After All This Years...Why Isn't There A True Classic Black Holiday Film?
Why isn't there a great classic African American holiday film? Last Holiday is a guilty pleasure, but it's not really a Xmas film. I love Soul Food, but I don't consider that a Christmas holiday film either, that film is more than that. Most black films around the holiday are either too corny, too campy, or too heavy-handed with the Christianity. Last year, we got a couple of new holiday films with black casts, the results were clearly mixed.
This Christmas - watchable, but stereotypes galore. Professor Tracey's eyes were rolling hard at the hidden white wife, good sister/bad sister/baby sister rivalry, making out with the new boyfriend in the pantry, the cheating spouse storyline that even a blind man could see coming, and the mama I wanna sang plot line.
And I do not like films that depict violence between black couples, especially with the intent to get laughs or some kind of revenge response out of the audience. Domestic violence is a serious UNSPOKEN issue in the black community and the "baby oil and belt beating" scene in this film is not funny or appropriate .
That's why I skipped The Family That Preys and was turned off with Why Did I Get Married?, Tyler Perry uses this domestic violence device in his films too much for my comfort. With the real-life murders of actress Jennifer Hudson's family by her brother-in-law, black folks should not be cheering black man/black woman violence in movie theater.
The Perfect Holiday - perfectly horrible! The only time I laughed was looking at that brotha in the elf outfit and trying to put on that Santa suit later on in the movie. Corny as hell and what in the hell was Queen Latifah and Terence Howard doing in this movie? And what in the hell happened to Morris Chestnut and Gabrielle Union's careers?
I love the idea of the traditional holiday film that everyone watches over and over, knows all the lines, has a favorite character, sings the songs, etc.... And I would really love to have a holiday film like that about a black family. I'll put that hope on my Xmas list for next year.
