So last weekend my buddy talked me into going to see Deck the Halls, with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito. Now admittedly, this isn’t the sort of movie I usually go see at the theater. But neither of last weekend’s other two big releases (Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blood Diamond) were movies I was super excited to go see, and both my buddy and I figured it was a good weekend for a goofy comedy, so Deck the Halls it was. And I must admit, I’m definitely glad I went. I really enjoyed myself, and was laughing quite a bit during the movie. Yes, the movie was incredibly dumb (that pretty much goes without saying). But it’s one of those movies that if you go into it knowing it’s going to be dumb, you can sit back and enjoy the stupidity of it all and have a good laugh.
The two main stars are of course both brilliant actors, and each play their characters to perfection. The basic plot of the movie is that Danny DeVito moves in next door to Matthew Broderick in early December, and decides that his goal in life is for his house to be seen from space (I won’t bore you with the details of how this comes about). To do this, he sets up a garish Christmas light display that grows bigger and brighter and more outrageous every day as he adds more and more to the display. This naturally sets off Matthew Broderick, who has to live next door to this spectacle (the two characters also have pretty opposing personality types, so it’s pretty much a given from the first time they meet that these two aren’t going to get along).
Things of course quickly get out of hand as Matthew Broderick tries to get back at his neighbor and get him to turn off his light show. As is to be expected, hilarity ensues. Some of the jokes are pretty lame, while other’s are just plain wrong (while still managing to be completely hilarious). But it’s a lot funnier (and much more family friendly) than other would-be Christmas comedies such as Bad Santa (which I finally watched on one of my movie channels a while back. I hadn’t had very high expectations for the movie at all, and still managed to be surprised by just how horrid a movie it was – which was really a shame, because I think Lauren Graham is a total cutie, and just so much fun to watch). So if you’re looking for some goofy, mindless humor to give you a brief distraction from the hassles and stresses of the holiday season, Deck the Halls is worth giving a look.
