atlasmb
It's disappointing that this film is so lackluster, given its cast, which includes Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, Kristin Chenoweth and Kristin Davis. Such an embarrassment of riches should not yield a film that is merely embarrassing.This might have been entertaining Christmas season fare on the order of "Home Alone", but the script lacks originality and cleverness. There was one scene that had me laughing out loud, but the rest felt phoned in.The ending was the worst part--an irrelevant afterthought that seemed to invalidate the life lesson of the film.
slimer8489
Here's a little story: This past Christmas season, the DirecTV movie channels would air two Christmas movies constantly: One being Jingle All the Way, and the other being this one. Since I heard about how awful this one is from Cinematic Excrement, I decided to check it out.Yeah, this movie is awful. Matthew Broderick's acting sucks as usual, but it's a treat to watch. Seeing him try to say such lines as "What's happened? What's happening?" and "We live in Massachusetts. I could die!" with such little effort is so great, but there are more things to this movie. Some jokes were good, while the others were horrible. There is one "comedic" scene in particular in which I despise. It is the gag where Steve (Broderick) goes to the police to report Buddy's antics, and the guy at the counter is wearing a bra and thong. Another scene where Broderick's underacting shines is something that takes place at the winter festival that the town has. It involves Steve's daughter with Buddy's girls in a routine called.... Ugh, "The Santa Babies". Usually, a father would be scarred for life if he found out that the girl dressed like that was his daughter, but not here. Steve is just up there smiling away while saying "I'm your daddy!" But I must say, the scene where they're in the church washing themselves with holy water after seeing that is pretty funny.Yeah, this film sucks, but in the end, it has a nice feel to it. It has a Christmas-like feel to it, where everything turns out right in the end, and people end up celebrating the holiday in happiness. So, yeah. Horrible movie, but it has a nice feeling to it.If this movie happens to be on anytime soon, I wouldn't really recommend it. That's up to you to decide. Watch at your own risk. You've been warned.
Prismark10
In Deck the Halls stuffy optician Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick) always plans a traditional Christmas for the family and organizes the town's Christmas display.His brash new neighbour Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito) a car salesman moves in and plans to have the brightest display in town and wants his lights to be seen from space much to the Finch's chagrin.This is a film with a Christmas themed 'neighbours at war' idea and as its a comedy it means you have to have mishaps leading to hilarious consequences such as a can of gasoline inexplicably outside a Pine tree display in the woods despite falling on snow somehow ignites when a tree is chopped by an axe. When your young children exclaim how could this happen you kind of guess this is all nonsense.However the film is full of this type of unfunny scrapes, there are no nice characters in this film. Broderick is a stuffy bore, DeVito is annoying as hell. I could never understand how others in the town liked DeVito so much and its never explained in an early scene in the car showroom how he managed to sell the car so fast to the owner of the car lot. You just have to take it as read he is an ace salesman because of his boorish charm.The film is lazily written, its not funny, even when the duo make up at the end you do not feel much as you knew it was going to happen and you never liked them in the first place. There is little chemistry between the characters because it is so badly written and directed with the actors making the best of a bad job. The film was rightly nominated for the Raspberry Awards.
Zoooma
Here's the good news: when you lump this in with all the Christmas movies, including the (seemingly) thirty or forty dozen small screen, made for television each and every single year, this isn't that bad. But comparing it to other big screen Christmas films: meh, not very impressive. I do think the IMDb rating and several (many) reviews gives this a worse rap than it deserves. It's not unfunny, in fact, there are a few very good, seriously funny moments and plenty of small laughs throughout. Problem is it's just so lame at times. It seems like it wants to be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, in a way. That's been done and it's a classic. Why, then, couldn't they come up with enough originality for this script to make it a great holiday movie? Danny DeVito gives it his best to counteract Matthew Broderick but the whole story never allows the comedy to happen as much as it should have. Then the ending, oy vey, ay caramba. MTV News? The spontaneous O Holy Night? It falls apart quickly and dissolves into a fizzle. Not even Harold's best friend Kumar can save the show. Oh well. Amazingly, if you're watching a few dozen Christmas movies during a cold and snowy Christmastime, I'd recommend throwing this in the mix... maybe while recovering from a root canal surgery or a really bad sleigh ride crash. The pain killer meds should help make this more entertaining than it is.6.1 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener
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