Deck the Halls (film)

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Deck the Halls

Directed by	John Whitesell
Produced by	Michael Costigan
Written by	Matt Corman, Chris Ord
Starring	Matthew Broderick Danny DeVito Kristin Davis Kristin Chenoweth
Cinematography	Mark Irwin
Editing by	Paul Hirsch
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 22, 2006 December 1, 2006 (UK)
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Deck the Halls is a 2006 family comedy film set during the Christmas season. It stars Danny DeVito, Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, and Kristin Davis and is directed by John Whitesell.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Trivia
4 Critical reception and box office
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Buddy Hall (DeVito) is a man determined to decorate his home with enough Christmas lights it will be visible from space — which doesn't sit well with his neighbor Steve (Broderick), the uptight chair of the local winter festival.

[edit] Cast

Danny DeVito .... Buddy Hall
Matthew Broderick .... Steve
Kristin Chenoweth .... Tia
Kristin Davis .... Kelly
Alia Shawkat....Madison
Dylan Blue.....Carter
Sabrina Aldridge...Ashley
Kelly Aldridge....Emily
Jorge Garcia...Wallace
Jackie Burroughs...Mrs. Ryor
Fred Armisen...Gustave
Gillian Vigman...Gerta
SuChin Pak...Herself

[edit] Trivia

Having a house covered in lights and syncing them to music is a parody of electrician Carson Williams, who synced over 16,000 christmas lights to the song "Wizards in Winter" by Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Was originally titled All Lit Up.
Shot in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, but set in the United States of America.
Twins Kelly and Sabrina Aldridge of 8th & Ocean star in the movie.
In one scene Steve's son Carter can be seen reading an issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, reading a chapter of the popular manga One Piece. He also mentions Halo in another scene.
In one scene, Steve is shown watching a movie. That movie is Meet Me In St. Louis.

[edit] Critical reception and box office

Critics across the board have widely panned the movie. Roger Moore 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. Finally, Richard Roeper (in place of Roger Ebert) 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."

So far, the movie has earned 30.4 million dollars at the U.S box office. The movie has a 8% fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com