Almost Christmas (2016)

While this move may have its predictably but it comes off with a strong performances from its cast particularly Danny's Glover character Walter who is adjusting to life after his wife grace suddenly passes away and is uncertain of what his future holds. He decides that he wants his four children Cheryl the dentist, Christian the congressman, Evan, the football player and Rachel the struggling single mother who is trying to be a lawyer come together with the holidays. Despite Walter best efforts to have a smooth Christmas,so the siblings end up fighting but luckily Monique brings in the comedic relief as aunt may who is great in this film.

I love IMDb and find the user reviews to be very informative reading. I wouldn't consider myself a "power user" however so have never written one....until now. I do so to tell you how god damn awful this film is. The acting is lame and the plot is highly unoriginal. My girlfriend and I successfully predicted some of the lines just as they were about to be delivered. It's a cross between all the worst parts of The Cosby Show and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation while containing none of their virtues. Stick to the latter if you're looking for some xmas feel-good light entertainment. It's shocking how a director like this could demand such a large budget (17 million was it?). Avoid this at all costs!

Ah, the holidays. It's a chance for families and friends to get together in complete peace and harmony. Pffft! If only! It's a wonderful thing when people come together to celebrate holidays and other family-centric moments, but they rarely go according to plan – or as smoothly as most of us wish they would. Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Eid, Festivus, the Winter Solstice or any other gathering with loved ones, you're probably familiar with the problem. You get together people who love each other, but rarely see each other outside of holidays, weddings and funerals and some people pick up right where they last left off – with annoying habits, strong differences of opinion and old grudges that should've been dealt with or dropped long ago in the interest of family harmony. This scenario is the foundation of many a holiday comedy, including "Almost Christmas" (PG-13, 1:52).Walter Meyers (Danny Glover) is having a very tough time. The mother of his children and the love of his life died suddenly some months ago and he's now facing his first Christmas without her. He has also secretly made the difficult decision to sell the family home, a house that has become a place of sadness for him since his dear wife's passing. Walter is also struggling with trying to duplicate his wife's famous sweet potato pie for the holidays. He invites his four adult children and their families to spend Christmas together in that house (one last time), despite the problems that he knows they have getting along.As with all families, there are a lot of differences within the Meyers family – and a lot of history – some positive and some… challenging. Rachel (Gabrielle Union) is a single mom who's very independent (almost pathologically so) who aspires to be a lawyer, but feels stuck in her job as a waitress. Rachel's lack of actual accomplishments brings judgment from her older sister, Cheryl (Kimberly Elise), who is a dentist. But Cheryl has problems of her own, mostly because of Lonnie (J. B. Smoove), her ex-athlete husband who constantly talks about his glory days, often to pretty young women who are not his wife.Walter also has two sons who are at very different places in their own lives. Christian (Romany Malco) and his wife, Sonya (Nicole Ari Parker), have their hands full with two precocious children. Christian is also running for Congress and is so focused on his campaign that he brings his campaign manager (John Michael Higgins) with his family for the holidays. The youngest of Walter's kids, Evan (Jessie T. Usher) is a college football player with lots of potential – if he can recover from a shoulder injury, and stop taking his pain killers, and get past his mother's death, which seems to be affecting him more than his siblings.Not only are all these related (but very different) people coming together for Christmas, they're all staying in the family home for the days leading up to the holiday. Adding to the… um, festivities are Walter's loving but loud and opinionated sister-in-law, career back-up singer Aunt May (Mo'Nique), Evan's best friend, Eric (DC Young Fly), who has "a thing" for Aunt May, next-door neighbor Malachi (Omar Epps), against whom Rachel is nursing a very old grudge, and a local grocery store cashier named Jasmine (Keri Hilson) who has what turns out to be an unfortunate connection with two members of the extended Meyers family. There's plenty for this collection of characters to try to work through during these five days – without killing each other in the process. It's a good thing that it is almost Christmas."Almost Christmas" is one of the best holiday family comedies I've seen. Its plot calls to mind the fun of 1989's "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". That film may have more laughs, but this one has more heart. Both have outrageous moments – and moments to make you chuckle – and smile. This ensemble is terrific (especially Glover, in one of his best recent roles) and each actor has a lot to do, with good character development and backstories that are engaging and come together wonderfully. "Almost Christmas" isn't especially original, is otherwise almost perfect. "A-"

For the record, I love Thanksgiving and am not a fan of putting up Christmas trees this early, but I can appreciate a feel-good holiday film anytime of the year.Unfortunately for director David E. Talbert, this delivered few laughs and some grunts and sighs. It's to be expected, though, as these sorts of films make their rounds ad nauseam during the holidays.Almost Christmas brings together a recognizable cast, which includes Danny Glover, Mo'Nique and Gabrielle Union, that surely makes the characters more appealing to moviegoers. The premise for this film surrounds a family reunion during Christmas in Birmingham, Alabama, months after Walter's (Glover) wife, Grace, dies. The once- functional family struggles to get along due to implicit and explicit frustrations among one another.Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got by the Four Tops softly plays in the background as a very quick opening montage through the years shows how Walter, Grace and their family loved each other. What struck through the first half hour was a sense of composure, which some of these one-time holiday films usually fail to achieve.As the five-day countdown until Christmas began, the comedic writing by Talbert kicked into gear and shoved more of the serious tones out of the window. Aunt May (Mo'Nique) is very outspoken and makes her presence known from the minute she appears. Most of the personal insults come from her, but not all were cringe-worthy. I even found myself laughing in-between the more heavy-handed jokes, but it was almost too obvious in moments that the stage was her's.However, there were far too many cheesy moments and exactly that: heavy-handed jokes. Yeah, we get it, children love their iPhones and documenting everything for social media. But do we need to hear them shout, "Worldstar!"? Yeah, we also get that Uncle Lonnie (J.B. Smoove) is making Santa Claus butt jokes, but you don't need to linger on the fact that they're butt jokes. Make 'em and move forward, except for the Worldstar joke. Don't ever make that joke again.The movie also introduces Jessie T. Usher for the first time since Independence Day: Resurgence. Usher plays Evan, Walter's son and a star college football athlete who has everything, yet is addicted to painkillers he was prescribed for his once-injured shoulder. The film uses his drug use to teach a lesson later in the film that was oddly placed in-between another conflict.Rachel (Union) and her sister, Cheryl (Kimberly Elise), have a bad relationship to boot which ends up being the best relationship/conflict throughout the film. The other relationships were … eh, forgettable. There's a weaker subplot which involves Christian (Romany Malco), Walter's son-turned-politician, and it feels like it's no more than a stopgap for the "Christmas miracle" of the film. It was added to the list of generic moments triggered by the film's screenplay.Glover adds little to the film as it moves on other than stopping arguments and reminding his children and family that they need to love rather than shout. It's understandable why he's soft-spoken throughout the entire film after losing his wife, but this showcases that his best acting days may be behind him.I feel the movie will resonate well with audiences that can truly relate to the dysfunction of dinners during the holidays. There were many specific moments where the theater was in raucous laughter and others that struck heartstrings. There's fun found in a dancing scene, and Almost Christmas ends as it began: with the Four Tops. Seriously speaking, it ends on a feel-good note and is tolerable, but it just doesn't bring enough to the table to break out of its generic shell.