Tis the season for a new Christmas film and for some reason this year they came out with Deck the Halls. As this is your family friendly film, I will try to avoid saying "BAH! Humbug!" during my review. And it might not be that easy.
Don't get me wrong, I happen to love Christmas movies. "Holiday Inn", "White Christmas", "Christmas in Connecticut", even "It's A Wonderful Life." Frankly, I even enjoyed "The Santa Clause," "Christmas Vacation" and that atrocious holiday film with Arnie and Sinbad from a few years ago.
But "Deck the Halls" honestly had to be one of the last things anyone looked at in the studio when they were trying to come up with something to release this Holiday Season.
Now when I saw the trailer and found that Danny Devito and Matthew Broderick were going to star, I got excited. And the trailers kept on getting me pumped for what I had hoped was going to be a really excellent film.
It is terrible to dash a Fanboys dreams this way, Hollywood.
Broderick plays the ultra Mr. Nice Guy, a family man who is plans to make the holidays happier for his depressed kids and over shadowed wife, all without trying to find out just why they are depressed or feel 'overshadowed.' He is a pillar of the community, known as the "Go To Guy" when it comes to Christmas.
That is until a new family moves in across the street. Meet Buddy and his family, who seem to be honestly nice people but from the start get off on a bad start with Steve (Broderick). Buddy is a car salesman who on his first day on the job sells a car to the owner of the lot. At sticker price.
The problem with Buddy is that he wants to do that 'One big thing' that he will be remembered for. And he decides that the best way to do that is to make his house seen from outer space on an Internet web-site.
The easiest way to do that for his is to add Christmas lights to his home. And add them; and add them.
This poses a problem for Steve who can't sleep at night for the noise of cars coming by at all hours and the lights shining into his bedroom window. So, while the families of both guys get along like gang-busters, these two clowns are each trying to 'one-up' each other to see who gets to be the "Christmas King" of their little town.
The truly sad part is, this could have been a really good movie, and could almost have become a new 'tradition' for this time of year. Devito and Broderick are two funny guys, and you would have thought they would make a good comedy duo. They should have used Nathan Lane, at least the chemistry would have been better.
Nothing really got me going. There were no hard laughs, even though there were a few giggles here and there. All in all, the film was pretty predictable.
Sure, it would probably be great for younger kids, most adults might want to bring a book. There is eye-candy in the form of two blonde teenage twin girls, so all the teenage boy in the audience will have a good time.
Steve's daughter deals with emotional issues of a father who refuses to see her as growing up so all the teem girls watching will feel like the film is speaking to them. And a few adult men will see themselves in the characters of Steve and Buddy, but even with all this, the film was still a bit of a disappointment.
Of course by the end of the film all is well. Everyone realizes the true meaning of Christmas (which I actually found neat, mentioning Jesus without using the name as a curse word) and even singing traditional Christmas Carols'. That was nice. However, I do think the entire holding phones up to light the night in place of candles was a little to much. I almost felt my gag reflex kick in.
So, bottom line is the film would be good for kids or families looking to kill some time. Don't go in expecting anything wonderful and you won't be too disappointed.