The Perfect Holiday

THE PERFECT HOLIDAY is another one of those typical holiday films that some have touted as the "first African-American ensemble" that plays like its a television special than a theatrical release. This is another one of those hair-splitting claims that requires us to consider another movie about another over-the-top out of control African-American family going through the motions around the most joyous time of the year. For one,Gabrielle Union and Morris Chestnut make a sexy caramel couple. Maybe that explains why they're always paired up in movies. In this case you didn't get enough of their chocolate combo work in such films as "The Brothers","Two Get Play That Game",and "Breaking All The Rules". This time around they're back in "The Perfect Holiday". "Holiday" has Chestnut playing a struggling singer-songwriter working part time as a mall Santa. Apparently, this must be at the progressive mall if they're hiring a brotha to play of the traditionally alabaster St. Nick.

When a little girl(Khail Bryant)hops on this fake Santa's lap,all she asks for is a man to pay her mom(Union)a compliment she tells her friends she would like. Once our Kriss Kringle sees how mochalicious this girl's mama is,he decides to fulfill the wish himself. This sets off a farcial courtship between the two,which mostly has him keeping an eye out for one of her other children(Malik Hammond),who tries to prank this fool out of his mom's life(Fortunately,baby girl hips him to her big bro's tricks whenever he's in Santa mode.)The boy wants his mom to get back together with their father(Charlie Murphy of Chappelle's Show),an egostistical rapper our part-time Father Christmas-who doesn't know he's going out with his ex-is also hoping to work with. As cute and cuddly as this sounds,I have seen better movies with the same plot line and it is basically forgettable. What follows next is a series of events so uninspired and delusional that an old soul like Father Christmas couldn't save this fiasco of a film with a strong black cast. And speaking of the supporting cast,the actors are mostly made up of former UPN and WB sitcom players not to mention former comedians(Faizon Love from WB's "The Parenthood"and was also in the first "Friday" film opposite Ice Cube and Chris Tucker;Rachel True from "Half and Half";Jill Marie Jones-aka Toni Childs from "Girlfriends",and I know some of you wonder whatever happened to her after her departure from that show...;not to mention comedian Katt Williams and a host of others from "BET's Comicview")who look as if they took the job because,they didn't have much else to do.

The baffling parts of this are the special guest appearances by Queen Latifah and Terrance Howard as the night-and-day spirits who decide the fate of these characters. Terrance Howard is totally waste here(who looks like he doesn't want to belong in this in the first place and for an actor with an impaccable capacity of playing good roles),and it shows in some of the performances since the only saving grace here is Latifah herself who keeps this movie afloat,since Latifah's production company Flavor Unit films produced this movie which explains why she is there(Latifah serves as executive producer). But it is nice to see Union and Chestnut once again on the screen making black beautiful which is the only saving grace here.

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.

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.

I can witness why all the bad hovering reviews are floating around this film and I can see why everyone is so confused about that. This movie was OK could've been better but a little bit more peachier, Santa dies, the boy realizes that his mom won't be capable to get a new husband, and lots of crying. Could've gone better but in my opinion, it was alright. A young girl wants to get a new husband and suddenly, she and her brother realizes that they won't get the husband so he starts crying and Santa helps him rely on his crying to get through disappointing situations. It tells how he might get a new husband for them or not. This is an uplifting Christmas Spirit and very original but it's not really my fav. Could've been better...

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.