Deck the Halls (2016)

Title: Deck the Halls
Year of Release: 2016
Available On: FreeForm as of 12/19
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Jingle Bells

There are A LOT of famous people in this movie. Cory Monteith makes an appearance, R.I.P. I didn’t hear anything about the movie when it came out — and I think I had already started a version of this blog in 2016? But maybe I’m being ambitious in my remembering.

Dr. Finch (Matthew Broderick) is a small-town optometrist. He’s a bit of a control freak. He’s suuuper into Christmas. “This is a busy time of year, so you have to have a game plan,” he says. “Not intense, but extremely organized.” His childhood didn’t include holiday traditions, so it’s important to him that his childrens’ lives are different. He has very specific ideas about what constitutes “the perfect Christmas.” Their new neighbors, the Halls, have exceedingly different ideas…

Buddy: I want my house to be seen from space!

The Halls might be swindlers. Unclear. But what is clear is that the Finch and Hall patriarchs (Broderick and Danny DeVito, respectively) are not going to get along.

This movie is better than I expected it to be and also it simultaneously makes excellent sense why it didn’t catch on and I have never heard of it. It’s got a 5/10 on IMDB and that checks out — it’s just overall “meh.” Not even that fun to hate-watch. I gave it a half jingle or so for the star power. Features such stunning dialogue as:

Tia: I used to do a bit of modeling, mainly for college classes… that’s how I met Buddy.
Kelly : Oh, was he a professor?
Tia: No, he was the one they caught peeping in the windows.