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Perfect Holiday (The)
R1 - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (21st January 2009). |
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The Film
 Each genre comes with its’ own formulas; sometime these can be well exploited and turned into a masterpiece under the right creative mind. Other times it’s simply a bag of tricks that simply turns a film into a game of scrabble, pulling out handfuls of pieces of old stories and trying to put them together into a recognizable formula without any real meaning to it. For the most part romantic comedies have become an endless game of scrabble, using the same letters, same words and double word scores to get such a high box office that they keep going on and on. Which is great for people who really like scrabble, but for the rest of us it gets disinteresting after a few rounds. So when a film like “The Perfect Holiday” (2007) tries to combine the letters from romantic comedy with the pieces of the Christmas movie, there’s a little bit of optimism that maybe the extra parts with bring something passably interesting. Unfortunately I was wrong. Fusing holiday movie with romantic comedy, “The Perfect Holiday” follows Nancy Taylor (Gabriel Union) is a single woman looking for a new man after a bad relationship. During a trip to visit a local mall Santa, Nancy’s daughter wishes for a man to pay her mom a compliment over the holiday. The mall Santa, Benjamin Armstrong (Morris Chestnut) fulfills the little girls wish and soon Nancy and Benjamin fall in love. Of course Benjamin is ashamed of his job as mall santa and so masks it in lies hoping to impress her, which he does, but he fails to impress her oldest son who still imagines that Nancy and his father will reunite. Benjamin is also a songwriter, looking for the praise of Nancy’s ex husband J-Jizzy (Charlie Murphy), who is a rap mogul, and can help put his dreams in motion. Of course none of these details come through until it’s time for some awkward moments and goofy comedy. Oh yeah, and Queen Latifa and Terrance Howard play omniscient good holiday/bad holiday spirits and Howard looses a lot of my respect. The film is truly the sum of its parts and doesn’t aspire to be much more. There’s hijinks and all kinds of attempts at comedy over the course of the film, but none of it really works. It almost feels like the writers and director Lance Rivera felt that if they threw enough holiday movie and romantic comedy fodder at the screen they could come up with something good. Attempts at comedy fall flat and attempts at romance don’t really work out, Gabriel Union just isn’t believable as a woman who doesn’t get compliments (I definitely don’t mean that as an insult, since the disbelief comes because she’s beautiful and talented and I don’t buy that even as a mother of three she wouldn’t get compliments when she goes out). Katt Williams plays against type and doesn’t play a pimp or an outrageous character, which is interesting to see from him and he does it well, only there really isn’t enough to his character to do anything with. Did I mention I lost respect for Terrance Howard? Overall the film is fairly plain and just a regurgitation of the same plots we’ve seen before. There are a couple of funny moments, but they don’t really make the movie last. And for the most part the actors have proven themselves as talented in other films they’ve been in; this one just doesn’t work for me at all. “The Perfect Holiday” is a fine display of recycled plots, jokes and ideas that just leave a sour taste and a dull experience.
Video
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the transfer is clean, but doesn’t feel as crisp as it should be as the colors in some scenes seem to run into each other a little bit. Overall it isn’t terribly noticeable, but mildly annoying and distracting on a couple of moments.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track sounds good enough, it’s got a fairly corny soundtrack typical of seasonal films, but even this comes through clearly. All the levels are fine and there are no real problems hear, though there isn’t anything particularly inspiring or interesting about the sound either. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are also included.
Extras
The single disc comes with a small cluster of features including an audio commentary track, a making-of featurette, a video diaries featurette and bonus trailers. First up is the audio commentary by producer Mike Elliot. The commentary mostly talks about some thematic concerns or character concerns, which gets monotonous at times as he simply restates the plotlines that are going on screen or already a part of the film that the viewer has already seen. There are some pauses and awkward gaps, which build upon the generally monotonous tone of Elliott. It’s a little odd that he was chosen above all others to bring in to record this commentary rather than any of the cast members, especially since the film has 6 producer credits attached to it. “Wish List: ‘The Perfect Holiday’ In the Making” featurette runs for 12 minutes and 28 seconds. The major players in the cast and crew of the film talk about the film’s plot, making and other aspects typically associated with a making of featurette. There’s a healthy amount of behind-the-scenes footage and it’s exactly what you would expect from a making of, though Chestnut does talk up the script a little more than I think is believable, it’s a nice enough featurette that achieves it’s purpose but isn’t that engaging. “Video Diaries: 6 Days on the Set of ‘The Perfect Holiday’” which runs for 15 minutes and 33 seconds. This featurette is almost an extension of the making of, comprised entirely of on-site footage including cast antics and actual filming sequences. It’s an nice enough featurette in terms of seeing what happens behind the scenes of the film, though it has trouble holding interest between the different scenes. There’s a lot of attempted jokes and jibes with the camera, but overall not a bad clip, just not a particularly interesting one. The bonus trailers on the disc are: - “Not Easily Broken” runs for 2 minutes and 1 second. - “This Christmas” runs for 2 minutes and 33 seconds. - “Center Stage 2” runs for 33 seconds. - “The Note” runs for 39 seconds. - “Fireproof” runs for 2 minutes and 14 seconds. - “Made of Honor” runs for 2 minutes and 34 seconds. - “Daddy Day Camp” runs for 2 minutes and 6 seconds. - “Are We Done Yet?” runs for 2 minutes and 33 seconds. - “Open Season 2” runs for 1 minute and 53 seconds.
Overall
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