Customer Reviews

The Perfect Holiday

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Perfect Holiday is not necessarily a bad movie but its far from a good one too. While I admire a movie that does not try to be offensive and wants to be positive there is a thin line from being a little schmaltzy to laying it on real thick. The movie is not unwatchable. It has a talented all-star cast that do a decent job acting but the script is hackneyed and cheesy to a fault plus its pretty bland.

Spoiler Alert!

The story: Gabriell Union plays Nancy, a newly divorced woman who's daughter overhears her conversation about what she wants from a man: a compliment. The daughter goes to a mall Santa(played by Morris Chestnut) named Benjamin and wishes that her mom gets a compliment by her man. Benjamin(Chestnut) gives Nancy a compliment and soon they begin to date. Problems arise when Nancy's naive son, John John gets annoyed by Benjamin because the little tyke misses his arrogant and thoughtless wannabe-rapper father J-Jizzy(played by Charlie Murphy)who would rather be large than be with his family. Then things get even more complicated for the relationship between Nancy and Benjamin when J-Jizzy asks for Benjamin, who also sings to record with him. Queen Latifah plays Mrs Christmas, an angel who is also the narrator of the movie.

Opinion: Positive: this movie is not terrible. Negative: but its not memorable either. Positive: it has an all-star cast. Negative: they are all wasted on a script that pulls every Christmas cliche out of the book.
Positive: The Perfect Holiday is earnest and has a heart. Negative: its syrupy to the point of cheesiness. Positive: it makes an effort at humor. Negative: The humor misses more than it hits. Positive: Its the least offensive Christmas comedy ever made. Negative: It wallows in mediocrity like pigs do in mud. Positive: Its great to see a movie especially an African-American film that is not based on sex and violence. Negative: Its kind of bland and the schmaltzy scenes are a bit much. All in all I would recommend this movie to you if you want to see a Christmas movie starring African Americans that is not offensive but Last Holiday and This Christmas are much better. Perfect Holiday is far from a stinker but when compared to great movies like This Christmas Soul Food, The Wood, The Inkwell, Love Jones, Brown Sugar etc Perfect Holiday can easily be forgotten.

This movie was such a wonderful love story at Christmastime. A divorced mom who just wants to get on with life and love, daughter who wants Santa to make her mom's wishes come true, and a teenage son who just wants his parents to get back together. Well, Santa delivers, though the sleigh ride to love was not easy!!!

I watched this movie with my family and we all enjoyed it. It's a great film that I'm sure many families can enjoy together. This is one that I will be watching year after year during the holiday season.

The writing could have been better, but still it was a cute movie. Charlie Murphy was hysterical. Terrence Howard was funny and Morris Chestnut was yummy as always, so what was not to enjoy.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE. ITS A ROMANTIC COMEDY THAT ADULTS CAN WATCH AND KIDS ALSO. PERFECT FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY. GET YOUR FAMILY TOGETHER AND CHILL AND WATCH IT, HIGHLY RECOMMENED.

This movie was alright... really - alright. Morris Chestnut was yummy as ever and Gabrielle Union was cute as usual but not so mean in this movie (yay!). I thought it was nice to show her being a very involved and dedicated single mother of three kids and I liked the fact that she was intelligent and classy (as she always is). I wasn't quite sure why they forced Latifah and Terrence Howard in this movie. If you left the room at all, you could have easily missed their small parts throughout the movie. Faizon (sp) was kind of funny and Kat Williams was... Kat Williams. I'm not a fan of his so I have no comment about his role. I LOVE me some Charlie Murphy! He was crazy as ever! I gave it 4 stars because I "like" this movie. It's a cute holiday movie to watch with your family without being worried about anything obscene or profane. :)

I really loved this movie. It is funny and family orientated. I suggest that everyone get their family together and see this movie. I loved Gabriel Union and Morris Chestnut's (so handsome by the way)performance. I cannot wait for this movie to come out on November 11!! It is about time too!

When a movie is made for children, I try to look at it from a different viewpoint because of course an adult is going to see something that's extremely unrealistic from what a kid would pay attention to (ex. the mall being so close to where the children's father's Christmas party is that a little boy could run all the way there), so I'm going to leave out cons on this review simply because they'd all be issues where things weren't possible.

Pros: Although I initially went to see the movie and watch Union and Chestnut onscreen to see if they were the couple, I was more entertained with watching Katt Williams and Terrance Howard. I never considered Howard to be all that funny, but I loved his role in this movie. I looked forward to every scene he was in to see what goofy stuff he'd do. I'm pretty positive that Katt did a lot of improv in his work because those jokes were something he'd probably say on stand-up or on "Wild n' Out." That guy is so funny to me.

The movie was about a single mother with three children and a distant ex-husband who is a big rapper. The oldest son, who reminded me SO much of my oldest nephew and made me smile a lot because I kept relating the two, wants his parents back together, and the youngest child (the daughter) would rather make Mommy happy by using Santa Clause to get her wishes. How unselfish of a child to go for Mommy's wishes over the latest toy. Both the youngest and the oldest are almost competing at who will win the love on war and Christmas wishes to make for an amusing family-oriented tale. Although I spent most of my time waiting on Terrance Howard and Katt Williams to be in scenes, the rest of the movie was cool too. I'd recommend it to any family looking for a wholesome film about the holidays.

I was really excited to see this movie, not only because of the star power involved, but also because it is a Christmas movie. It's a ok movie.

I love Gabrielle Union and Morris Chestnut BUT The Perfect Holiday was not perfect. The story line was CUTE but not written for a major motion picture. This type of movie would have been great for Lifetime or a movie that goes straight to DVD format. I gave the movie 2 stars because the cast was well picked but the story line was lackluster.