edwagreen
Morris Chestnut and Gabrielle Union make a fine team in this holiday movie, which by the way is moving. Thanks to 3 nice children, this picture attains its objective.It's Christmas time and the 3 children adore their singer father, divorced from mom, and totally indifferent to their needs.Enter a store Santa Claus into Union's life. He is an aspiring song writer, who unknowingly, tries to get her ex-husband to buy his song.As to be expected, the oldest child, John-John can't stand Ben, the boyfriend. He is loyal to his father.The picture spirals to the usual events where the boyfriend gives up Gabrielle to placate the son, and the usual crisis in these kinds of films, which bring about the true holiday spirit. Even the dad at the very end, isn't all that indifferent. He just wasn't cut out to be a family man.The picture, though cliché, is warm for the holiday season.Queen Latifah narrates as Mrs. Christmas and Terrence Howard plays an angel. Their parts weren't really needed. It's really all about the children, but shouldn't that be true circa December 25th?
drebaby
I saw "Perfect Holiday" and "I Am Legend" on the same day and to tell you the truth after the dreariness of "Legend", this was a nice movie to cheer me and my wife up. I mean we enjoyed Legend too, but this one made me feel better with the touching love story between Gabrielle Union and Morris Chesnutt and how the small children interacted in the movie.The story line was predictable going in to it, but it was better than I expected and if you rely on others comments, you are missing a nice charmer. The writing or character development isn't as profound as the other two African -American themed ensemble movies of the past two months, "This Christmas" or "Why did I get married?, but it is still charming enough for families and probably geared more toward younger families with kids where the other two movies were for more of an adult or older teen audience.Although both Queen Latifah and Terrance Howard have small roles, I hope no one was going to the movie expecting to see them. As someone stated earlier, I believe Howard just did it as a favor to his friends.As far as the box office receipts and interest, this is a movie that got lost in the shuffle of other so called black movie releases. Either there are none or too many. It probably should been released the Friday before Will Smith', I Am Legend and when "Awake" was the only new movie debuting and it probably would have made a few more dollars. Unfortnately even though it open two days before "Legend", it got caught up in that juggernaut and got lost like all other movies did with the exception the "Chipmunks". With "The Great Debaters" coming out Christmas Day, the Perfect Holiday will be gone from theaters before the holidays are over. Rent the DVD when it comes out and watch it with your toddlers...you all will enjoy it!!
marinbosley
One thing you can say about The Perfect Holiday is that it's slightly less idiotic than most of the recent crop of holiday movies. It doesn't suffer from the same juvenile slapstick bits as Deck The Halls, Surviving Christmas, or Christmas With The Kranks. Furthermore, it's nice to see people of color getting a story they can call their own, while all of those other titles (forgettable as they may be) depict Christmas as something that exists entirely in a white-bread suburban world. It's a shame that this movie isn't more original. It's filled with talented actors, but the script is at the level of a TV sitcom holiday special. Morris Chestnut and Gabrielle Union do they best they can with their cookie-cutter parts, but the audience knows from Minute One exactly where the jokes are going.
msims1
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.