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The Perfect Holiday

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The Perfect Holiday
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLance Rivera
Written byJeff Stein
Lance Rivera
Marc Calixte
Nat Mauldin
Produced byJoseph P. Genier
Leifur B. Dagfinnsson
Marvin Peart
Mike Elliott
Queen Latifah
Shakim Compere
StarringMorris Chestnut
Gabrielle Union
Charlie Murphy
Katt Williams
Faizon Love
Terrence Howard
Queen Latifah
CinematographyTeodoro Maniaci
Edited byPaul Trejo
Music byChristopher Lennertz
Production
companies
Distributed byYari Film Group
Freestyle Releasing
Destination Films[1]
Release date
  • December 12, 2007 (2007-12-12)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$5.8 million[3]

The Perfect Holiday is a 2007 American 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

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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 about her mother's wish.

The Santa Claus turns out to be Benjamin, who notices Nancy. Later, while sitting in a Starbucks 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 omniscient 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

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Reception

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The film was neither a critical nor commercial success. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 19% of critics gave positive reviews based on 59 reviews. It has a consensus stating The Perfect Holiday is the perfect example of Christmas movie clichés run amok.[4] Metacritic gave the film a 32 out of 100 approval rating based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[5] On its opening weekend, it opened poorly at #6 with $2.2 million.[6] The film grossed $5.8 million domestically.

References

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  1. ^ "The Perfect Holiday". Freestylereleasing.com. 13 December 2007. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  2. ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007)". Box Office Flops. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  3. ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007)". Box Office Mojo.
  4. ^ "The Perfect Holiday". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 7, 2021. Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007):Reviews". Metacritic.
  6. ^ "The Perfect Holiday (2007)- Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo.
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