Star Rating:

The Best Man Holiday

Director: Malcolm D. Lee

Actors: Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Monica Calhoun

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Genre(s): Factual

Running time: 123 minutes

First things first, this is the sequel to The Best Man, released back in 1999. Didn't see it? Never heard of it? Not to worry, the opening credits of this movie gets you all caught up with what happened last time. There are lovers and relationships and trysts and rivalries and all that good stuff that happens in any large group of friends.

Fifteen years later, and the group of friends have all been called to the home of Mia (Monica Calhoun) to celebrate Christmas. In the interim, some of the friends have gotten rich and famous, some are sports stars, some are Z-list reality celebrities, and some have fallen on some hard times, financially. Once they all get under the one roof, they all fall back into old habits, squabbling and flirting in equal measure. But one look at Mia and you'll figure out that there's something she's hiding from the group…

Christmas brings out the best and worst in everyone, but all their petty arguments are pushed to one side in the face of a larger tragedy. From the opening credits, you can tell how this is going to end. This is cookie-cutter film-making, clichéd from start to finish, and is exactly the kind of film that shouldn't work at all. But somehow, perhaps due to its charm, or by wearing its heart so proudly on its sleeve, it totally works.

Writer/director Lee has got a decent cast, with a few recognisable faces - Taye Diggs, Regina Hall (the annoying lady from Scary Movie), Harold Perrineau (from Lost), Terence Howard - and they all put in good work here. It starts off vaguely comedic, but as time goes on, the laughs stop coming, and the sads arrive. And oh boy, there will be tears!

The Best Man Holiday is not a subtle movie, as it comes at your heartstrings with a sledgehammer. An annoyingly effective tear-jerker, it doesn't give your head much of a work-out, but there is something cathartic about an old-school weepie.