scenes were primarily shot during the day in summer (see the special features for the explanation)--got right. The first is that the light display is absolutely awesome. I have seen some impressive things on YouTube and the nightly news showing us what some people have come up with for Christmas in years past, but I do not remember anything coming close to the spectacular light show they came up with for this movie. The least you can do is put this on while you are cooking Christmas dinner and actually watch the part when Buddy puts on the light show for the neighbors. The second thing they get right is when Steve and Buddy have pretty much ruined the holiday for their families and they have to do something to get back in good with their wives. At this point I believe that what is required is a grand gesture, and despite their problems previous to that point in the movie, the boys do come up with something that fits the bill. These two things are not quite enough to justify rounding up, since I cannot really name anything else to recommend seeing this film let along actually buying it to own for Christmases yet to come, but that house alone is enough to rent it or catch it on television sometime.

Its October and Halloween has not passed, yet everyone seems to be getting ready for Christmas. My mother bought this film and i've never watched it, so I picked it up and watched it. Oh my god, what a piece of crap! The story is beyond stupid and the acting was bad. I stopped this film halfway thru and downloaded Frank Sinatra's A Jolly Christmas instead. Avoid this movie if you want to have a Merry Christmas.

Christmas movies are either very good, or very bad. Deck the Halls falls into the latter. When Danny DeVito is on the television show 'The View' and expresses how much he hates this movie, you know you are in for a stinker.

I never considered Matthew Broderick to be much of an actor. Nothing against the guy, I was just never a fan. His character is a conservative, nerdy optometrist who deems himself 'The Christmas Guy'. He is very much into traditions, much to his family's pain.

So in comes 'Buddy' played by Danny DeVito. He gets it into his head that he wants a house that can be viewed from space. That's it. That is the only reason the plot moves forward and it is absurd. His hot twin daughters showed him an internet site which shows people's houses from space and his house cannot be seen. If you had a wife that looked like that would you really care?? But this is supposed to be a sappy Christmas story, so here we go.

Matthew and Danny's characters begin to hate each other. Buddy does his house lights that would have made Clark W. Griswald green with envy. He also has a living manger complete with live cows, sheep, and a camel. Matthew is jealous and can't get any sleep at night, so he attempts to sabotage Buddy's electrical system, of course not only does Buddy have a large, noisy portable generator, he's stealing power from his own house to run his insane light show. The final straw comes when Dr. Finch tries to assault Buddy's house with illegal fireworks. The idiot can't even do that right.

Of course the wives get tired of all the foolishness and go to a hotel for the holidays. Buddy and the good Doctor Finch decide to make up, bury the hatchet, and set things right with the wives. This is where it gets even more ridiculous than even I could have imagined.

First off, they decorate the hotel with lights, and have huge Christmas light displays decorating a path back to the house. The town has become a ghost town at this point, the lights do not interfere with traffic, and there is NOBODY else to be seen anywhere. Then they get back to the house
and see that the two husbands have set up a lavish Christmas dinner. This is all very well and good, but come to find out they never eat it and I suppose everything goes bad. They do not eat it because no MTV is at Buddy's house wanting to do a story on the loser who wants his house seen from space.

But of course now he has no lights on his house because he used them all to decorate a five mile path from the house to the hotel (I imagine that must have been wrecked when MTV News crews and the entire town show up all at once outside Buddy's door by the way). So ala 'It's a Wonderful Life', everyone donates lights to Buddy so he can redecorate his house. Boo hoo hoo.

This is a terrible terrible terrible movie.