''The Perfect Holiday'' is a 2007

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Lance Rivera Lance "Un" Rivera is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, record producer, and music executive. Career Lance Rivera began his music career when he met a neighborhood rapper named Christopher Wallace, who rhymed under the name, ...

, starring

Gabrielle Union Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade ( Union; born October 29, 1972) is an American actress. Her career began in the 1990s, when she made dozens of appearances on television sitcoms, prior to landing supporting roles in 1999 teen films ''She's All That' ...

Morris Chestnut Morris Lamont Chestnut (born January 1, 1969) is an American actor. He first came to prominence for his role as Ricky in the 1991 film ''Boyz n the Hood''. He has appeared in feature films and on television series, including the starring role of ...

, Charlie Murphy, and

Terrence Howard Terrence Dashon Howard (born March 11, 1969) is an American actor. Having his first major roles in the 1995 films ''Dead Presidents'' and '' Mr. Holland's Opus'', Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of television and cinema roles ...

, and is produced by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated actress

Queen Latifah Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, and singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album ''All Hail the Que ...

, 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 Beautiful, an adjective used to describe things as possessing beauty, may refer to: Film and theater * ''Beautiful'' (2000 film), an American film directed by Sally Field * ''Beautiful'' (2008 film), a South Korean film directed by Juhn Jai-h ...

''.

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 Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

album to a

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

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

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

after his shift as Santa, Benjamin and his friend Jamal (

Faizon Love Faizon Andre Love (born Langston Faizon Santisima; June 14, 1968) is a Cuban-born American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles in the comedy films '' The Meteor Man'', ''Don't Be a Menace'', ''Friday'', ''B*A*P*S'', ''Elf'', '' Th ...

) 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.

and

play

omniscient Omniscience () is the capacity to know everything. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, this is an attribute of God. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism, there are diffe ...

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

- Nancy Taylor *

- Benjamin Armstrong * Charlie Murphy - J-Jizzy *Malik Hammond - John-John Taylor *Jeremy Gumbs - Mikey Taylor *Khail Bryant - Emily Taylor *

- Jamal *

Jill Marie Jones Jill Marie Jones (born January 4, 1975) is an American actress and former professional dancer and cheerleader. Jones is best known for her role as Antoinette "Toni" Childs-Garrett on the UPN comedy series, '' Girlfriends'' (2000–2006). Jon ...

- Robin *

Katt Williams Micah "Katt" Williams (born September 2, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He played Money Mike in ''Friday After Next'', had a stint on ''Wild 'n Out'', portrayed Bobby Shaw in ''My Wife and Kids'', provided the voice of A Pimp N ...

- Delicious *

- Mrs. Christmas *

Rachel True Rachel India True (born November 15, 1966) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in such films as '' The Craft'' (1996), '' Nowhere'' (1997), and ''Half Baked'' (1998). True is also known for her role as Mona Thorne on the UPN ...

- Brenda *

- Bah Humbug

Reception

The film was neither a critical nor commercial success.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

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 Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

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

* *
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