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DECK THE HALLS
Deck the Halls is a juvenile and pointless 2006 comedy that wastes a lot of talented actors in a story that is just not worthy of them.
The film stars Matthew Broderick as Dr. Steve Finch, an optometrist in a small Massachusetts suburb who gets positively anal when Christmas rolls around. He is not only in charge of the town's winter Festival, but he has a strict schedule of Christmas activities for his family in a 3 ring binder. His plans change when Buddy Hall (Danny De Vito), a car salesman, moves in across the street with his wife (Kristen Chenoweth) and twin daughters. Thanks to a website that his daughters show him, Buddy becomes obsessed with making the Christmas decorations on his house visible from space.
Director John Whitesell displays a flair for cinematic slapstick, but slapstick without a viable story behind it is just an SNL sketch and the actors involved seem very aware of this. Broderick and De Vito look properly embarrassed throughout and I feel their pain. The screenplay by Matt Corman and Chris Ord is an unsettling balance of crude sexual entendres and sugary sentiment. Steve's wife, Kelly, played by Kristen Davis, actually has a line in the film where she scolds her husband about not making the most out of those "chocolate milk and french fry moments". Pass the insulin please.
Broderick is a perfect straight man and he and De Vito work very hard at making this silliness worth our time and they are fighting the ridiculous screenplay all the way. I never really bought De Vito and Chenowith as a married couple and Chenowith's musical moment near the climax of the film just seems thrown in because someone said, "Hey, we've got Kristen Chenoweth...we've got have her sing somewhere!" Davis' role as Mrs. Finch is thankless and could have been played by just about anyone. Fred Armisen and Gillian Vigman shamelessly ape a pair of characters Armisten and Kristen Wiig played on SNL and this so-called "wholesome family comedy" also seems to imply that Buddy Hall has the hots for his nubile 16 year old twin daughters. A holiday movie that walks a thin tightrope between boredom and tastelessness,,,not an easy thing to do.
Deck the Halls is a juvenile and pointless 2006 comedy that wastes a lot of talented actors in a story that is just not worthy of them.
The film stars Matthew Broderick as Dr. Steve Finch, an optometrist in a small Massachusetts suburb who gets positively anal when Christmas rolls around. He is not only in charge of the town's winter Festival, but he has a strict schedule of Christmas activities for his family in a 3 ring binder. His plans change when Buddy Hall (Danny De Vito), a car salesman, moves in across the street with his wife (Kristen Chenoweth) and twin daughters. Thanks to a website that his daughters show him, Buddy becomes obsessed with making the Christmas decorations on his house visible from space.
Director John Whitesell displays a flair for cinematic slapstick, but slapstick without a viable story behind it is just an SNL sketch and the actors involved seem very aware of this. Broderick and De Vito look properly embarrassed throughout and I feel their pain. The screenplay by Matt Corman and Chris Ord is an unsettling balance of crude sexual entendres and sugary sentiment. Steve's wife, Kelly, played by Kristen Davis, actually has a line in the film where she scolds her husband about not making the most out of those "chocolate milk and french fry moments". Pass the insulin please.
Broderick is a perfect straight man and he and De Vito work very hard at making this silliness worth our time and they are fighting the ridiculous screenplay all the way. I never really bought De Vito and Chenowith as a married couple and Chenowith's musical moment near the climax of the film just seems thrown in because someone said, "Hey, we've got Kristen Chenoweth...we've got have her sing somewhere!" Davis' role as Mrs. Finch is thankless and could have been played by just about anyone. Fred Armisen and Gillian Vigman shamelessly ape a pair of characters Armisten and Kristen Wiig played on SNL and this so-called "wholesome family comedy" also seems to imply that Buddy Hall has the hots for his nubile 16 year old twin daughters. A holiday movie that walks a thin tightrope between boredom and tastelessness,,,not an easy thing to do.