The Perfect Holiday

Queen Latifah vanity project (she produced) story of a single mom with three kids looking to find a life beyond her kids and ends up with a guy playing Santa.

Manufactured "feel good" flick with Latifah in a Greek chorus/on screen narrator role. Its not bad as such but awfully artificial in a way that is more ideal than real. take for example the opening bit of the guy chasing the money down the street, its a cutesy idea that is too artificial to illicit any reaction other than "Oh Please". Actually that kind of sums up the whole movie "oh please". This is holiday "goodness" so plastic as to squeeze all of the life out of it.

If you must see this wait for it to show up on cable where you won't have to pay ten bucks a head for something you can't get away from by changing the channel

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.

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.

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.

The movie was a great movie. Was it predictable? Yes all family movies are. It's wasn't a mystery or action flick. But it was very good. Morris Chestnut was good. There was just enough comic relief to make some parts funny. I liked the way they really focused on the older son's dislike of the "new guy" in his mother's life. The supporting cast members were very good. Lots of stars with little roles that made me laugh. They showed a lot of depth in the characters. Queen Latifah, Katt Williams, among others were great! If you are looking for a nice wholesome feel good movie. This is the one for you! Not Oscar worthy but definitely a good DVD Christmas movie.