Queen Latifah Last Holiday Views

General Goods

Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah), an employee in the cookware department at Kragen's Department Store in New Orleans, is a shy, unassuming woman who longs to cook professionally, and who records her dreams of a better life in a journal labeled Possibilities. It is the Christmas holiday season. While flirting with a co-worker Sean Williams (LL Cool J), she bumps her head on a cabinet door and is taken to the store's health center for a CAT scan. There she is told by company physician Dr. Gupta (Ranjit Chowdhry) she has several brain tumors resulting from a rare neurological disorder called Lampington's Disease. Since her HMO plan will not cover the exorbitant cost of an operation, Georgia resigns herself to the fact she has only a few weeks to live, quits her job, liquidates her assets, and sets off on a dream vacation at the deluxe Grandhotel Pupp in the spa city of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film takes advantage of the great good nature and warmth of Queen Latifah, and uses it to transform a creaky old formula into a comedy that is just plain lovable. To describe the plot is to miss the point, because this plot could have been made into countless movies not as funny and charming as this one ... All depends on the Queen, who has been known to go over the top on occasion, but in this film finds all the right notes and dances to them delightfully. It is good to attend to important cinema like Syriana and Munich, but on occasion we must be open to movies that have more modest ambitions: They only want to amuse us, warm us, and make us feel good. Last Holiday plays like a hug. [2]

Janet K. Keeler of the St. Petersburg Times graded the film B- and commented, Strong performances by Latifah, LL Cool J and Depardieu, who is strangely but perfectly cast, save Last Holiday from irrelevance. Latifah is more than the funny girl with attitude we've seen in Bringing Down the House, Taxi and Beauty Shop. She's got the goods to play the leading lady, and a sexy one at that. Latifah's performance here isn't as good as her Oscar-nominated turn in Chicago, but it shows off more range and a subtler touch than subsequent movies. [5]

Queen Latifah rings in the New Year playing Georgia Byrd, a reserved, church-going New Orleans department-store worker, in a"The Last Holiday,=" a remake of the 1950 movie of the same name. When diagnosed with a terminal illness, Georgia throws caution to the wind, quits her job, turns to her T"Book of Possibilitiesa"--a repository of all her hopes and dreams--and heads to Europe to accomplish everything she'd been putting off. Like Georgia, Queen Latifah chased her dreams and achieved them. A pioneer in the rap world, her debut album h"All Hail the Queenq" is considered one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. She has also conquered the small screen, starring in the hit sitcom