For whatever reason probably too ignorant to properly address, there were a good number of people who were shocked...shocked I tell you, that an urban comedy such as Think Like A Manwas such a surprise hit last year. Never mind that it's full of beautiful, talented actors, and is funny and relatable in regards to relationships in a way everybody can understand. It's understandable that some of these people may have forgotten the film's spiritual and thematic predecessor, because it was fourteen years ago in 1999's excellent ensemble hit, The Best Man, a film full of substantial characters that seemed like real people underneath all the theatrics. Now reunited after all this time in The Best Man Holiday, these characters are just as funny, honest, and sexy as we remember them. It's like they never really went away.
Writer/director Malcolm D. Lee has jumped around from goofy satire like Undercover Brother to nostalgia pieces like the underrated Roll Bounce, but he found just the right balance with The Best Man, and he picks up right where he left off in the sequel. Fifteen years have passed and the film makes up for lost time with a brisk re-introduction, catching us up with what everybody has been up to. The best man of the previous film, Harper (Taye Diggs), rode the wave of his success after his first book, which was about him and his friends, but hasn't had much luck in the meantime. With his wife Robin (Sanaa Lathan) about to have their first child, he's freaking out over money. Pro football hopeful Lance (Morris Chestnut) is now a future Hall of Fame running back in the NFL and is about to break the rushing record on his final game before retirement. The neurotic Julian (Harold Perrineau) just lost a major donor to his school due to his wife Candace (Regina Hall) once being a stripper; and Quentin (Terrence Howard) is still just being Quentin, living the life of a bachelor to insane fullest. 
As one might expect from a film titled The Best Man, the dudes took center stage for the most part, but the sequel finds Lee giving equal time to the ladies, and it pays dividends. Jordan (Nia Long) is still a workaholic, moving to a top position at MSNBC and dating a hunky white dude (Eddie Cibrian), which becomes a frequent topic of discussion. The wild and crazy Shelby (Melissa De Sousa) has taken her act to Hollywood as part of a Real Housewives of Winchester reality series, and Mia (Monica Calhoun) has settled nicely into her role as Lance's wife, mother of his four children. 
These are just the places where these lifelong friends begin, but it's far from where they end, and one of the great pleasures is seeing how they all connect to one another in different ways. Robin still thinks Harper is a little too close for comfort to Jordan; Lance and Harper are still harboring baggage from old secrets; while Candace and Shelby are always on the verge of a cat fight. That's just the faintest taste of the numerous angles playing out over the course of a tumultuous Christmas weekend where pretty much everything under the sun happens, both good and bad. 
For the vast majority of the film, Lee gets the balance between broad humor and heavy drama nicely, with Terrence Howard in particular boasting most of the best lines. His performance, which almost HAS to have been ad-libbed it's so ridiculously over-the-top (he snaps photos of his genitalia at one point), seems like it comes from some other, vastly different movie. But his quirkiness keeps the mood light and the tone always a little off-balance, and one truly never knows what to expect when he's around. Spirituality and faith play even bigger roles this time, as Lance deals with a personal crisis that hits close to home. 
After a certain point, however, right around the time the guys grace the ladies with a rousing performance of New Edition's 'Can You Stand the Rain?’ that balance Lee was walking is thrown totally out of whack. Suddenly, the characters are all distraught, fighting, and crying over every word, and what had been a fun reunion with old friends (not just for them but for the audience) becomes a bit of a drag. Even when at its most melodramatic, these characters always feel completely authentic and grounded in a way few ensembles can manage. And to be fair, these times of despair don't last forever, and the film picks up steam just in time for a wild conclusion that sees every single subplot come to a head at the same time. The sheer amount of stuff that happens is incredible, and shouldn't be spoiled, but it also doesn't give us much room to breathe and really take in the impact of it all. The Best Man Holidayis everything Tyler Perry wishes he could make out of his Madea franchise. It's safe to say that The Best Man was in some way an inspiration to the industry Perry created, but he felt that his audience needed to be spoon fed his message under the guise of a sassy, unfunny, and marginally (or not so marginally) offensive black stereotype. It's the only way his movies can make a buck, right? That's why it's so refreshing to see the level of care and attention that went in to making The Best Man Holiday everything its fans had wanted it to be. The respect shown to the audience makes the long wait more than worth it, and will keep them coming back for more.
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