Determined to unseat Steve Finch's reign as the town's holiday season king, Buddy Hall plasters his house with so many decorative lights that it'll be visible from space! When their wives bond, and their kids follow suit, the two men only escalate their rivalry - and their decorating.
Lazy Deck the Halls is one of the most by the numbers Christmas movies I've ever seen. Every joke and plot point has the predictability of a Tory Government U-turn, John Sheridan being announced as the new Oldham Athletic manager or a Hollywood celebrity avoiding jail time after killing people in a car crash. Is there a sequence with out of control animals? Check. Is the rivalry only between the two men? Check. Is there a competition that they go too far in? Check. It even has that American value that Christmas is somehow under threat if an objective isn't achieved. It's a checkmarked film that had me checked out. In fact, when say the jokes are predictable, it's actually worse than that, they're lazy and dependent occasionally mean spirited. There's a scene where our two main characters bond over wolfwhistling some teenagers only to find out they're their daughters... meaning they'd have been ok with blatant misogyny if they weren't related. There's a few 'gay panic' sequences.
