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Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls (2006)

tomatometer

6

Average Rating: 2.9/10
Reviews Counted: 82
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 77

Relying on flat humor and a preposterous plot, Deck the Halls is an unnecessarily mean-spirited holiday movie that does little to put viewers in a holiday mood.

8

Average Rating: 3.2/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 22

Relying on flat humor and a preposterous plot, Deck the Halls is an unnecessarily mean-spirited holiday movie that does little to put viewers in a holiday mood.

audience

44

liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 54,089

My Rating

Movie Info

When the spirit of Christmas compels a small-town New Englander to decorate his home with enough lights to make it visible from space, much more is set to be decked than just the halls in this holiday comedy featuring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick as two warring neighbors determined to outdo each other in creating the best lighting display on the planet. Christmas is without question the most wonderful time of the year for Cloverdale, MA optometrist Steve Finch (Broderick). Unfortunately,

PG, 1 hr. 33 min.

Comedy

Matt Corman, Chris Ord

Nov 6, 2007

$35.1M

20th Century Fox

Cast

All Critics (82) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (79) | DVD (10)

This one follows the depressing pattern of Surviving Christmas and Christmas With the Kranks: enforced holiday cheer gives way to bilious hatred, then hollow forgiveness.

December 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I love the Christmas season, but there are times when I wish it would go away if only to save audiences from horrific experiences like this.

November 24, 2006 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a holiday ritual: Each year, American moviegoers get the misanthropically stupid, plastic-satire-of- a-plastic-society Christmas comedy they deserve.

November 23, 2006 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I literally did not count a single laugh in the whole aimless schlep, except for the hucksters who made it, on their way to the bank.

November 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As long as atrocious, fake-pine duds like this keep making their money back, there's no such thing as a Christmas that's too commercial.

November 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The raw ingredients of this crass holiday comedy include an inept stab at Home Alone-style slapstick, sitcom-thin characters, a snickering attitude about tacky yuletide decorations and a good helping of smarmy sentimentality. Merry Christmas!

November 22, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Makes us miss those Home Alone days...

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

The gags land like lumps of coal, but at least the unnatural mounds of fluffy white snow remain unsullied in the dreck.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

Ah, another lifeless comedy for the holidays. It's just super to be reminded how mean-spirited and grotesquely commercial the Christmas season can be, isn't it?

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | Comment
Hollywood.com

The distasteful formula is even more sour and ham-handed than usual; Broderick's and DeVito's natural likeability never stands a chance.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

a bit too faux-humbug for me

March 12, 2008 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

banal

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

When Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito team up for a comedy that can't even deliver one well-oiled joke, that's a big problem.

October 7, 2007 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | Comment
DVDTalk.com

Laden with false climaxes, the overstuffed plot leaves you exhausted well before the movie ends, and the amiable actors sleepwalk through their uninspired roles.

April 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

What's interesting about typical Hollywood Christmas movies is that regardless of how crass, vulgar, or mean-spirited they may be, by the last scene they will inevitably try to wrap viewers in a blanket of warm seasonal cheer.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | Comment
Austin Chronicle

Got any kids who've been naughty this year? Here's their present.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

'My stupidity astounds me!' chortles Danny DeVito in Deck the Halls, a line that pretty much sums up this tale of warring neighbours with very different ideas about celebrating Christmas.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Not that we expect much from a Holiday movie about neighbours competing over Christmas lights (how familiar is that?), but John Whitesell's film is so lacking in any plausible plot that I squirmed in my seat throughout the entire duration of the screening

December 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | Comment

seems to have only been greenlit because producers know that families need PG-rated dreck to occupy the kiddies while mom is out shopping for Christmas presents.

December 17, 2006 Full Review | Comment

Deck the screenwriter, deck the director--then go and deck your own halls.

December 11, 2006 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | Comment
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls is a very sweet but edgy christmas film thats kept alive by its wonderful cast and witty humour. It's not overly bad as everyone says it is.

December 4, 2011
Directors Cat
Directors Cat

Super Reviewer

the only part i really liked was when he said "jesus!....christ the lord was born" hehe the rest was ok

December 23, 2006
StarCrossedVoyager
Sophie Burgess

Super Reviewer

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