"Deck the Halls" is actually a fun and enjoyable Christmas comedy. Of course it doesn't match the 1989 "Christmas Vacation". However, I will say that "Deck the Halls" is noteworthy and does compliment the genre well enough.

It is much in the same League as "Christmas Vacation", as it is the Holiday feud of two neighbors competing to have the role of the local Christmas guy - the guy who is the heart of the Christmas season. And things quickly escalates out of control in no time.

Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick actually were great in their roles in this 2006 movie. But especially Broderick surprised with his performance in "Deck the Halls".

The movie is fun and entertaining for the whole family, and there are some good laughs throughout the movie. It was just a shame that there weren't more funny scenes though, because it would have lifted the movie further up.

If you want a fun movie for the Christmas holidays and want an alternative to "Christmas Vacation" then give "Deck the Halls" a chance. I have seen it for the past two Christmas holidays now, and believe that it will become a holiday tradition for me, just as "Christmas Vacation" is.

Deck the Halls is strikingly filmed, and the soundtrack is great, but as a film it is quite mean-spirited and unfunny. The story is simple, but it is also predictable, clichéd and mediocre, while the scripting is weak and lacking in laughs, same with the gags which were rather cheap.

The direction was not particularly great either, like the film itself, it was lacking in heart. The ending held no surprises either, I admit I smelt the ending a mile off. And to add insult to injury, the characters are unlikeable and quite obnoxious. Matthew Broderick is flat here, while Danny DeVito is wasted, and he can be funny, so that was a disappointment. In fact only Kristen Chenoweth had any spark. The pacing is uneven, either rushed or languid, and there just isn't enough festive spirit to make Deck the Halls enjoyable.

Overall, bah humbug, this could have been so much better. 2/10 Bethany Cox

If you want to see a film where Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito act like juveniles than Deck The Halls is for you. Of course some juveniles might get offended.

Broderick plays the unofficial Cloverdale, Massachusetts consultant on Christmas decoration and decor. That is until DeVito comes to town and moves across the street. DeVito is gauche and city born and bred and in Kristin Chenoweth has this Playboy Centerfold wife with a pair of twin daughters who take after mom. They arouse jealousy in Broderick's daughter Alia Shawkat, but in his young son Dylan Blue the hormones begin their first rage. Chenoweth does bond somewhat with Broderick's wife Kristin Davis.

Broderick's pride and joy is his own tastefully decorated house during the Yuletide season. The rather shy and retiring optometrist gets put in the shade by DeVito's gaudy display of Christmas lights. But it's costing him some big bucks for this ostentatious show and eventually his job as a car salesman.

These two really start acting like fools over the whole thing. Grownups simply aren't supposed to act the way they do, but Broderick is entering a second childhood and DeVito looks like he never grew up.

I can safely say this is not going to be on anyone's list of great Christmas movies though it does beat out Santa Claus Conquers The Martians considerably.