It’s been more than a decade since The Best Man came out in October 1999, but it still had a big enough fanbase that turned out to Malcolm D. Lee’s new sequel, The Best Man Holiday. Frankly, I wasn’t even familiar with the predecessor. Still, with all the high expectations coming with its debut, the movie falls short, and isn’t the Christmas miracle that loyal moviegoers may have been anticipating.

At the beginning of the film, one can tell that it will bear a striking resemblance to a standard Tyler Perry movie, possessing all the tension that comes with rekindled relationships. The movie takes place in the mansion of Lance Sullivan, played by Morris Chestnut. All the characters and their spouses are together for a Christmas weekend getaway with Lance and his family. Reunited again, the party starts out jovially, but after some time passes and the friends have a chance to reconnect, secrets begin to pour out. The protagonist Harper Stewart, played by Taye Diggs, struggles with the flop of his book release and his infertility.

Emotion also haunts the movie, as the characters’ feelings sometimes became too sappy to be taken seriously. Lee employs long and medium shots as well as close-ups to convey the feelings of the characters. While the film certainly highlighted its sensual side, it eventually became too much. By the end of the film, your nerves will have undergone such a rapid change within a time span of about five minutes that you won’t even be able to formulate an opinion on what you’ve seen.

Overall, the film seemed more like the love child of a Christmas special and a Maury episode than a heartwarming holiday flick. The Best Man Holiday has no clear focal point, and its muddled plot is detrimental to its success.