Movie Info:
Writer: Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
Director: Wayne Wang
Cast: Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt, Gérard Depardieu, Jane Adams, Michael Estime, Susan Kellermann, Jascha Washington
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Info:
DVD Release Date:December 30, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $19.99
My movie styles vary quite a bit. While my favorite genres tend to be horror and drama, I occasionally watch chick friendly movies. My mother is a lover of all things chick. She also loves Queen Latifah. From the minute she first saw commercials for the movie Last Holiday, she asked me if I could get a copy of it for review. After I reviewed it, the movie would then become hers.
Well, I couldn’t get Last Holiday in standard edition. She ended up watching it on television and stored it on her DVR. Well, that is until I did the next best thing. I was able to get her Last Holiday in Blu Ray. She told me I’d love the movie and while it wasn’t on my list of high priority movies to watch, I happened to catch it while it was on television.
I have to say I didn’t hate this movie. In fact, I thought it was pretty good. I don’t always like the chick-friendly movies, but I do like Queen Latifah. I’ve also been a fan of LL Cool J for years. What more could I want in a lighthearted comedy? That being said, what I believe makes this movie is the acting. The comedic timing of the cast, especially Queen Latifah, is a major part of why this movie so enjoyable. A lesser cast would have made this movie trite and humorless.
That’s not to say that the plot of the movie isn’t enjoyable. It’s a new variation on your typical love story. While this story specifically hasn’t been told before, the love story part of it has been in many other movies. Still, when executed correctly, as it is in the plot for Last Holiday, this love story is timeless. It’s fresh, new and it can hold its own!
The Last Holiday Plot
Georgia Byrd (Queen LatifaH) is a kind, caring and somewhat shy woman. She is an employee at Kragen’s Department Store in New Orleans, Louisiana. She slaves away in the cookware department, all while dreaming of becoming a professional chef. Georgia is hopeful her dreams will one day come true, and she writes about her dreams in her journal, regularly.
Georgia has a handsome co-worker, Sean Williams (LL Cool J). She really likes Sean, so much so, that while talking to him, she hits her head on a cabinet door and is hurt. After her injury, she is rushed to the store’s health center to discuss her injury with Dr. Gupta. During her CAT scan, it is discovered that Georgia has multiple tumors. She would have to have costly surgery for the tumors to be removed from her brain. However, the HMO from her job doesn’t pay for such treatment, so Georgia is told she doesn’t have much time left. She will die in as short amount of time as she has no other options.
Georgia realizes she can either let death hit her during her drab, hum drum life or she can live her last few weeks to the fullest. So, she ends up quitting her job, taking all her money out of the bank, and heads off on the vacation of a lifetime. She travels to Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic to stay at the luxurious Grandhotel Pupp. There she loses all sense of her old self, staying in the Presidential suite and pampering herself like crazy.
Georgia meets a whole cast of characters, that entertain and perhaps even annoy her during her trip. There is world renown chef, Chef Didier (Gérard Depardieu), who prepares all of the delicious meals that Georgia eats. Senator Dillings (Giancarlo Esposito) from her home state of Lousiana is also there, as is the owner of the store where Georgia works, self-help expert Matthew Kragen (Timothy Hutton) and his mistress, Ms. Burns (Alicia Witt), amongst others.
While Georgia is enjoying all the attention, is busy making friends, and is enjoying the vacation of her dreams, she realizes something is missing. She has to make a decision to enjoy her last days, alone, while being investigated by the not so trusting Kragen, or to return home to spend them with Sean and the other people in her life who mean the most to her.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting: 
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
Last Holiday offers a visual setting in its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 1080p HD. What you see here is what you would expect to see from a romantic comedy in DVD or Blu-ray. The colors here look fabulous with bright warmth, which perfects the scenery found in the movie. However, there is a level of detail that one normally expects from Blu-ray that is missing in this film.
This is likely because it was not given the true BD experience. The quality is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not Blu-ray good. If this were a standard definition DVD I would say it was absolutely excellent. The problem is that it is standard quality excellence with a Blu-ray label attached.
The audio received more of a Blu-ray workup for Last Holiday. The English track is available in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. There are no issues with compression errors and though things remain solid in the front channels, they do sound great.
No problems are to be found in hearing the dialogue or enjoying the soundtrack or the minimal sound effects in this film. In addition to the English track there are Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in Spanish and French. Meanwhile, the audio options are rounded out with subtitles in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Visual:
Audio:
Bonus Features:
Last Holiday has a simple bonus features section that does not include a large amount of content. Once you get past the two deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer, all you have are three featurettes worth around thirty minutes and that’s it.
Naturally, the trailer is a standard bonus that means little in the scheme of things and in the case of most deleted scenes they just serve as a filler because they were deleted for a reason. So, that leaves us with the three featurettes in terms of true bonuses.
“Last Holiday: Packing Light”: is somewhat of a Making Of that lasts for a little over fifteen minutes. It looks at how the project came to be with the creative talents that signed on in order to make this movie happen. “Last Holiday: Last Look” comes in at just under eight minutes and deals with the locations and the various forms of scenery in the film, as well as the differences between them.
Finally, “Last Holiday: 23 Years in the Making” deals with the 23 years that it took to take this movie from idea to production. The early scripts were written with a man in the lead, but the decision to switch was an obvious winner. Other details about the movie and the film it was based on are included in this seven minute featurette.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
Last Holiday is a fun movie. It will appeal to a wide audience, even those not necessarily into chick flicks. While I wasn’t as thrilled with the Blu Ray aspect of this movie as I should have been, I still enjoyed watching Last Holiday, in any form. If you already own this movie, you’ll want to seriously consider whether an upgrade is worth the money. If you don’t, you can get away with purchasing the standard edition of Last Holiday, and save a few bucks, in the process.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Blu Ray, BD, Paramount Home Entertainment, Last Holiday, LL Cool J, Comedy, Queen Latifah
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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn Evans is a writer, advocate, free thinker, and all around cynical person. Always quick to find the negative in anything pop culture, she loves being a part of that which she despises. Ashtyn and Dominick own numerous blogs together, as well as a full-time writing business. In her spare time she is a full-time college student studying History and Psychology. She plans to one day give up her freelance career and be a full-time blogger, novelist, and domestic goddess. She can be contacted for writing projects, fan mail, or just to say hi. She really is friendlier than we make her look.
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