The Perfect Holiday

The Perfect Holiday

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Lance Rivera
Produced by Joseph P. Genier
Leifur B. Dagfinnsson
Marvin Peart
Mike Elliott
Petra Hoebel (line)
Queen Latifah
Shakim Compere
Stevie "Black" Lockett (associate)
Written by Jeff Stein
Lance Rivera
Marc Calixte
Nat Mauldin
Starring Morris Chestnut
Gabrielle Union
with Faizon Love
and Terrence Howard
and Queen Latifah
Narrated by Queen Latifah
Music by Christopher Lennertz
Cinematography Teodoro Maniaci
Edited by Paul Trejo
Production
company
Destination Films
Capital Arts Entertainment
Truenorth Productions
Flavor Unit Entertainment
Distributed by Yari Film Group
Freestyle Releasing
Destination Films[1]
Release dates
  • December 12, 2007 (2007-12-12)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million[2]
Box office $5,812,781[3]

The Perfect Holiday is a 2007 family comedy film starring Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, and Terrence Howard and is produced by Academy Award-nominated actress Queen Latifah, who also narrates the movie. The film was released on December 12, 2007. The film has also appeared on many television networks, including Disney Channel and Family and BET. It was also the first film by Destination Films to receive a wide release since Beautiful.

Plot

Benjamin (Chestnut) is an aspiring songwriter who attempts to break into the music business by giving a copy of his recording track of a Christmas album to a rap artist named J-Jizzy (Charles Q. Murphy). Nancy (Union) is a divorced mother, who is too busy taking care of her three children to take care of herself. Her daughter Emily (Khail Bryant) overhears her mother say that she wished for a compliment from a man, and the daughter tells the local mall's Santa Claus about her mother's wish.

The Santa Claus turns out to be Benjamin, who notices Nancy. Later, while sitting in a Starbucks after his shift as Santa, Benjamin and his friend Jamal (Faizon Love) see Nancy go into a dry cleaners. Benjamin borrows Jamal's jacket, pretends to drop it off at the cleaners, tells Nancy that she's a very attractive woman (granting her wish), and leaves. Eventually, the two start to date and end up falling in love—without Ben realizing that Nancy's ex-husband is J-Jizzy.

Things take a turn for the worse, however, because Nancy's oldest son, John-John (Malik Hammond) is jealous of Benjamin going out with his mother and plots to break up the relationship. What follows is a series of funny and touching scenes that show viewers what "family" is really about.

Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard play omniscient roles in the movie. Howard is a mischievous and sly angel named "Bah Humbug", while Latifah is the kind, thoughtful angel, called "Mrs. Christmas".

Cast

Reception

The film was neither a critical nor commercial success. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 16% of critics gave positive reviews based on 54 reviews. It has a consensus stating The Perfect Holiday is the perfect example of Christmas movie clichés run amok.[4] Metacritic gave the film a 35/100 approval rating based on 22 reviews classifying the film has "generally negative reviews".[5] On its opening weekend, it opened poorly at #6 with $2.2 million.[6] The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.

References

External links

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