Batalha de Natal

Matt Frewer and Ryan Grantham were childhood friends until they fell out over a competition in high school. Now, many years later, they find themselves neighbors and in a fresh competition over who will win the town's Christmas decoration competition with the prize a check for five thousand dollars.

As this seasonal comedy wended its course on the Hallmark Channel, I was pleased to see a movie that did not feature Santa Claus. However, even more, I was pleased to see Matt Frewer in a comic turn, as his and Grantham's competition becomes more and more cartoon-like, eventually drawing in their entire families.

One of these days, I would like to see one of these movies end with utter destruction, perhaps with a mushroom cloud over the remnants of the neighborhood; there is something about Mr. Frewer that strikes me as very Wile E. Coyote. However, I can't blame the film makers for going with a more conventional happy ending. The result is a very pleasant couple of hours.