Last Holiday Blu-ray Edition
Would you spend your last days on earth spending your life savings and enjoying the finer things or being good to those around you?
Film making 18/25
Cinematography 18/25
Audio 18/25
Bonus Features 10/25
Total 64/100
Georgia Byrd, played by Queen Latifah, has ambitions; she works at a department store selling cookware, she loves to cook and has a neighborhood friend she tries her new dishes out on. She longs to be a professional cook and takes pictures of her new creations before having a young neighbor try the dishes while she eats her Lean Cuisine meals.
Her pictures go into her Possibilities book that also has pictures of her crush at work Sean Williams, played by LL Cool J, who works in the grills section of the department store Georgia works in. While Sean is flirting with her at the end of their shift one day she hits her head on a cabinet door and they take her to the stores health center. Dr. Gupta finds several tumors in her brain using a CAT scan that the health center recently received and the Doctors have been wanting to try out.
The doctor tells her she has a few weeks to live and takes her to see a specialist who finds the diagnosis is accurate while looking at the CAT scans from the stores health clinic. Georgia starts by not telling anyone and has a slight mental breakdown while singing at her church where she asks God why and starts the typical Baptist church singing along with her.
She leaves and liquidates all her assets to take a last holiday vacation to her dream vacation spot, the European spa Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary of the Czeck Republic. When she takes a helicopter ride to get to the hotel faster from the airport and finds her room at the hotel is not ready and takes the Presidential suite everyone at the hotel assumes she is rich.
She finds out that Senator Dillings from her state that was supposed to speak at her church is at the hotel along with the owner of the store where Georgia works. Georgia impresses the hotel staff along with Chef Didier with her politeness and general good spirits and makes prominent Congressman Stewart, Senator Dillings and Mathew Kragen the owner of the store Georgia works at suspicious of her intentions.
When the group of bigwigs ask hotel staff about Georgia they do not get any information other than she is rich and from Louisiana which adds to the group’s suspicions. Georgia takes advantage of the hotels facilities and enjoys Chef Didier’s gourmet cooking which quickly makes friends of the chef and everyone of the hotel staff except the snooping guest services manager Miss Gunther.
Mathew Kragen bribes Miss Gunther to find out who Georgia is and what she is doing at the Grand Hotel Pupp but she only finds a letter to her sister describing her illness and telling her what she wants done with her when she has passed away. Miss Gunther is distraught at the letter and tells Kragen nothing and gives his bribe back which deepens the mystery behind Georgia.
Georgia spends her days base jumping and snowboarding at the hotel and when she defies Kragen who is too afraid to base jump she loses popular with him but her respect in the eyes of the rest at the hotel are broadened. When she wins at a benefit casino night she spends money as if she was rich and this maddens Kragen who suspects something about her and his insistence to find out who she is.
Sean has found out about her diagnosis from the doctor at the health center and goes in search of Georgia to tell her he loves her and flies to the spa to find her. During the New Years ball Kragen tells everyone at the table where they invited Georgia to dine and party with them that she is really his employee and not a rich or powerful person.
She doesn’t retaliate but tells them about her illness and about how she came to the hotel to spend her last days having some fun and living it up. Kragen is dejected and embarrassed by how he treated Georgia and Senator Dillings and Congressman Stewart sympathize with Georgia and scorn Kragen for his insensitivity.
Kragen crawls out on the balcony ledge of the hotel and the staff inform Georgia he is there so she tries to talk him down by crawling on the ledge with him. While they talk and Georgia tries to convince Kragen he is not all bad Sean joins the scene and crawls onto the ledge to tell Georgia that he loves her.
The hotel gets a fax from the Doctor in the stores clinic that the CAT scan was faulty due to it being an old hand me down from a real hospital and her diagnosis was wrong, she is fine. Miss Gunther tells the three on the ledge that Georgia diagnosis is wrong and she will be fine. Georgia kisses Sean and they all crawl off the balcony for a little after movie cut scene of what happens to them all later on.
Georgia and Sean open up a small restaurant and have guests like Chef Didier and the real Chef Emiril Lagasse at the grand opening. Last Holiday is a great film with a very inspirational message about life being too short and making the most of our time here with plenty of comedy interspersed here and there.
The Blu-ray edition of Last Holiday is a bit short on additional features but the fantastic scenery in high definition of most of the film is great in Blu-ray. The sound is also very good in Dolby Digital and definitely makes for a treat with some excellent work done in all parts of the film.
Last Holiday is one of those great films with such well done acting, directing and filming that it is a classic with a real heartfelt message. Both Queen Latifah and LL Cool J give great performances in the film and even though it did not get very high reviews I feel it is worth a look. Seeing the short sequence of Queen Latifah trying out different outfits and styles is a treat and pretty funny.
Last Holiday is a remake of the 1950’s Alec Guinness movie of the same name and took quite a bit of time in the works to get final approval. Back in the 1980’s some writers and directors were playing with the idea of remaking the 1950’s classic and had cast several men for the lead role but the film never got the final approval of a studio.
Finally in 2005 Queen Latifah’s agent asked the writers if they would rewrite the screenplay with her in the lead role and the rest is history. The Blu-ray edition has several making of features including one mostly about the cast and characters with another about the locations and the third concentrating on the remake and how they went about writing and getting the approval of the film.
There are a couple of deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer for the film but that is all for the additional features, like I said very light on the bonus content. But Last Holiday is a great film and one worth getting as it does have plenty of replay value in my opinion, this is a classic and heartfelt comedy with a truly inspirational message.
Last holiday is a great film and well worth purchasing in the Blu-ray edition with its great scenes filmed in Prague as well as the more down home scenery of Louisiana and New Orleans. I truly enjoyed Last Holiday and the fine performances by Queen Latifah and LL Cool J make for a great movie.