The Good

This film has a good message.

The Bad

How in the world did Wayne Wang end up directing this?Last Holiday is the sort of film that Hollywood used to make. Since it exhausted the story of a person thinks they're dying, they start living life to the fullest, then they realize they actually are going to live, Hollywood has decided to reboot this by recasting the characters with people of different ethnicities. There is nothing wrong with this per se, it just seems like one would try and tap into more original ideas than to keep rehashing older ones.

I could very easily go into this story and try and break down the characters and what not, but if you haven't seen the film but you've seen the trailer (or even the Blu-ray cover art), you can pretty much figure out the kind of story this film employs. By the same token, these films are needed. They make people feel good and if that is the only function they serve, then they have served their purpose.

Features

Theatrical Trailer HD

Are you f&%king kidding me? This is a Blu-ray disc release and the best that Paramount can do is make the trailer in HD? I am sorry but that is just garbage. Why is the film even on Blu-ray? I also love that they put a sticker on this release saying that gamers can use it on their PS3 machines. Do they really think that the Comic-Con audience wants to see this film in that format? I have an idea, why didn't they just make this thing able to use BD Live?

Standard Definition Features

- Last Holiday: Packing Light

- Last Holiday: Last Look

- Last Holiday: 23 Years in the Making

- Deleted Scenes

Video

1080p High Definition - This film looked pretty good on Blu-ray disc. I wasn't jumping out of my skin at how awesome it was but things do look pretty nice here. This is one of those movies where every scene seems like it was shot a hundred times just to make sure that things are "perfect." Due to this, the film has an almost sterile feel. In fact, it almost seems like we can see the actors thinking as they are acting. This is never more present then on the DVD artwork.

Audio

English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD / French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital/ Subtitled in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The audio on this release was strong but predictable. I knew when the audio was going to swell, crescendo or do anything else that it was supposed to do during specific scenes. I don't know if having a surround sound system would really help this release. I say that because the audio doesn't lend itself to really being part of this experience. Everything is just sort of there and this movie works as much as it can.

Package

Queen Latifah, LL Cool J and the rest of the cast are shown on this front cover. I think it's the same image that was used when this movie was first released in theaters. The back gives us some images from this film, a description of what this movie is about, a "Special Memoirs" section, and a cast list.

Final Word

What is LL Cool J doing to his reputation?

Isn't it bad enough that Ice Cube is doing kid's films?

I am sorry but it was very hard to buy LL Cool J in this movie. He was trying his best and he is actually not a bad actor, but man, I felt sorry him have to play the man fighting for Queen Latifah's heart. Heck, even Timothy Hutton and Gerard Depardieu seem like they are just here to collect a paycheck. As I stated above, I understand the function of movies like this and I think as long as they bring smiles to peoples faces that is all that matters.

Last Holiday does nothing that movies of its ilk have not done before but that doesn't mean it isn't worth your time.

Last Holiday was released January 13, 2006.