''The Perfect Holiday'' is a 2007 comedy film directed by Lance Rivera, starring Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Charlie Murphy, and Terrence Howard, and is produced by Academy Award-nominated actress Queen Latifah, who also serves as narrator. The film was released on December 12, 2007. It was also the first film by Destination Films to receive a wide release since '' Beautiful''.

Plot

Benjamin (Morris 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 Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

about her mother's wish. The Santa Claus turns out to be Benjamin, who notices Nancy. Later, while sitting in a

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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

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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

* Gabrielle Union - Nancy Taylor * Morris Chestnut - Benjamin Armstrong * Charlie Murphy - J-Jizzy *Malik Hammond - John-John Taylor *Jeremy Gumbs - Mikey Taylor *Khail Bryant - Emily Taylor * Faizon Love - Jamal * Jill Marie Jones - Robin *

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- Delicious * Queen Latifah - Mrs. Christmas * Rachel True - Brenda * Terrence Howard - Bah Humbug

Reception

The film was neither a critical nor commercial success. Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics gave positive reviews based on reviews. It has a consensus stating ''The Perfect Holiday'' is the perfect example of Christmas movie clichés run amok. Metacritic gave the film a 32 out of 100 approval rating based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On its opening weekend, it opened poorly at #6 with $2.2 million. The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.

References

External links

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A Father and Son’s Perfect Holiday - Dad and 7 year old son discuss performing stunts in Queen Latifah's film
at Mosaec.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect Holiday, The 2007 films 2007 romantic comedy films African-American films American Christmas comedy films American romantic comedy films Films shot in New Jersey Films scored by Christopher Lennertz 2000s English-language films 2000s American films