Last Holiday – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Dec 23, 2008, 13:12 GMT

Enjoy Yourself … It\'s Later Than You Think! It\'s advice to follow for shy New Orleans cookware salesclerk Georgia Byrd (Oscar nominee Queen Latifah) when her doctor informs her that she has less than a month to live. With news like that, it\'s time to give your life a serious makeover! So Georgia jets off on a dream vacation to live life like there\'s no tomorrow. Enjoy hearty laughs and ...more

A glossy remake of a little-seen 1950 Brit comedy with Alec Guinness, Queen Latifah effectively takes over the role of a salesperson who only embraces life after finding out they only have three weeks to live. Pleasant enough, this 2005 pic is still a peculiar pick for a high-def Blu-ray release but here it is nonetheless. 

What is aiming for a feel-good crowd pleaser, 'Last Holiday' gives Latifah a little breathing room for some sass, but mostly keeps her slightly inhibited to match her character, and there's uneven scenes of slapstick comedy balanced out with the kind of supporting characters, both supportive and antagonistic, that can only be found in films like this - where you know everybody turns out to have a good side.

The scenario of the old pic is kept pretty much the same with a salesman diagnosed with a fatal illness and impulsively decides to go on a 'last holiday' and blow the savings on an extravagant trip where careless spending at an expensive resort catches the attention of everybody. 

The script is updated where Guinness' George Bird becomes Latifah's Georgia Byrd, an withdrawn sales woman at a New Orleans department store. Going through life unassuming, she spends her nights making elaborate meals and dreaming of being a successful chef. Having a long-standing crush on a nice co-worker (LL Cool J), she can never work up the nerve to even act interested. 

Knocking herself out accidentally at the store, a CAT-scan is performed where she finds out she has three weeks to live. Taking the news better than I probably would, she decides to take her savings, cash out her bonds and head to Karlovy Vary, a spa resort town in Czech where she hopes to meet legendary chef Didier (Gerard Depardieu) and go out in style. 

Arriving in Vary via helicopter and taking the $4,000 a night presidential suite, buzz starts to spread about who this wealthy woman is. Pampering herself at every opportunity, she becomes under the scrutiny of a retail tycoon (Timothy Hutton), who just happens to own the store chain that she worked at, who gets suspicious of her when everyone around him including his mistress (Alicia Witt) and congressmen come under her spell.

A somewhat goofy plot machination, it allows for a few fun scenes where Hutton tires to keep up with Latifah's careless ways i.e. snowboarding and base-jumping. Of course, everybody is under the assumption she's somebody she's not and Hutton goes to great lengths to try and find out the truth. Will there be a big reveal scene that just happens to coincide on New Years Eve? 

Of course, but Latifah carries the film with a fairly effortless charm so even when it dips into 80s style comedy trappings, the film is always at the very least pleasant. Depardieu as the chef provides some charismatic scenes and reminds me of how good he was in films like 'Cyrano De Bergerac' and 'Green Card'. Hutton is a suitable antagonist with all smaller roles filled out well. 

The film is presented with a 1080p 2.35:1 AVC encode and the result is quite nice. The snowy, gorgeous landscapes of Karlovy Vary particularly stand out with a clean color palette that suits the film. Detail and color is befitting a two-year old film and as such, there's very little to fault here. The same with the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack which is as clean as it should be. 

Special Features include '23 Years in the Making' which details the remake's long development history once positioned as a vehicle for John Candy. 'Last Look' covers the production and costume design and 'Packing Light' which is the general making-of.

Of interest and irony is the comments about working with director Wayne Wang who made some early great films about Chinese-Americans as well as strong films about women including 'The Joy Luck Club' but who has all but abandoned that independent style. 

A few deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer round out the extras and par for the Paramount course is that the theatrical trailer is the only extra presented in high-def. 

While the movie doesn't dig too deep into the heavy thematic material it brings up (the same could be said for the similarly plotted and much better 'Joe vs. the Volcano'), it's a pleasant distraction and a fine vehicle for the improbably cast Queen Latifah.

The exotic, beautiful backdrop of Karlovy Vary makes for nice high-def eye candy so this comes as a mild recommendation for those looking for a low-key evening of entertainment. 

Last Holiday is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.