Holidate - Interesting Premise for a Rom-Com with Predictable Formula

After watching a Christmas movie on Netflix, I realized there was another one that was released earlier and seemed to get ourselves ready for the festive season. This looked like a fun one, especially with such interesting premise. All right, I will go straight to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

During the Christmas holiday, Sloane (Emma Roberts - Nerve, We're the Millers etc) who was still single had a terrible time being judged by her mother Elaine (Frances Fisher - The Host, The Lincoln Lawyer etc), her older sister Abby (Jessica Capshaw - Grey's Anatomy TV series, The Practice etc) and the rest of the family.

Meanwhile Jackson (Luke Bracey - Point Break 2015 version, Lucky Day etc) was having pressure every time he went on a date during the holiday seasons. When Sloane and Jackson accidentally met each other, they felt their problems were solved after deciding to be each other's date on every festive holidays (or what they referred to as holidates). They started their "arrangement" on the next holiday which was the New Year's eve. 

And as you would have guessed it, what started as a casual thing began to grow into something more complicated. So what would happen to these two? Find them all in this fun enough rom-com movie.

End of Brief Story Line

OK when the movie started, I could not help to think that what happened to Sloane was something which was very common in every day life. While Jackson's problem was not unusual either, especially with guys who were not ready for commitment yet. So when they finally met and decided to be holidates, I thought it was a good idea (in a movie, and possibly in real life for some people) though the way they met was a bit unconvincing (but hey, it's a usual formula used in lots of rom-com). 

The rest of the story was something that should be familiar in the romantic comedy genre. The romance between the two lead characters were OK but likely not able to convince hard core fans of this type of movies. What I liked about the film though was the humor/jokes sometimes managed to give me few outburst laughs which was surprising considering it's not a full comedy movie. My favorite moment was during the time when Sloane and Jackson were in the hospital which to me was quite hilarious.

The rest of the supporting characters (which were quite a lot to my opinion) performed their job adequately. But I was a bit disappointed with Kristin Chenoweth whose character Aunt Susan was too comical and simply not that funny. Oh there was also a well known person Andrew Bachelor (King Bach) as Jackson's best friend Neil who sadly did not leave a good impression to me.

Despite the movie's poster and seemingly giving a festivity mood, I do not think this one is a real Christmas movie as it was just one of the holidays mentioned throughout the film. But there were some Christmas songs played in here, plus some decorations shown in the malls which at least gave the Christmas sense a bit. In addition, the theme was quite mature with some coarse language spoken here and there making it not a suitable film for family.

Overall this is a so so romantic comedy movie, with predictable formula having some funny humor (at least for me) and lots of cheesy moments through out. It had some nice songs to accompany us as well. So if you are looking for standard rom-com and not necessarily a Christmas movie (as it was more of a background), then this one might suit you. It certainly would not be a classic romantic comedy with critics not too appreciative of the movie either, but for me it was entertaining enough and it did brighten my day.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars