Deck The Halls [DVD] [2006]

An excellent light mystery. Fun, enjoyable with good performances, decent script.

Love this film & it's excellent price too🙌💛💚

Arrived on time & well packaged.

At Christmas I find myself fed up of watching the same films each and every year so decided to pick up some I had not seen before and this was one of those I picked up to check out and was glad I did. The story to the film was simple but worked well and delivered plenty of laughs whilst maintaining that Christmas film vibe that I am used to. It feels like one that is destined to be watched most years.

I think I'd be hard pressed to find a worse Christmas film. Actually, that's not strictly true - there ARE worse Christmas films. But none of them feature three actors from whom we have come to expect so much better. Matthew Broderick who has turned out some pretty decent product over the years, not least his cameo-plus role in Tower Heist. Danny DeVito, who is never going to be a towering theatrical presence (in any sense) but who has nevertheless given us some good performances over the years (Batman and Romancing The Stone are two that spring easily to mind). And Kristin Davis, whose turn as the somewhat inhibited Charlotte in the TV and movie versions of Sex And The City was perfectly watchable.This, though, is execrable. The premise is decent enough - ordered and orderly dental surgeon Steve (Broderick) 'owns' Christmas in the small town where he and his family live. He's on the committee for the community festive celebrations and his house is the perfect example of just-so decoration: not too under-stated, not too over the top.Then Buddy (Devito) and his family move in across the street. Buddy is a salesman - and a good one - but he can't hold down a job and so he becomes obsessed with decorating his house so garishly that it can be seen from space.Affronted by what he perceives as a visual obscenity (and one which is in danger of overshadowing his own Yuletide role in the community) and having had his reasonable requests for Buddy to tone down his decorations rejected, Steve makes it his mission to sabotage his neighbour's plans.Soon the two are so engrossed in their personal feud that they fail to notice how they have neglected their respective families - and so begins a road to redemption in which the spirit of Christmas is finally re-discovered.But it is let down by a plot so thin and lazy you barely care what's going on, two families who are almost as unlikeable as the main protagonists and performances which are, certainly as far as Broderick and DeVito are concerned, by-numbers.There's slapstick which isn't funny - particularly if you compare it to the highly polished Harry & Marv (Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern) routines in the first couple of Home Alone movies. Dialogue which veers wildly from schmaltz to vitriol to irrelevant; and cinematography which has the feel of a crew who knew that, in budgetary terms, the film was strictly from the low rent neighbourhood.It's no coincidence that this was nominated for two 2007 Razzies (the Hollywood Raspberry awards for the worst in film) and though it didn't actually win one (which is only to damn the film with faint praise), the fact that two categories in which it was up for an award were Worst Supporting Actor (DeVito) and Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment speak volumes about where the movie sits in the critical stakes.There are plenty of films that have been Razzie-nominated but which I've enjoyed to one degree or another, but this isn't one of them. Avoid.

Brilliant movie

This film... wow, what a cast! How did they get them to make this? I have no idea! It's a really bad film in so many ways that you can't help but love it! It is also funny, and I do love it, but so many parts of it are so terrible... of particular note, the Christmas stage show dance scene. Oh wow...! Watch this, laugh at the funny bits, and laugh and cringe at the terrible bits - of which there are many, and have a great Christmas!

It seems that Christmassy festive flicks are hard to come by these days.. Good ones anyway. So I was excited when I saw this and knew I had to buy it. They've put some great actors together for this, Danny Devito and Matthew Broderick are two actors I wouldn't have expected to see together for some reason. And considering Matthew is married to Kristen Davis' real life friend, I wouldn't have expected to see them play husband and wife. It does work really well though! Kristen Davis and Kristen Chenoweth seem like they'd have a good friendship offscreen too.In all, some laughs, some tension in the right places and lots of snow and Christmas decor to have you feeling the Christmas spirit. Worthy watch!