There are a select few Christmas movies that are really, really good. Deck The Halls is not one of them. It’s a hollow exercise, full of poorly motivated characters hanging from a clichéd story (neighbours become rivals after trying to ‘out-Christmas’ each other). It leaves you with the feeling that someone has come in and re-written it, without quite finishing the job.
Why is Buddy (Danny DeVito) dissatisfied with his job? The answer to that might have made things interesting. Instead we get something so innocuous it’s irritating. It wouldn’t be so bad if the jokes and the set-pieces were funny; as it is, they’re weak and sluggish. Bah, and indeed, humbug.
