Deck the Halls (film)

For 2005 made-for-television Christmas film, see Deck the Halls (2005 film).

Deck the Halls (film)
Promotional poster for the film
Directed by	John Whitesell
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Michael Costigan John Whitesell
Written by	Matt Corman Chris Ord Don Rhymer
Starring	Danny DeVito Matthew Broderick Kristin Davis Kristin Chenoweth Mac Davis Alex Hirsch
Music by	George S. Clinton
Cinematography	Mark Irwin
Editing by	Paul Hirsch
Studio	Regency Enterprises
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 22, 2006 (2006-11-22)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$51 million
Box office	$47,231,070

Deck the Halls is a 2006 Christmas comedy film. Directed by John Whitesell, it stars Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, Kristin Davis, and Kristin Chenoweth.

The film was a commercial success, however, it was critically panned; receiving a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

In Cloverdale, Massachusetts, local eye doctor and Christmas expert Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick) wants his kids to have a great Christmas, packed with his tried and true traditions, such as using an advent calendar, taking Christmas card pictures in matching sweaters, and getting a large tree. At night, he hears noises. He looks out his window and sees a moving truck. He and his wife Kelly (Kristin Davis) immediately know that "the new neighbors are moving in." In the morning, when he goes to get his paper, he is startled to see someone on his doorstep, stealing it, which causes him to spill coffee on himself. The stranger is his new neighbor Buddy Hall (Danny DeVito), a car salesman. He and Kelly also meet Buddy's wife Tia (Kristin Chenoweth).

Later that day, Kelly, her daughter Madison (Alia Shawkat) and son Carter (Dylan Blue) go to the Halls' house, where they meet Tia and Buddy's teenage twin daughters, Ashley (Sabrina Aldridge) and Emily (Kelly Aldridge). Carter gets turned on by seeing the twins dressed in skimpy outfits, and hearing Tia claim that is more clothes than they've worn in a long time, makes him even more so. Other than that, Tia and Kelly immediately become friends, as do Ashley, Emily, and Madison. That night, the Hall twins discover a website called MyEarth, which shows satellite images of any place from space (seemingly a parody of Google Earth). Their house is not visible, so Buddy decides to make it so using Christmas lights. Due to this, he becomes known around the town. Steve is not happy about this as he is considered "the Christmas guy" and is chairman of the town's WinterFest. Buddy also purchases a large sleigh, and finds horses to pull it.

Interrupted from being able to have the family Christmas picture of that year taken, the Finches come to see the sleigh, and are invited to take their Christmas pictures in it. Steve declines, but Carter enters it anyway. Just in time, Steve hears that what are modeling the reindeer are actually wild horses which he went to a lot of work to catch and keep tame, and in attempt to get Carter "out of that death trap", Steve frightens the horses, who run away with him in the sleigh, pulling him around town, finally landing on thin ice and plunging into a frozen river. He wakes up to find himself zipped into a sleeping bag naked with Buddy, who is also naked. Buddy explains that he is giving him body heat in order to keep him from dying. He then starts screaming. In the next scene, he is recovered and back and home, and sees that there was a poor picture taken ruining their traditional picture for that year, which has Steve in an embarrassing position where he is wearing an oxygen tank tube around his nose and nothing except for boxers on, where he has his uniform sweater only thrown in front of him to emulate him wearing it, which he's wasn't. He protests over the humiliation. The next thing that same night, Steve has invited a group of carolers to sing a Christmas carol on his front step, who are eventually distracted by the Hall house which has eventually become completely lit and synchronized to music. Over frustration of how Buddy says that he is going to keep adding more and more lights and synchronizations of music onto his house, which would attract more and more people, besides keeping him more up at night, Steve finally gets in a full fledged revolt and decides to drive off to the sheriff's office to make out a warrant to arrest Buddy for his intrusive tactics. Attempting to back out of his own driveway, which is blocked by the back ends of a truck and car, he lets a slum who happens to be drunk try to direct him out through the narrow passage, causing him to lose both of his front doors. He drives off anyway in his frustration, and at the same time, it starts to snow; not being much more help to his unfortunate situation. At the sheriff's office, after hearing Steve's inefficiently clarified complaints, Sheriff Dave (Gary Chalk) argues that he can't arrest a man for wanting to decorate his house, but that due to how much he knows that Steve has on his hands, he would agree to have Steve file a complaint, as much as he claims that the light deal bothers him. However, the reason Steve fails to fully clarify the situation of his complaint, and to have the complaint fulfilled, is due to becoming distracted and disgusted over seeing what appears to be that Sheriff Dave is wearing women's underwear under his officer uniform. First, while Steve is trying to complain clearly what he is dealing with, he observes what looks like Sheriff Dave pulling the strap behind his shirt of what looks like the shoulder lining of a bra, which the sheriff catches him gawking at. With Steve renouncing embarrassingly what he sees, the sheriff claims that what he sees behind his shirt is not what he thinks; where it is a shoulder brace that his wife sewed for him from dislocating it. They both end up laughing over what Steve thought, but it turns out that the sheriff did make a false statement where Steve was right that what he saw was a bra, when he sees the proof that Sheriff Dave is also wearing a thong that goes up high above his pants, when he is bending down to pull a file of papers out of a file cabinet. Through the disgust and suspicion, Steve immediately forfeits continuing to make his complaints and without a word leaves. The next night, Steve has had enough with being kept awake each night, and with the help of Carter who catches him and agrees to help him by being a lookout, finally fills their fuse box with snow. His plan is foiled, due to a backup generator.

In revenge towards finding out what that Steve blew out his power, Buddy pulls off a couple of seriously felonous tactics on Steve, but making it look as though like that they are extremely generous gifts that he wants to give them to make up for the distress that he has put them through. First, he saws down the town's Christmas tree and places it in the Finch's living room, along with giving Steve a mug of coffee and his newspaper and a note that he places on his dining room table, falsely apologizing to him and hoping that his gifts make up for the agony that he has caused Steve. The last big gift Buddy tricks Steve with that same night was by forging his signature to buy a massive shiny light blue SUV with a red ribbon tied on the top of it. When Steve later after thanking him for the gifts observes that the town's Christmas tree is gone, and is reported about the scandal that Buddy has pulled on him about the new car, he figures that it was all part of revenge tactics, and in response to that, he goes right to Buddy at his office, making a stink about his scandals pulled against him, and wanting to put up a fight over that and the whole lights deal if Buddy is willing. But rather than having any physical fights, it turns into being that Buddy and Steve make a bet: if Steve beats Buddy in the WinterFest speedskating race, then Buddy removes the lights; but if Buddy beats Steve, then Steve buys the car from him. When the Winter festival comes up and they race, Buddy wins, and Steve yells at him in front of the whole audience about how that he still appears to be a nobody, since the Hall house is still not visible from Space. Because of how deep in debt that Buddy has become, over how many lights he has purchased for his house, he pawns a valuable heirloom of his wife's, which was a vase. The discovery causes Tia to get completely upset with him, and protests about it to him while he is cutting down branches. It later causes her to take their girls and leave, while he is in the middle of a program. They go to a motel to salvage the rest of Christmas at. In the meanwhile, in frustration over how far Buddy has gone with his whole lights deals, Steve feeling very desperate buys a large amount of fireworks including a large illegal military grade firework from a gangster and tries to blow it up. He explains to the peddler that the intent of getting every one he had is to get revenge on his neighbor, Buddy for his grievances by trying to set them all off at the roof of the Halls' house, hoping to scare Buddy to death. In response to the program ending with Buddy gloating at him by telling him over a picture of him with a plug presented by the lights telling him "Good Night, Steve.", then pulling the plug that makes the lights fade away, Steve on his roof right across the street starts setting off the fireworks. After succeeding in setting off a few at the house and raving across the street about how much Buddy must like having the World exploding all around him, Steve causes the military grade firework rocket to misfire, thus going down the chimney of the Finch house and setting the Christmas tree and living room on fire. It ends with a scene the next day of the fire department coming out from a broken window, and Sheriff Dave giving him a minor interrogation. He points out the angel from the top of that tree that got half burnt, that looked like it came from the town's Christmas tree that went missing (due to Buddy), and Steve lies saying that he has no idea where that came from. The sheriff responds to him about the whole situation by telling him that he is becoming a knot in his "panties", indicating even more that he does cross dress. In response to the incident, Kelly decides to take Madison and Carter to the same motel that Tia and the girls are staying at to salvage the rest of their Christmas. Steve and Kelly get into an argument about who most is ravaging Christmas, and what she feels that Christmas is really supposed to be all about. Meanwhile, just as they leave, Buddy drives home in his truck, revealing to Steve that he wasn't even in his home that whole night, even revealing that the whole scare did turn out to be a complete waste. After enough grief on both sides, Buddy and Steve finally forfeit their rivalry, making peace, and as Buddy in rage tore down all of his lights, they decide to take them and build a winter wonderland with all of them and lure Tia, Kelly, and the kids home. They all sit down to a nice meal. Buddy causes Tia to forgive him by bringing back the vase that he pawned.

Soon, the whole town helps put Buddy's lights back up in time for a story about them on MTV. They don't work, and everyone sings the Christmas carol "O Holy Night" and uses their cell phones as flashlights. This is where everyone makes amends, and Steve agrees to start a new family tradition. As they finish singing, Carter notices that one of the cords is not plugged in, and that is why the lights do not work. He plugs it in, causing them to shine brightly through the night. SuChin Pak (played by herself), who is doing the MTV report, gets confirmation that the house is indeed visible from space. The crowd celebrates as the movie ends.

Cast

• Danny DeVito as Buddy Hall
• Matthew Broderick as Steve Finch
• Kristin Chenoweth as Tia Hall
• Kristin Davis as Kelly Finch
• Alia Shawkat as Madison Finch
• Dylan Blue as Carter Finch
• Sabrina Aldridge as Ashley Hall
• Kelly Aldridge as Emily Hall
• Josh Hayden as Ben Hall
• Jorge Garcia as Wallace
• Jackie Burroughs as Mrs. Ryor
• Fred Armisen as Gustave
• Gillian Vigman as Gerta
• Jill Krop as Herself
• SuChin Pak as Herself
• Shannon Ostrom as Bystander
• Vu Huynh as Kid Next Door
• Kal Penn as Amit Sayid (cameo appearance)
• Sean O'Bryan as Mayor Young
• Gary Chalk as Sheriff Dave
• Nicola Peltz as Mackenzie
• Cory Monteith as Madison's pretender
• Ben Stiller (cameo appearance)

Production notes

The movie was originally entitled Wreck the Halls, and while it was set in the United States, it was shot in Cloverdale, British Columbia and other locations throughout Metro Vancouver.

In the scene in which Steve and Buddy are in a speedskating race, Matthew Broderick (Steve) had to train with a real speedskater for a few months before he could film that scene. He trained at Chelsea Piers in New York (they rented out an entire rink).

Critical reception

The film was critically panned by viewers and received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. It received a 6% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel named it "A leaden slice of fruitcake, with about as much nutritional value," and concluding that "it's not worth working up a good hate over". Stephen Hunter remarked "I literally didn't count a single laugh in the whole aimless schlep," and suggested that the movie should've been named Dreck the Halls instead. Michael Medved named it the "Worst Movie of 2006." Finally, Richard Roeper, co-host of the television show Ebert & Roeper, wrote:

"You cannot believe how excruciatingly awful this movie is. It is bad in a way that will cause unfortunate viewers to huddle in the lobby afterward, hugging in small groups, consoling one another with the knowledge that it's over, it's over -- thank God, it's over. [...] Compared to the honest hard labor performed by tens of millions of Americans every day, a film critic's job is like a winning lottery ticket. But there IS work involved, and it can be painful -- and the next time someone tells me I have the best job in the world, I'm going to grab them by the ear, fourth-grade-teacher-in-1966-style, and drag them to see Deck the Halls."

The film was nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards:

• Worst Excuse For Family Entertainment
• Worst Supporting Actor (Danny DeVito)
• Worst Supporting Actress (Kristin Chenoweth).

Box office

The movie has earned $35,093,569 domestically, and $47,231,070 worldwide.

External links

• Official website
• Deck the Halls at the Internet Movie Database
• Deck the Halls at AllRovi
• Deck the Halls at Rotten Tomatoes