The Best Man Holiday

You're sharp enough to read UR, so I'm sure you've probably picked up on the fact that I don’t do sappy well, which is why I enjoyed the first The Best Man movie - largely free of sap.  I rarely like romantic comedies (yes, I think Pretty Woman was stupid very stupid, along with Bridget Jones, Brown Sugar, Love & Basketball, and just about every other “chick flick” date movie out there), but there are exceptions – When Harry Met Sally, As Good As It Gets, The Best Man… any good rule anticipates exceptions.

The Best Man Holiday… well, if the first one was a romantic comedy, this one is a dramedy.  It’s Grey's Anatomy sprinkled with glimpses of the original The Best Man.

VITALS

Malcolm D Lee (The Best Man, Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins) – Writer/Director

Monica Calhoun (The Players Club, Pandora’s Box) – Mia

Morris Chesnut (Think Like a Man, Kick Ass 2) – Lance

Melissa De Sousa (Miss Congenialty, Laurel Canyon) – Shelby

Taye Diggs (Equilibrium, Brown Sugar) – Harper

Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, Crash) – Quentin

Regina Hall (Law Abiding Citizen, Think Like a Man) – Candace

Harold Perrineau (The Matrix: Revolutions, Zero Dark Thirty) – Julian

Nia Long (Alfie, In Too Deep) – Jordan

Sanaa Lathan (Contagion, Something New) – Robyn

Eddie Cibrian (Good Deeds, Not Easily Broken) – Brian

IF YOU MUST KNOW:

It’s been about 15 years since the first one.  (Only some of the cast shows it.  I guess black really don’t crack.  Well, I know it don’t but like I said before… all good rule anticipates exceptions – see Terrence Howard, that dude looks like the only cat that actually aged chronologically).  Anyway, Holiday picks up after everybody has paired-up, bunned-up, booed-up, and knocked or gotten knocked-up. 

We find the over-achieving set of brown folks meeting up at Lance’s (Chesnut) crib for Christmas many moons after the first movie.  There is still tension betwixt Lance and Harper (Diggs) after the revelation that gave rise to the drama in The Best Man.  For those who don’t know – what had happent was that ummm… Harper slept with Mia (Calhoun) when they were back in college, but Mia was dating Lance and Lance was Harper’s best friend, of course it was a one-off and they never spoke of it again – who among us hasn’t been there… anyway, Lance finds out after Harper writes a book that gets widely read by friends and non-friends and he finds out on the eve of his wedding to Mia – but wait… Harper is his best man!  Oh no!

Now, the friends are all back together.  And, unlike the first movie, this one was a damned circle tear jerk.  Everybody was crying all over the place.  It’s almost like Malcolm Lee (Writer/Director) wanted to make sure all of these actors could see themselves getting considered for a Golden Globe nomination.  Well, hope springs eternal. 

Holiday is the kind of movie that makes me really not want to go see “romantic comedies.”  Oh, it was pretty good, but it wasn’t all that romantic, and it wasn’t all that comical either.  I confess, this is some of the best acting I have seen any of these folks do since… The Best Man (although for some of them, it’s the ONLY acting I’ve seen them do since then).  For example, Morris Chesnut was acting like he was a Q dog, but I had heard he was a Sigma Man.  I’ll have to consult my Blue & White brothers to see what they say about that. **Addendum: I checked.  He's not. Sigh of relief.** Despite its utter sappiness and borderline contrivances, there were some memorable moments of levity and wittiness – a couple surrounding Brian’s (Cibrian) presence in the field o’chocolate, and a couple based on Julian’s (Perrineau) T-Pain/Wiz Khalifa style nuptials to Candace/Candy (Hall).  Dude married a stripper… I mean, com’on, son.  The phrase “in for a penny, in for a pound” seems appropriate.  Oh, and the Can You Stand the Rain scene... nice.  Had me reminiscing.  

Take a date.  Go see Holiday.  Support black cinema and all that.  But bring tissues and expect to not laugh enough to satisfy your taste for comedy or view sufficient romance that stirs your own.  It was good-ish.  I’m not mad I saw it, but I wish I had been warned that it was going to be this serious.  Consider yourself so warned.

IMTHATDUDE gives The Best Man Holiday: 3

RATING SYSTEM:

5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!
4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.
3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.
2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…
1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.