This Christmas (2007)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 82
Fresh: 45 | Rotten: 37
This Christmas features strong performances and a sharp portrayal of family dynamics, but relies too heavily on holiday movie clichés.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 27
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 12
This Christmas features strong performances and a sharp portrayal of family dynamics, but relies too heavily on holiday movie clichés.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 72,064
My Rating
Movie Info
Upon gathering together under one roof for the first time in seven years, an estranged family celebrating Christmas rediscovers long-forgotten bonds in this holiday family reunion drama starring Delroy Lindo, Regina King, and Mekhi Phifer. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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Cast
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Delroy Lindo
Joseph Black -
Idris Elba
Quentin Whitfield -
Loretta Devine
Shirley Ann Whitfield (... -
Chris Brown
Michael "Baby" Whitfiel... -
Keith Robinson
Devean Brooks -
Laz Alonso
Malcolm Moore -
Columbus Short
Claude Whitfield -
Sharon Leal
Kelli Whitfield -
Lauren London
Mel Whitfield -
Mekhi Phifer
Gerald -
Regina King
Lisa Moore -
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David Banner
Mo -
Ricky Harris
Fred -
Jessica Stroup
Sandi
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This Christmas Trailer & Photos
All Critics (87) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (38) | DVD (7)
o matter how silly the situation, each member of the uniformly strong cast creates a nice balance between sentimental and sweet -- which is just how every holiday gathering should feel.
Top CriticThis is good-natured, determinedly aspirational African-American entertainment, but did it have to be quite so heavy on the clichés?
I could actually see this becoming kind of a minor perennial during the holidays.
If the real-life Christmas experience tends too often to be marred by the rude contradiction between expectations and reality, movies like the ultra-bland holiday family movie This Christmas are at least partly to blame.
An incoherent mess in which scenes of teary reconciliations sit uncomfortably next to protracted gags involving catfights, car wrecks and a big bottle of baby oil.
Like sock-it-to-me cake ruined by too much sugar, This Christmas is cloying empty calories.
Easily the best film of its genre since 'Soul Food' and definitely makes for a excellent holiday season treat.
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A happy Christmas package that more or less ignores the fact that it's a black American family story
A little too soapy for my tastes.
Quite convincing in conveying the feeling of a real family, and in generating the requisite chemistry or antipathy as called for by their dysfunctional characters' dire circumstances.
A nearly XXXmas, juiced up with jazz, jive and one secretive sister's main squeeze, her vibrator hidden away in mama's bedroom drawer.
Family holiday dramedy has some iffy content.
If you're looking for a film that celebrates the holiday spirit, This Christmas would be my first suggestion because it's heartfelt and not too sweet.
Here's a family you'll want to visit for the holidays. Maybe you'll event want to stay through New Year's.
...there's a genuine feeling of a real family's real Christmas, with all its heat as well as warmth, the kind of thing that's missing from the plastic platitudes of holiday junk like Fred Claus...
While formula is still the same, it's quite amusing, romantic, and a delightful holiday treat for a family to enjoy.
This is a very entertaining movie, despite all the inplausablities, and doesn't get down to the insipidness of most Holiday family outings.
If you like schmaltzy, music-saturated family movies, This Christmas will set all the right bells jingling.
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The one thing that really bothered me and is the reason i took a half star off my rating, is because of the baby oil beating scene. Yes, I got that the husband was a liar and sleaze and had been treating his wife like crap for years, but that was really pretty bad. If it had have been the husband doing that to the wife, I don't think it would have been portrayed in a humorous light. Beating is still beating, it is wrong whoever does it.
Anyhow, that small issue aside, this was an enjoyable movie, good to watch at Christmas time. Likeable cast and some laughs and dysfunction mixed in with the cheese.