Review of Nothing Like the Holidays (2008) by Ismael S — 04 Dec 2009

Nothing like the Holidays is a just name for this movie because it pretty much had nothing to do with the holidays.

Thanksgiving came around last week and as always the Christmas spirit follows soon after. So me and my Cousin checked out the local RedBox and saw this movie. Its about A Puerto Rican family (which already drew our attention since we are from PR), putting together what might just be their last Christmas.

It has many stars but at least two of them are known for comedy, Luis Guzman and John Leguizamo. The others are Alfred Molina, Debra Messing and Elizabeth Peña. Seeing the trailer and looking at the cast, its reasonable to believe this movie is a comedy. Well...I or we, were pretty much mistaken.

I dont feel like going over the plot because its just about a dysfunctional Puerto Rican family that fights all the time and never seem to be able to spend time together. This can happen to any family, and the film didn't really add or take away anything by introducing a Puerto Rican family to the audience.

As for the comedy, it was barely there. Sometimes I found myself laughing, but oftentimes I couldn't hear the movie from my cousin and my uncle laughing hysterically at a lame attempt for a joke. This movie is NOT a comedy, nor is it a Christmas movie, despite the title. It is merely a drama with comedy elements taking place during Christmas time, which I suppose could increase the amount of stress on the characters and how dysfunctional they trully are. Some jokes won't be understood by a standard American audience because they are geared more toward the Hispanic crowd. Some jokes aren't even funny.

The movie tries to present itself as a comedy, but in the end its more like a serious drama, and the movie does have its moments, it can be somewhat interesting but it doesn't pay off in the end. I was misguided by the trailer and I felt cheated out from the time I spent watching this.

Other than that, the main story is solid because it has almost no plotholes but at the same time, it can be boring. The side stories are terrible though and some of them are left unanwsered. The pacing is good and the climax was evident but it wasn't unexpected. Some of the performances were generic and overall this was a B-Grade movie.

I was extremely disappointed and I wish this movie ahd more to offer. The comedy was lacking, Christmas spirit was non-existent and the story didn't fit. I give it 2 stars.