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Movies / On DVD / Deck the Halls
Deck the Halls

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Deck the Halls (2006)

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Reviews Counted:79

Fresh:5

Rotten:74

Average Rating:2.9/10

Consensus: 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.

Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for some crude and suggestive humor, and for language.

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Nov 22, 2006 Wide

Box Office: $35,058,863

Synopsis: DECK THE HALLS is a family comedy about one-upsmanship, jealousy, clashing neighbors, home decoration...and the true spirit of the holidays. For Cloverdale, Massachusetts optometrist Steve Finch... DECK THE HALLS is a family comedy about one-upsmanship, jealousy, clashing neighbors, home decoration...and the true spirit of the holidays. For Cloverdale, Massachusetts optometrist Steve Finch (MATTHEW BRODERICK), no time of the year can compare to the glory of the Christmas season. And, for many years now, he's carried on a series of heartfelt but hokey Yuletide traditions that his family – wife Kelly (KRISTIN DAVIS), daughter Madison (ALIA SHAWKAT), and son Carter (DYLAN BLUE) – at this point, can barely tolerate. Despite his family's exhausted protests, super-organized Steve has the December calendar chock full with everything from shooting the Finch's annual Christmas card photo, to their ritual tree harvesting and neighborhood caroling night. There's also scheduled time for shopping, "personal reflection," and the town's yearly Winterfest carnival, which Steve joyously oversees. But Steve's Christmas bliss is suddenly destroyed when slippery car salesman Buddy Hall (DANNY DeVITO) moves in next door and Steve finds himself going toe-to-toe with his new neighbor. Buddy quickly begins to undermine Steve's dominance as the local "King of Christmas" when he sets out to festoon his new house with enough glowing holiday lights so it will be visible from outer space. We're talking a lot of lights, here! But why stop at lights? Motivated by the celebrity he's achieving with his dazzling, megawatt decorations, Buddy adds a live manger scene complete with donkeys, cows, sheep, and an imported camel, while continuing to wreak havoc on an infuriated Steve in a host of creatively twisted ways. Though Steve is in meltdown mode over Buddy's holiday shenanigans (never mind that Buddy's tapping into the Finches' electricity to power his décor!), wife Kelly has bonded with Buddy's brassy better-half Tia (KRISTIN CHENOWETH), while Madison has buddied up to the Halls' sexy, dim-bulb twin daughters Ashley and Emily (SABRINA & KELLY ALDRIDGE), who light up the life of younger Carter as well. Kelly and Tia and the kids become increasingly impatient, though, with Steve and Buddy's escalating rivalry and eventually threaten to pull the plug on the guys' entire Christmas season. Can Steve and Buddy declare a ceasefire before the holidays are ruined altogether, or will they continue their one-upsmanship until personal victory is achieved? In Deck the Halls, ‘tis the season where just about anything is possible. --© 20th Century Fox [More]

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Danny De Vito, Kristin Davis, Kristin Chenoweth

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Danny De Vito, Kristin Davis, Kristin Chenoweth, Alia Shawkat, Dylan Blue, Kelly Aldridge, Sabrina Aldridge, Fred Armisen, Gillian Vigman, SuChin Pak, Ryan Devlin, Jorge Garcia, Gary Chalk

Director: John Whitesell

Director: John Whitesell
Screenwriter: Matt Corman, Chris Ord
Producer: Michael Costagan, Jeremiah Samuels
Composer: George S. Clinton
Studio: 20th Century Fox

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Release:

Nov 6, 2007

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Reviews for Deck the Halls

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1 - 20 (sorted by source)
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a bit too faux-humbug for me

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
03/12/08
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

It's not horrible, but every sight gag and 'real meaning of Christmas' speech has been seen and heard before, and it steals gratuitously from Chevy Chase's masterpiece National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
11/21/06
Annemarie Moody
Annemarie Moody
Arizona Republic

It’s disappointing to see Broderick and DeVito try to make mediocre material work.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
11/20/06
Jake Coyle
Jake Coyle
Associated Press

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.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
12/30/06
Josh Rosenblatt
Josh Rosenblatt
Austin Chronicle

[Deck the Halls] wants to be both naughty and nice, but just ends up feeling deeply confused.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
12/02/06
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin
AV Club

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

Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | comment Comment
12/11/06
Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

'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.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
12/30/06
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
BBC

How come the talk-radio blowhards never bring movies like this up when they're inveighing against the War on Christmas?

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
11/22/06
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

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

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Tom Meek
Tom Meek
Boston Phoenix

Like that holiday fruitcake that nobody wants, here's another stale and joyless Christmas comedy.

Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | comment Comment
11/27/06
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

What's plentiful are stupid pratfalls, obvious plotting, cozy homilies and a big helping of saccharine moralizing.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
11/23/06
Shlomo Schwartzberg
Shlomo Schwartzberg
Boxoffice Magazine

The quintessential Hollywood Christmas movie. It's Grumpy Old Christmas.

Full Review Source: Can Magazine | comment Comment
11/21/06
Fred Topel
Fred Topel
Can Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/26/06
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

You cannot believe how excruciatingly awful this movie is.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
11/22/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

... Deck the Halls has little to recommend it.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
11/21/06
Jessica Reaves
Jessica Reaves
Chicago Tribune

Caso você seja diabético(a), cuidado ao assistir a Um Natal Brilhante, pois há um grande risco de vir a sofrer uma hiperglicemia provocada pelo excesso de água-com-açúcar.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
12/07/06
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

When you're starting to think that maybe sneaking out and going to see "The Santa Clause 3" would be a better use of your time, you know you've stumbled upon a truly wretched film.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
11/22/06
Kim Voynar
Kim Voynar
Cinematical

It's not enough to be set at Christmastime. Deck the Halls has no Christmas spirit.

Full Review Source: Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) | comment Comment
11/29/06
Mark Palermo
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Broderick and DeVito must be mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted by the sad, tired quality of these lame gags.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
11/22/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Deck the Halls seems to have been conceived on the back of a snot-soaked tissue by a none-too-bright second grader.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment 1 Comment
11/29/06
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
 
 
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