Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls (The)
- Director: Rich Newey
- Writer: Erin Rodman, Robert Buckley, Erin Rodman
- Producer: Robert Buckley, Charles Cooper, Allen Lewis, Ryan M. Murphy
CGiii Comment
The good news is...it's not that bad!
Nothing quite like a bit of sibling rivalry to keep the juices flowing...especially at Christmas!
The other good news is...it does - almost - avoid all that emotional blackmail which is [bizarrely] de rigueur with Christmas films. It's light, fluffy and sugary...very middle-class, very middle-of-the-road...there's even a villain, an Englishman...!
The bad news is...the casting director has neither eye nor idea...a family?!? The wildest imagination couldn't come up with more bizarre casting. And, with the writers...stocking-filling box-ticking political correctness.
Still...it's not the worst Christmas film ever made...and, that is - really - a massive compliment!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Hollywood television star Mike Mitchell is heading home to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York for the Christmas hiatus planning for a quiet holiday, especially as he contemplates popping the question to his childhood friend, divorced travel agent Andi Cruz. In the thought of proposing to Andi, he is also trying to be more of a parental figure to Andi's son Noah, especially as Noah's father, Ryan Zane, who has a history of being there then not, has reentered Noah's life with a bang yet again. This Christmas would be unlike the near fiasco of last Christmas, the final year of the Mitchell family's "Christmas house", his parents Bill and Phylis Mitchell's long held tradition to transform completely their family home for Christmas, the last year as Bill and Phylis have since retired and want to focus on other things in life. The other people involved, Mike's older brother, bakery owner Brandon Mitchell, his architect husband Jake, and their two infant children, are coming from Denver also wanting to eke out their own family Christmas traditions between the four of them, they staying in Andi's mother's otherwise empty house next door.
Things take a turn when Mike's publicist Kathleen has arranged for Mike to be on "Deck Those Halls", a head-to-head annual house Christmas decorating competition show between two celebrities, Mike reluctantly agreeing in succumbing to the pressure to do so from all sides, including Andi, Noah and his family, meaning the last minute resurrection of the Christmas house. But when the other celebrity has to bow out, Kathleen, in seeing the rivalry between the two of them, has what she thinks is even a better idea: for Mike's competitor to be Brandon, the second house to be Andi's mother's. As Ryan unexpectedly arrives on the scene to add to the complications, the question becomes whether the Mitchell family as a collective and the three individual pods - Mike, Andi and Noah in one, Brandon, Jake and their two children in a second, and Bill and Phylis in the third - will be able to survive the proceedings.
Cast & Characters
Ana Ayora
Mattia Castrillo (as Noah)
Matthew James Dowden (as Zane Ryan)
Brad Harder (as Jake)