THE PERFECT HOLIDAY is another one of those typical holiday films that some have touted as the "first African-American ensemble" that plays like its a television special than a theatrical release. This is another one of those hair-splitting claims that requires us to consider another movie about another over-the-top out of control African-American family going through the motions around the most joyous time of the year. For one,Gabrielle Union and Morris Chestnut make a sexy caramel couple. Maybe that explains why they're always paired up in movies. In this case you didn't get enough of their chocolate combo work in such films as "The Brothers","Two Get Play That Game",and "Breaking All The Rules". This time around they're back in "The Perfect Holiday". "Holiday" has Chestnut playing a struggling singer-songwriter working part time as a mall Santa. Apparently, this must be at the progressive mall if they're hiring a brotha to play of the traditionally alabaster St. Nick.
When a little girl(Khail Bryant)hops on this fake Santa's lap,all she asks for is a man to pay her mom(Union)a compliment she tells her friends she would like. Once our Kriss Kringle sees how mochalicious this girl's mama is,he decides to fulfill the wish himself. This sets off a farcial courtship between the two,which mostly has him keeping an eye out for one of her other children(Malik Hammond),who tries to prank this fool out of his mom's life(Fortunately,baby girl hips him to her big bro's tricks whenever he's in Santa mode.)The boy wants his mom to get back together with their father(Charlie Murphy of Chappelle's Show),an egostistical rapper our part-time Father Christmas-who doesn't know he's going out with his ex-is also hoping to work with. As cute and cuddly as this sounds,I have seen better movies with the same plot line and it is basically forgettable. What follows next is a series of events so uninspired and delusional that an old soul like Father Christmas couldn't save this fiasco of a film with a strong black cast. And speaking of the supporting cast,the actors are mostly made up of former UPN and WB sitcom players not to mention former comedians(Faizon Love from WB's "The Parenthood"and was also in the first "Friday" film opposite Ice Cube and Chris Tucker;Rachel True from "Half and Half";Jill Marie Jones-aka Toni Childs from "Girlfriends",and I know some of you wonder whatever happened to her after her departure from that show...;not to mention comedian Katt Williams and a host of others from "BET's Comicview")who look as if they took the job because,they didn't have much else to do.
The baffling parts of this are the special guest appearances by Queen Latifah and Terrance Howard as the night-and-day spirits who decide the fate of these characters. Terrance Howard is totally waste here(who looks like he doesn't want to belong in this in the first place and for an actor with an impaccable capacity of playing good roles),and it shows in some of the performances since the only saving grace here is Latifah herself who keeps this movie afloat,since Latifah's production company Flavor Unit films produced this movie which explains why she is there(Latifah serves as executive producer). But it is nice to see Union and Chestnut once again on the screen making black beautiful which is the only saving grace here.
