Holiday films and romantic comedies are allowed a certain level of leeway when it comes to the schmaltz factor, as both genres pay homage to the schmaltziest of American traditions. But writer/director Lance Rivera (The Cookout) overdoes it big time with The Perfect Holiday, an almost unbearably hackneyed lump of coal dumped in our cinematic stockings.

Morris Chestnut (The Game Plan, Ladder 49) stars as Benjamin, a struggling would-be songwriter making ends meet as a department store Santa Claus in a New Jersey mall. Sparks fly when he encounters Nancy (Gabrielle Union), a beleaguered mother of three currently estranged from her hip-hop mogul husband, J-Jizzy (Chappelle's Show alum Charlie Murphy). Barriers to their Yuletide love connection arise first in the form of Nancy's eldest son John-John, who still stubbornly clings to the prospect of his parents re-uniting, and then in the form of selfish Jizzy, who seeks custody of the kids so that he can use them to market his wretched new Christmas album.

Love eventually conquers all, as expected, but not before we're forced to sit through a nearly endless parade of clichés, unfunny jokes, and empty drama. Rivera assembled a solid cast for The Perfect Holiday, then handed them pox-infected blankets in the form of a truly awful script. While Chestnut and Union exhibit solid chemistry as the romantic leads (It's little wonder -- the two have paired on-screen a bazillion times, dating back to 2001's Two Can Play That Game), Murphy and cohort Katt Williams, both of whom make their livings as decidedly R-rated comedians, flounder in Holiday's PG setting. Even more useless are Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard, who play narrator Mrs. Christmas and her troublemaker pal Bah Humbug, respectively. Howard, in particular, is embarrassing to watch -- The Perfect Holiday almost certainly represents a career low for one of the finest actors working today.  

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