Customer Reviews

The Last Holiday

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah) works in retail. On the side, she's in the church choir, and afterwards goes home and cooks while watching Emeril on TV. One day at work, she bumps her head and needs a cat scan. From the results of the CAT scan, the doctor then tells Georgia that she has a brain tumor and has three weeks to live. Upset and distraught, she goes home to look through her "Book of Possibilities" book (a book with all the goals she wants to achieve). Thinking it's all over, she takes a trip to Czechoslovakia. While there, Georgia has the time of her life. She bungee jumps, snowboards, and so much more. During her stay, people around her start wondering who exactly she is.

...a feel good movie, with a bit of a love story to it. Last Holiday is a smart comedy that will leave you thinking about life. Latifah is exquisite and also very funny. Two thumbs way up!

Queen Latifah stars in this endearing movie that forces the audience to question their own lives. Queen is told that she only has a few weeks to live, and she finds out that she has to learn a hard lesson about living life instead of waiting for the perfect time for things to happen. While this movie does force the viewer to think about life, there are some very funny moments. LL Cool J was surprisingly good in this film, and the rest of the supporting cast was wonderful.

I just about never review motion pictures, but I absolutely had to say something about "Last Holiday." I have gone to see it three times, and I plan on seeing it at least once more before it is out of theatres, and I hope it comes out on DVD fairly soon.

Queen Latifah's performance is sensational as always, and she is perfectly cast. The supporting ensemble is also just brilliant.

Sure, this isn't Oscar material, and this won't break any box office record either, but this movie is the ultimate in life-affirming. It is true that the whole notion of the plot is rather cinematically cliched, but Latifah gets around this without a trace of sap on her fingers.

As the plot reaches its climax, it's hard to hold back the tears, at least if you're the sensitive type, and if you are not at least deeply moved you probably need to see a shrink.

You will indeed see that life is not about regrets; go out and fulfill your dreams and enjoy the life you have, because any day could be your last. The character of Georgia Byrd epitomizes this to pure perfection, and, as I said, it is profoundly moving.

And don't think you won't have a barrel of laughs, either. Go see this movie while you can.

I saw this movie in Orlando a few weeks ago. You know it's a good movie when the audience applauds 2-3 times during the movie. Great cast. Queen Latifah is her usual cute, funny self. She's also regal in this movie. I had so much fun seeing this movie that I'm going again. Lots of funny stuff. And when the movie ended, I felt that warm feeling of happiness.

Continuing my trilogy on recent Chick flix that are pretty darn nifty in their own right, I have chosen Last Holiday for many good reasons...

There are way too many sad little movies that make heroes out of simpletons, and show that love can be achieved under any (especially quirky or unrealistically dangerous) situations. This movie, thankfully, keeps a wonderful human tone to its characters.

Georgia Byrd (to quickly sum up the synopsis you know already) has just been informed that she is about to die. Her life is flipped upside down, even to the point where she turns the churches praise meeting into a "Why God Why?" moment. The humanity keeps a smile on your face, the way everyone is nervous when they are supposed to be, particularly in love matters. The way Georgia enjoys cooking, but doesn't eat it. (The neighbor boy has that honor.) Also the blunt truth that Georgia is suddenly able to vocalize once she realizes, "Hey, I am about to die, might as well say what I think." I believe there is a lesson there for myself I know. Sometimes we sugarcoat don't we?

Last Holiday is a chick flick by definition. Too bad, because I believe that guys will enjoy it as much as the ladies. The ones in the theater did. Its funny how we were dragged in there kicking and screaming and came out feeling really good about what we just experienced.

Last Holiday is an excellent film starring the wonderful Queen Latifah (OK, so maybe I'm biased because I always liked her). The acting is very convincing and the plot moves along at a good pace. While this won't be wining any awards anytime soon, please don't let that stop you from getting this flick. The script is very well written and the casting couldn't be better. This movie kept my attention every step of the way!

The action begins when we meet Georgia Byrd, a rather shy woman who wears "frumpy clothing" and works in cookware within a department store. She secretly has a crush on Sean Matthews, a coworker, who is played brilliantly by L L Cool J. Just about all Georgia ever does besides work in the store is sing in her church choir and watch TV food shows as she tries to follow along with what the chef is preparing. Georgia even denies herself a single bit of this food; she feeds it to a young child named Darius instead and eats nothing except her "lean cuisine" frozen foods which she cooks in her microwave.

One day things change radically for Georgia. She hits her head by accident in the department store and she is rushed to the store's health clinic much to the chagrin of her supervisor who does nothing all day but talk on his cell phone and worry about profits. Much to Georgia's horror, Georgia has a CT scan that indicates that she has just three or four weeks to live.

Georgia decides that in her last remaining days on this planet she will travel after all to a swank resort in Czechoslovakia. This was one of the things she always wanted to do in her scrapbook of "possibilities." By pure chance she meets the top head of the department store there (Matthew Kragen played well by Timothy Hutton) and his mistress. Georgia also meets the chef she always idolized, Chef Didier played well by Gérard Depardieu; her senator (Giancarlo Esposito) and a few other "notables" who are staying at this resort.

Of course, to make the movie funny these people all simply assume that Georgia is some fantastically wealthy power broker-businesswoman and they try to decide who she is since none of them ever heard of her before. They also are so taken with Georgia that they want to do everything that she wants to do--it's childish but cute and funny and the same time.

Meanwhile, Matthew Kragen pays off one of the staff to rummage through Georgia's things to find out once and for all who she really is--and Sean Matthews heads for Czechoslovakia to get Georgia back for his soul mate and bride.

The movie can go anywhere from here. Will Matthew be able to discover who Georgia really is? Of course, Georgia never actually said she was a powerful business leader so maybe that will help--or maybe it won't when these snobs find out who she really is. What about Sean--will he be able to reach Georgia while she is still at the resort? And how will Georgia ever be able to handle her last days in Czechoslovakia after an avalanche may well leave her stranded there?

The DVD has a couple of deleted scenes and the "making of" extras are good. I agree with the reviewer who writes that "Last Look" was indeed the best of the bonuses.

Last Holiday gets two thumbs up from me! The cast is wonderful and everybody plays their roles perfectly. I highly recommend this film for people who like Queen Latifah and the other stars on this film; it's a good comedy as well.

I came into the film thinking it'd be a little entertaining from the previews I'd seen before other movies, but I came out laughing and smiling. Last Holiday is freakin' hilarious--Queen Latifah gives an amazing performance. I rarely give films 5 stars unless they are (or near to) perfect, and Last Holiday definitely is.

I didn't expect much when I went and saw this movie. But since Queen Latifah is in it, I decided to give it a chance anyway. Let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed!

This is one of those feel-good (and extremely funny) movies that you can't help but love! You'd have to be in a really bad mood not to enjoy this movie. Very good cast (at first I thought I would hate LL Cool J's character, but he was perfect!), and , of course, Queen Latifah is always PERFECT!! I just can't help but love any movie she's in, and this movie also happens to be quite good so it was a good match!

Go see it if you want to laugh out loud while also being touched by the heart-warming story.

Worth the ticket price!

-Ater

The Basic plot of Last Holiday pulls no punches. Queen Latifa is Georgia, a quiet, hard-working department store sales clerk who, after years of dreaming and slaving away, is diagnosed with a rare terminal disease. She decides to chuck it all, cash in her savings, and go out in a blaze of 5-star fun at a Czech resort.

Along the way during her last two weeks, she finds love, finds God, and delivers much needed wisdom and comeuppance to the snobby politicians and evil retail chain owning egomaniac.

There are no surprises and no real twists here, but the film succeeds because Queen Latifah and co-stars Tim Hutton and LL Cool J are very talented and all deliver fine performances.

Don't buy this expecting great cinema, but do expect a nice, gentle comedy with some simple life lessons. Good fun, good for the family, and worth owning to pull out on a quiet evening now and then.

A really fun and enjoyable film with the wonderful Queen Latifa. Great European scenery, a sweet story line, appropriate for the whole family, and really really sweet. Most anything with Queen Latifa is great, she's one of my top favorites. Anyone would enjoy this film!