It was a spur of the moment thing. After seeing I Can Do Bad All By Myself, and realizing the lack of concern for the general IQ level of his audience, I concluded that not only would I no longer be insulted, but no longer would I financially contribute to Tyler Perry's onslaught of preachy, one dimensional, soap-cinema style franchise pictures. My attention is way too important. But, I was out with the Queen, we were enjoying ourselves, it was still pretty early, and we said the 2 most infamous words on the planet... FUCK IT!
First off, I'm really disappointed with the writing because (spoilers coming) as a theatrical writer, its important to understand story arc and character development, like how you understand that when you eat some spicy chili cheese Fritos off the ice cream truck, you probably gone have the oozy boo-boo! So with that being said, why didn't any of the 3 main story arcs conclude? Terry's wife admitted to thinking of another man while making love to her husband, not concluded. Angela and Marcus' debates over his sluttish ways, weren't concluded, Patricia and Gavin's broken/psychotic charade, not finished... I won't tell you how the film ends, but its pretty insulting how they kill Gavin without him being able to resolve his issue with Patricia, and how after a year of his passing, she meets the "Rock"(yes the wrestler) and is goo goo ga ga for dude. I guess I did spoil the movie... Oh well save your cheese!
Secondly, I don't appreciate the lack of originality... My mans had a Soul Food moment. Remember in Soul Food when Bird's husband was out of a job, and she went to her fast talking ex boyfriend who Lem obviously hated, and asks to hook him up? Well, Tyler added his own version of that classic and complex situation in this joint. Sheila (Jill Scott) goes to Mike, her ex Husband, and asks him to pull a favor and get Troy a job with the Sheriffs Department. Troy finds out about it, and obviously goes to his house, and whoops dudes ass. Rip Off!!! And may people in the theater felt the same way.
Thirdly, he used the death of Gavin, as a tool to make everyone stand up and hug each other and resolve their differences. In reality, this would not be the place or the time for this, completely false, and completely inconsiderate to believe that the audience would be emotionally wound up behind that. We were completely in laughter at how comical and fake it was. And its funny how he used that device in Family Reunion when the elders were up the hill on the plantation after witnessing all the chaos, she tells the family to hug and tell each other you love them. Running out of ideas?
Lastly, the film was completely all over the place, it felt rushed, it felt incomplete. I recently learned from my girl that on Oprah, the reason behind the ending is explained as, with the passing of Michael Jackson, and having a funeral for him, having a funeral for Gavin was too much for Janet to handle, so they scrapped the idea of having the funeral at the end. Okay... I respect that situation with Janet and MJ, RIP, but that still says nothing to the fact that you kill a main character without any resolution!!! That also shows how able Perry is to think on his feet, to come up with such a crowded, over dramatic, 3rd act and climax as he displayed. When the pressure is on, the talent will show, and its showed how talented he is alright. I want my 23 bucks back!
Overall, I'm sick of the stereotypical, one dimensional films that are addressing social issues on the surface and lack either the guts, the intellect, or the talent to go deeper. Not just with Tyler Perry, with other so called "Black Film Makers" And its funny because some folks will challenge you and say, "I just wanna laugh and be entertained, I don't want to see a film about real life because I deal with that every single day. A movie is an escape, a place where I can go and see myself in a world that I only fantasize about." This is a hard thing to deal with because it's like, we want to submit our intellect for fantasy and false realities, as opposed to facing these harsh truths head on and discussing the situations of why, how come, and what if, as mature adults. So, when films "cram" biased opinions down the throats of an audience as opposed to "exploring" these social themes that are universal to ALL walks of life, it shows disrespect for the craft, and for the audience. Go to the church and preach, if you want to be a preacher, and sell cars if you wanna make money, because we've somehow forgotten that making money does not determine the value of a film. All in all Perry left me asking myself, Why Did I See This Movie Too?
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