This week at the movies, we’ve got just one wide release: The Best Man Holiday, starring Taye Diggs and Nia Long in a comedy about a reunion of a bunch of old friends. What do the critics have to say?
Sometimes it feels good to see familiar faces from the past, even if you don’t have anything new to talk about. Critics say that’s essentially the case with The Best Man Holiday, a predictable comedy that benefits immeasurably from its outstanding ensemble cast and an overall sense of goodwill. Holiday reunites the stars from 1999’s The Best Man (Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, and more) for a yuletide get-together during which once-supressed passions are reignited and long-simmering grievances bubble over. The pundits say that while much of The Best Man Holiday is syrupy and conventional, the end result is likeable and satisfying, thanks to warm-hearted performances and a few big laughs. (Watch our video interviews with the stars and director Malcolm D. Lee, and click through our gallery of long-awaited sequels.)
The Great Beauty, a dramedy about an aging journalist who reflects on his career spent hobnobbing Rome’s glitterati, is at 92 percent.
Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte in a drama about a father and son who travel to the titular state to claim a sweepstakes prize, is Certified Fresh at 88 percent.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here, a documentary about the celebrated Russian artists, is at 86 percent.
Sunlight Jr., starring Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon in a drama about a blue-collar couple dealing with economic hardship and impending parenthood, is at 65 percent (check out this week’s Total Recall, in which we count down Dillon’s best-reviewed movies).
Faust, an eccentric new adaptation of Goethe’s classic tale, is at 73 percent.
Dear Mr. Watterson, a documentary about the spotlight-shunning creator of Calvin & Hobbes, is at 69 percent.
12-12-12, a document of the Hurricane Sandy benefit concert at Madison Square Garden featuring Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Alicia Keys, and many more, is at 56 percent.
Charlie Countryman, starring Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood in a thriller about a man who takes on a gangster to protect the daughter of a Romanian man he met on a flight, is at 29 percent.
