Maven Pictures,
Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Tyrese Gibson, Jacob Latimore, Mary J. Blige, Nas, Jennifer Hudson
Tyson (Tyrese Gibson) is a tough teen, growing up with a single Mom in Baltimore. When she loses her house, she sends Tyson to New York to live with his relatives. But they try to straighten him out and get him back on the right track so he heads back to the streets and learns the hard way about values and the meaning of life. This musical Christmas story is based on a stage play from 1961 by Langston Hughes.
I was not very impressed with this story. It wasn’t very original, nor was there much meat to the story. The music, I felt, took away from the film. Some of the songs come in awkward times that I felt took away from telling the story. In the end, it goes from total chaos to serendipity in a couple minutes and it really felt rushed. I have never been a fan of Jennifer Hudson, an though she screams pretty well, I never thought of her as a very good singer. In fact, when she comes off, I typically change the channel. That’s part of my problem I really enjoy Forest Whitaker, and he’s one of my favorites, and I felt he did a pretty good job in his role as the grandfather figure, a very religious man, and really concerned about his grandson. But he also is a bit flawed, and I felt he pulled that off really well too, and he was really good in this film. It was a Christmas movie, but it really didn’t feel much like it either. To sum it up, I felt let down with this film. I really wanted to catch it during the Christmas theater when it was out, but waited for DVD. I’ve been exited to see what it was all about, but I was sadly disappointed. It is a heartwarming story in the end, and has a place, I suppose, but I can’t widely recommend it because of my disappointment in the end.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
