The Perfect Holiday

My seven and ten year old daughters loved this movie. They laughed so hard I couldn't hear. For those of us who grew up watching "The Wonderful World of Disney," it was refreshing to see a clean movie. Keep in mind that this is not "The Cookout." I enjoyed watching Faizon Love return to a family orientated roll. Morris Chestnut did a great job as the man every single mom would love to know better. And of course, Gabrielle Union, is always a believable actress. As for Terrance Howard, everything he has done since "Living Single," has been gold. Although I love any and everything about Queen Latifah, I think she did a great job making a wonderful family movie.

This movie was OK, probably the best thing I liked was the Perfect Christmas song in it. I'd like to hear that song on the radio. In this movie, Queen Latiefa plays the narrator role: maybe an angel since she uses a little magic. She introduces the story of a song writer Benjamin, whom is trying to get a dead with record star Jizzy. To make money in the mean time, he is a mall Santa. Next comes Jizzy's ex wife, Nancy, and her kids. The kids tell Santa, aka Ben, that their mom needs a complement. So, Ben takes it on himself to find a way to introduce himself. Nancy tries to track him down and two meet again and start dating. Nancy's oldest son John John dislikes Ben and plays pranks; however, Ben knows about them in advance because the other kids tell Santa what's going down. Eventually, Ben gets a call from Jizzy about liking the song he wrote and then he finds out Nancy is his ex, which leads to complications. But being a kid film, you know it will work out in the end.

FINAL VERDICT: Kids will probably enjoy this more. There's just not much to the plot.

Queen Latifah is the reason we attended the advance screening of PERFECT HOLIDAY in our area. If she is your only reason for viewing this movie, you might be as disappointed as we were. My husband would have bolted after 15 minutes, but in deference to me, he sat through the entire movie. He did laugh once, towards the end of the movie, at a cryptic comment uttered by Terrence Howard's character in front of a closed outlet mall. I won't spoil the movie for you by telling you the line, but you will probably laugh, too. Speaking of Terrence Howard, he must have owed Queen Latifah BIG TIME to appear in this movie, especially as the humbug to her holiday.

The movie has some warm, touching moments, with a little bit (very little bit) of comedy and (more than a little bit) love. It is just too bland and average to warrant a night out, especially at today's ticket prices. Wait for the DVD, or better yet, wait for cable (unless you really have to see the Queen). Please don't spoil your perfect holidays by going out of your way to see this movie.

I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed to see this film getting a below average rating. Being quite a romantic man I have seen most of the Christmas romantic comedy such as 'Christmas in Boston', 'His and Her Christmas', 'Christmas do over', 'The Twelve days of Christmas Eve' etc and I am adamant that 'The Perfect Holiday' stands level with these and in some cases it's better. The story is simple and real to life and believable and the acting is excellent. Gabrielle Union is one of the best romantic comedy actresses around, probably the Afro American equivalent of Katherine Heigle. I just wish she got more starring roles, Gabrielle Union is a truly beautiful woman. I gladly give this film a seven out of ten, my only concern is what was the Queen Latifah and Terence Howard characters. Nevertheless I loved the film and I am watching it again as I write this review.

Dejavu! Oh wait…it just seems like I have seen the same movie a hundred times. The Perfect Holiday was pretty much the same feel as the Last Holiday, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Best Man, and Are We There Yet? Needless to say that it was extremely predictable. They all reminded me of each other so much that I did some research; I was surprised to find that they all had different writers and directors.

I felt that this type of movie is not for Terrence Howard. He is a much better actor than this cliché type of holiday movie. He is already well established, he did great films such as Crash and Hustle and Flow. Why this film?

Though predictable and a cookie cutter holiday film, I enjoyed The Perfect Holiday. It's light, cute and funny. Who doesn't love a cliché holiday flick?

Gabrielle Union, Queen Latifah, and Morris Chestnut are always in the same type of movies. They are good actors. I don't know why they choose to type cast themselves?

This isn't much of a review because it wasn't much of a movie. It was a cute, mindless, feel good holiday film. You see it once during the holidays and never think about it ever again.