4 Days of Christmas – Deck the Halls

Ashley warned me going into this movie that it wasn’t going to be good. She wasn’t wrong. Oh Matthew Broderick, you went from being the coolest guy in school to playing the pathetic shlub in every recent movie. Sometimes it works (Election) and most times it doesn’t (this movie, Producers). In Deck the Halls, Broderick is anal retentive when it comes to having every minute planned for family holiday activities. Danny Devito’s family moves in next door and upstages Broderick by putting a ridiculous number of lights on their house. Devito becomes all consumed with making their house viewable by satellite. Haven’t they ever used Google Maps? Their house would have been easily viewable and the lights would have made no difference. Broderick and Devito start a feud and try to screw each other over resulting in nonhilarious corny physical comedy bits. At the end the movie flips from groan-worthy comedy to groan-worthy sappiness. The only cool things about the movie are that Devito’s house has so many lights it makes Clark Grizwold’s house look like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, and Kristin Chenoweth sings at the end. I can’t really recommend renting this one, but if it’s on TV you could give it a try.