I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009) User Reviews

Why are people so against this movie?

[Smells_Like_Cheese · 6/10 · 21 September 2009]

Tyler Perry, what people have against this guy, I don't know. I just started watching his movies last year and found myself oddly enjoying them. Yeah, it's weird that Perry is constantly dressing in drag for Madea, which I'm starting to wonder if he enjoys it on a daily basis, but I think Perry is a good story teller. His stories always represent good morals and being a deceent human being, the hope of that what goes around does come around wither it's good or bad. Taraji P. Henson is a very strong lead actress, I think she has a very good career ahead of her and she held the movie well. This film had the perfect amount of drama and comedy that made the movie able to let you breath and be on the edge of your seat. While not Perry's strongest film, I still think it was worth the watch.

Madea and her brother Joe catch three kids breaking into their home. Madea feels bad for the kids and feeds them. The kids are: Jennifer, the oldest girl and her two little brothers, Manny and Byron. Manny is a diabetic and Byron never speaks. Madea asks where their parents are. Jennifer tells her that they have no parents and their grandmother has been missing four days. Madea then asks if they have any other relatives, they tell her that they have an aunt. But their Aunt April is a selfish, grouchy, alcoholic who lives with her shady boyfriend Randy who is married with children. Madea drops the kids off at April's house but April doesn't want to be bothered with the kids and she is very mean to them. Meanwhile, April's pastor sends a immigrant named Sandino to her house for work and a place to stay. April puts Sandino in her basement. But she locks him down there because she doesn't know him that well. Sandino does good work around the house. The pastor and a member of the church named Wilma who is good friends with April's mother comes by to inform her that her mother died on a bus because of a brain aneurysm and that was why she was missing for so long. Now stuck with the kids, April must learn how to love herself in order to give these kids the lives they should have had since birth.

Now there are problems with the movie, I'm not denying that. The film did seem a little over preachy at times. Editing could've been better as well, we have a church scene that literally goes on for, I'm not kidding, a good 10 minutes and is over the top. It could have been trimmed, I don't want to feel like I'm attending church while going to a movie. But over all I still enjoyed this movie, it had it's happy ending and the characters seemed to work very well together. I don't recommend this film for people who are overly critical, I just take a movie for what it is. Tyler Perry isn't the new Alfred Hitchcock by any stretch of the imagination, but his movies are good for a laugh and a smile. Give the movie a break.

6/10

Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason

[samiv_03 · 5/10 · 27 August 2012]

I watched this movie on cable. I didn't pay to see it in the theater or from Redbox or anything like that. And you know, it was worth it. Despite all the bad reviews and negative press, Tyler Perry knows how to make a movie that we will sit through just to see the bad guy get theirs. And these are not supervillains, or anything like what you see in most movies, these are the run of the mill badguys. The guys who make you happy that you don't know them or if you do, make you feel bad about knowing them. These are stories about the everyday kind of badguys who make us want to slap someone we know for doing exactly what is on the screen. That is why Mr. Perry makes money off of "bad" movies. He tells the stories he knows or knows of and that makes them something we can relate to and feel, maybe not good about but definitely familiar with.

This Movie Is Bad All By Itself

[Lursa · 5/10 · 14 September 2009]

Spoiler Alert

Look Out Below!! Lots of Spoilers are here!!

For the second weekend in a row I did not get to see the movie I really want to see. Last weekend I saw the Meryl Streep film. This weekend I had to suffer through something else. Something I really had no intention of ever seeing.

I know I'm going to upset some people by what I'm about to say. I know there are going to be a lot of p#$$ed off folk wondering where I'm coming from with all this. Well, I've never minded p#$$ing off people before. I don't see why it should bother me now.

Here goes...Tyler Perry can't write.

More specifically, Tyler Perry can't write well. His scripts are elementary, immature, and preachy. Every single one of them. It's almost like he can't help himself. On the up side he does have his finger on the pulse of what his audience likes and he doesn't mind giving it to them. It would just be really nice if he would take a bit of a writing class or something on script writing and plot development. I'm just saying....

The plot of the current movie goes like this...

Three kids break into Madea's (Perry in his signature character) house in the middle of the night (plot device 1 which drags Madea into a story that's not really about her 'cos Perry's fans must have their Madea fix). Madea takes them to their aunt (Taraji P. Henson) who doesn't want them. The Aunt tries to send them to her mother but finds out that no one knows where she is (heavy handed foreshadowing that keeps popping up and eventually becomes a plot hole...more about that in a bit). Madea leaves them anyway and tells the aunt to bring them by her house so they can work off the debt they incurred by breaking into her house and destroying her property including a VCR (plot device 2 to keep Madea in a story that has nothing to do with her). The aunt is in a dead-end relationship with a 'no count' married man (cliché 1) played by Brian J. White. Aunt is also an alcoholic night club singer (cliché 2). Aunt is estranged from her mother and doesn't really worry that no one has seen hide nor hair of the old lady for three days (tiny little plot hole to move the story forward). Mary J. Blige plays the bartender with a heart of gold (cliche 3) and a huge voice.

A Latino handyman (Adam Rodriguez of CSI Miami fame…let me just say, for the record, that Adam is one fine, handy, man!!) from Columbia shows up at the neighborhood church and is told by the pastor (Marvin Winans) that he will find something for him to do. The preacher convinces the aunt to take the handyman in as a boarder who will work off the cost of his board by doing odd jobs around the house (cliche 4). This does not sit well with the boyfriend who is abusively racist (is there any other kind??) to the handyman and leers meaningfully at the young niece played by Hope Olaide Wilson (ham-handed foreshadowing).

Handyman, of course, falls for Aunt because he 'loves her more than she loves herself'. Yeah, right. I found it hard to believe he can love this woman since the Aunt has not shown us, or him, one thing that makes her lovable. She even accuses him of being a child molester because he cares about her niece and nephews. Speaking of which...the three kids are barely more than little stick figures to make us go 'awwww' when the handyman does something nice like fix up one of the Aunt's upstairs rooms as a room for all the kids to sleep in instead of the couch in the living room where the aunt makes them sleep (She won't let them stay in the room although it's obvious the younger kids want to). The handyman buys medicine for one of the sick kids. The handyman saves the girl when the married, pedophile, boyfriend tries to rape her.

What does the aunt do? She tries to kill the deadbeat boyfriend by dropping a CD player into his bathwater. This is when we find out she had been abused as a young girl by her mother's boyfriend (this seems to happen a lot in Tyler Perry's scripts. I realize the incidence of rape for women/girls of color is high but this pops up in almost every one of his scripts. Hmmm...). This revelation is supposed to be the big 'reveal' that explains her alcoholism, poor self-image and her insistence on being involved with married men. Hmmmm....heavy handed? Ya think??

But wait, we've got to have the rushed happy ending where the handyman and aunt get married, have a block party, and boogie down to Mary J's vocal. Cue the credits where we see outtakes of Perry as Madea and Joe riffing off the kids. One good outtake of Taraji and Hope is cute…but you had to sit through this mess of a movie to get there.

Its Not That Bad Seriously a 2.8?!?!?

[Devries49 · 1 May 2011]

This film wasn't the best movie ever and I don't understand why people hate Tyler Perry his films aren't bad and they aren't the worst. I watched this with a group of friends mostly black and we enjoyed the parts with Madea were hilarious. And the drama was okay too. The acting was fine I like Taraj P Henson she was good in this movie. The only thing that bugged me was the sets most of them looked really fake but that was it. Anyways this film wasn't bad and the rating shouldn't be low at 2.8 it should be 4 or 5 stars. The acting was was good and had a fine cast. I recommend renting it or getting it on DVD. If you like tyler perry and his movies then you'll like I can do bad all by myself

How can anyone watch this drivel?

[[e-mail] · 1/10 · 17 September 2009]

I see many of the comments on here are "this is Tyler Perry's best film ever." That's pretty much like saying the Yugo was best Serbian-built car ever.

Tyler Perry can't write. He tends to choose actors who can't act. He just keeps re-writing the same basic, tired, stereotyped characters and puts them in virtually the same tired plots over and over. But he apparently knows his demographic, because the same folks will run out and plunk down $10 to see this crappy, sappy mess.

It works for him, so I'm sure there will be another Madea movie within 18 months.

Why oh why did I go and see this movie!?

[blindben · 1/10 · 19 September 2009]

So I went and saw this movie on the hope that Madea would be in it a lot more then the character was. The movie is not funny, let me just get that off my chest right now, it is on the other hand like sitting through church. Tyler Perry has morphed from playwright to screenwriter, to preacher. If you like Jesus and Christianity and all that good stuff, then you'll absolutely love this movie, but if you're like me and the rest of the world and all you want is to be entertained and have fun and not be looked at as the devil, then don't see this movie.

Sometimes I wish I was completely blind.

Whoa....where is the love?!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 January 2010]

I am a masochist. That is why I am trying to see all the movies from Harry Medved's book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time" as well as all of the Bottom 100 from IMDb. Masochism is the only thing that would explain it. However, in my strange quest to see the best of the worst, I have occasionally run across some films that seem to have been included in the lists and you can't understand why. This is the case with I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF. Why is this film so hated that it made this IMDb list? To quote Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, "Where is the love?".

Now I am NOT saying that this is a perfect film--there are two major problems that negatively impact this film. But, the film has so many wonderful moments--so much good acting and excellent writing that I am just baffled at the negative reviews. Let's talk about the two main problems. Tyler Perry apparently plays the comedic Madea character in all his films. However here, this character seems amazingly out of place in this ultra-serious drama. A little less Madea would have helped the film maintain a tighter focus. The second problem is that while the singing was all very high quality, there just seemed to be too much. Less singing and less Madea would have left more time for character development.

What I really liked, though was the great story--at least once you got to it. Three kids are caught stealing in Madea's home. You soon learn that they are doing this because they are hungry. Their grandmother (who they live with) has disappeared and they chose a stupid way to deal with this. Madea takes pity on them--feeding them and taking them to their Aunt's house. The problem, however, is that the Aunt is a total mess--and one of the most selfish characters you've ever seen. Can all this work out successfully? Of course--that's a given. However, it's all handled very well and this one will most likely get you shedding some tears--so have some Kleenex handy. The acting was superb and the story very involving.

Overall, a wonderful film that could have been more wonderful. Still, it's well worth seeing and is a good film for older kids--even if the language is sometimes rough and there is a brief (but appropriate) nude scene. This is because the message is awfully good--though I could imagine some finding it all a bit heavy-handed (I know I didn't).

By the way, I am a middle-aged White guy. Tyler Perry movies are apparently NOT just for African-American audiences!

Basic, but not as bad as rating

[am_scp · 4/10 · 9 October 2009]

First, there are several films that warrant a rating of 2 or less, however, I really don't think this is one of them. With that being said, even if you're a Tyler Perry fan, I don't see how you can give it a 10. The film itself had the basic TP's ingredients from the rest of his films, with a Hollywood ending added. There are some tear jerking moments that tug on the emotional side and there's enough issues sprinkled around that most people could relate to.

I thought the film was okay. Unfortunately, film-making has become a forgotten art. It's not that Tyler Perry films are as bad as the ratings may reflect ( in my opinion), it's just that they are simple and predictable. For the Tyler Perry fans, Mr. Perry's bank account, and lionsgate, that's "all good". You can't argue with the math.

You're joking right???

[TheRaven8386 · 8/10 · 24 October 2014]

The fact that this movie has 3.8 out of ten stars is laughable. That would indicate that many people gave this 1 star meaning it is the worst they have ever seen. I mean Slasher films with 9 sequels have higher ratings than this! I guess people hate moralistic stories. People say that it is too "Preachy?" This wasn't Tyler Perry's first movie and anyone who watched it knew what they were getting into. I think people purposely watch movies they KNOW they will hate in order to bash them. Very good movie, it gets your emotions going and has a great message. Madea is as hilarious as ever. Worth the watch. Maybe not the greatest movie you will ever see, but that can be said of a lot of movies.

Need More Madea

[jetmankt · 7/10 · 27 September 2009]

Was really expecting more Tyler Perry -- was in the mood for some real laughs -- got a couple- Oh well -- It was a welcome relief not to be assaulted every 5 minutes with nudity / gangsta rap / vulgar language / blood bath violence - as a matter of fact it was really kinda preachy - They tackled every modern social issue I could think of -- Evil -smokers/strippers/ night clubs / alcoholism /self centered attitude / disrespect to others / gratuitous sex / sleeping with married people / womanizing relationships / low self esteem / low life males / lying / cheating / dishonesty / attempted rape / indifferent society / child molestation / pedophile step fathers / screwed up child welfare system and so on - The happy happy joy joy ending was a bit much but the tear jerk parts will have most of the women loving this movie -- Being a musician, the best part for me was the great sound tracks and the fact that the band was actually playing the songs that were in the movie - Gladys did a great job and has not lost any of her Motown soul. Guys -- this is one to set up as a "girls" night out while you go shoot some pool --

Mr. Perry stick to plays please

[leacshane_simpson · 1/10 · 24 September 2009]

So, I rated this movie a 1, which is awful. Actually it was beyond awful. It was more like a horribly sickening attempt of portraying something so real to others yet being so fake! Anyways, it was a push for me to watch this movie. I watched this movie online because there was no way I was spending my money to see this in theaters. In fact I will not spend my money to watch any of Tyler Perry's movies in theaters because they are simply just horrifically atrocious.

From the beginning to the end this movie was predictable! With all due respect to Mr. Perry other works I believe this is the worst one yet. He recycles the same script over and over and over again. The man is like a crack addict stuck in one spot with any crack! But what gets me the most is not that it is the same script it is that people watch the movie and praise the man! I am dumbfounded really I am.

Mr. Perry wants to reach out to people, and oh so open up there eyes to the society in which they live. Well, Mr. Perry life is not a fairy tale but your movies are. In this movie I can do bad all by myself, Santiago was so caring about Jennifer and her kids. Well, Mr. Perry you do not find that in the ghetto. What you find is every man for themselves everyone trying to get out of the ghetto and ain't nobody wanna help nobody. And that's real! And why all Mr. Perry movies has to be some kind of love story, and someone cheating on somebody, somebody getting hit, abused... Oh I know! It is the same recycled script. I mean you did even see April and Santiago much deep conversation except for when her mother died he comforted her and he loved her so deeply it was as if they were together for years. Two very attractive actors but there was absolutely no chemistry between these two.. And oh Mr. Perry would not be able to sleep if he did not add a wedding scene.

I commend Taranji Henderson. I believe she did a very good job with the script she was given.

Mr. Perry you should have just stopped with Diary of a Mad Black Woman and stick to play writing..

PS: This movie was absolutely nothing like the play the only thing I like about this movie was the song I can do back all by myself. And that's another thing, why everybody has to sing in all your movies like it is musical??

loved the movie

[ryryfleming · 10/10 · 28 March 2016]

Part musical, part love story, part family melodrama, part inspirational treacle, Tyler Perry's latest movie, I Can Do Bad All by Myself is something of an unholy mess. Alternately stupefying and entertaining, the film does benefit from a strong cast. I love this movie.The laughs, meanwhile, are delivered by cross-dressing Perry's sassy grandma Madea, whose wild threats of violence to children and adults alike are the only things that sporadically lighten up this narratively and grammatically dim redemption pap.The critics have done it AGAIN! They have underrated another GREAT Perry film! This movie's too good to get such a low score. People who rated this movie low are just JEALOUS just like spike lee is because Tyler Perry makes GREAT films. REMEMBER.....jealousy is a sin!!!!.....

Great movie!

[sdboyer · 7/10 · 3 November 2019]

Overall this was a great movie. Idk why ppl didn't like it either. I only gave it 7 stars because it was obvious that Taraji was lip-syncing and I thought that Madea's presence would be more prominent. But the message was good and uplifting...a bit predictable, but still a great movie.

Please don't dumb down America by paying money to see this.

[lawrenceb56 · 1/10 · 21 September 2009]

If you like this film and you are not mentally handicapped in some way, I feel very sorry for you. You need to challenge yourself more. Richie Rich comic books are fine for children, but if you are still guffawing and enchanted with them when you are in college, something is horribly wrong. I liked the Archies when I was a teenager--THEN I GREW UP! Tyler Perry can't write. It's that simple. If you like his films, you might as well say, "What I really appreciate in a film is poor writing executed by people who can't act very well. Oh, and if you could throw in a lousy director, please do so; I want to get the whole experience of a Tyler Perry movie.

It's all about family

[darrickdrew · 17 March 2013]

Tyler Perry whole motivation is family and faith many people attack Perry for his way of portraying, African-American families. I can do bad all by my self takes a look at how families and faith are intertwined, when April's life is turned upside down with the unwelcome knock on the door by Madea(Tyler Perry) with three children. As April(Taraji P. Henson) has to learn about the value of family. The Church plays a major role as well without the Church the faith of April would not have been as strong in overcoming her inter-conflicts that she was dealing with her selfish ways and wanting a married man, but with the help of Sandino(Adam Rodriguez) April not only finds her way in finding what true love is but learning how to love herself. Tyler is still learning how to direct a good film, but will every movie be a great one, those who feel that Perry is in above is head need to take notice of what his movies symbolize, faith, family, and love. Tyler's problem is all of his movies are based on the same thing African-American families with some type of issues. This may not be Tyler's best film; however $23,446,785 on an opening weekend is not bad. So say Perry is not a good director, but Perry keeps growing in the film industry, and his television shows. This is a must see movie that is great for family to see as a family.

i was surprised ....

[cgrabski · 3/10 · 16 September 2009]

So i love Tyler films and plays for the most part... i think they become a little redundant but as far as overall entertainment i really enjoy the films/plays ... Now I can not say that I can completely relate to all of the characters in all of his plays one because i am not black and two the types of situations some of these roles play are as Madea says " Oh Hell no" situations. However I can say for the most part his plays and movies are very thought provoking and inspiring because there is a very clear overall message of either hope , resilience, perseverance etc. And it becomes relate able because you pretty much live the struggle that the main character is going through and you are also normally given enough back story and sometimes too much back story for you to connect. So this movie to me didn't really inspire me or provoke anything but shock... Yes Mary j was off the chain, the character itself to me was pointless. The role either could have been expanded or cut out... The sexy man Latino that should have been my husband, made sense as a character but to me became too overindulgent in the kids life with not enough back story to really explain why he was in states and taking to these kids etc ... The kids , OK seriously yes the girl was a great actress but can we get a little more back story then mom's dead and the only living relative is a drunk... and does anyone notice the obsession of Tyler perry w/ abuse and hot men ? ... Yes it is a fact that there is a higher percentage of abuse , rape, and silence in homes of people of color ( and i mean all people of color no just black people) and because of that i do think it should be exposed for awareness but in every movie really ... I am not going to write and write and write anymore but i will say this all characters need more substance and not a reveal of something that happened in childhood i e aunt , kids , Latino all plots need to be better intermingled i e reasoning for why you are there ... how does a grand mother go missing for days and no thinks to look for her and not too concerned ... why is the Colombian in the country besides to help these kids ...

i dunno i was just so surprised

I Can Do Bad All by Myself .. so BAD really

[kathanova · 1/10 · 27 July 2010]

there is nothing to be said

, after I have watched this movie all what I was thinking about is how any one lose some minutes of his life on this .

anything else you got to do is better than this one , there is nothing good about this movie but the songs maybe seem to be good .

after all ,the title is true it can do bad all till makes you feel bad .

I can't even write more about it . but my review must be 10 lines of text . so I should write some more about it , OK here we go lets say that I didn't laugh even once at the whole movie . no one can laugh on this very old jokes like ( My Grandma Rose used to tell us to pray about things like this) (Yeah but she only told us to pray. She never told us how) I don't Know even if it was a joke or not !!

Be Bad

[abcvision · 7/10 · 2 April 2013]

Set in the dirty dirty ATL, three delinquents break into Madea's (Tyler Perry) house and all her "Madeaness" turns them "childrrrns" into the right path of redemption.

Seeing they don't have a mother, she died, and their grandmother is MIA, it is up to Auntie April (Taraji P. Henson) to care for them. Church goer Wilma (Gladys Knight) tells April to do the right thing.

Unfortunately Auntie April is more concerned about her own independence and fawning for her married, good for nothing boy friend.

In comes handy man Sandino (Adam Rodriguez) who sees the good in people and sheds light to this troubled scene.

A good story of how a bad situation can not be as bad as it could be however Tanja (Mary J. Blige) said it best in her singing of "I Can do Bad all by Myself".

The three tough loves in life, God, family, and Madea is all you need to do the right thing.

Not Perry's best but still love the positive message

[blakestephenson · 5/10 · 29 October 2010]

This movie was definitely the poorest of the Tyler Perry movies that I have seen. If it were anyone else's movie, I would have given it a much lower rating. However, there are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments and the positive message is, as always, so great that those two things warrant the 5/10 rating.

Ironically, I don't think that I would ever say that I was glad to watch a movie that I think is worthy of only 5/10. However, because Perry's message is so positive and because it does have some very funny moments, I think the movie is worth watching even if the movie itself is rather poor.

Good Clean Family Film for PG-13

[lindajohns-44973 · 9/10 · 13 April 2020]

I love a good movie that have life lesson and not full of vulgar language. The plot was easy to follow and Tyler Perry kept it interesting although you can pretty much guess the ending. I do not know why people would rate it lower than an 7. If you are a Tyler Perry Fan, you an appreciate this movie. His more recent stuff on TV much more "intense" and should be rated NC-17.

Can't understand these low ratings...

[lindagore-63227 · 7/10 · 18 July 2020]

This movies was entertaining, funny, heartfelt, and a great escape from the pandemic. Tyler Perry is so good at Madea. I will watch all of his films. Give it a try. The cast is excellent.

Sorely Disappointed

[macpeach2510 · 3/10 · 5 February 2010]

If you ask why I rated this film higher than 1 it is because of the performances of some really good actors, working steadily to push that boulder uphill against a horrible script. And I rated it higher than a 1 because the soundtrack is fierce, really great music. I might buy the soundtrack without the film.

Having said that, in spite of the fact that I love Taraji's work, she is just an amazing actor, fearless and chameleon like, I waited until the movie came out on cable before seeing it. I just could not, would not, pay my hard earned money to see a film that I knew the plot, the characters, the nuances, subtext and context, and the ending before I ever walked into the theater.

I give Mr Perry his due, he's found an audience hungry for his work who obviously feel he speaks to them. God Bless them and love them. But his films are not art, not good films, and his plays not even good theater. Clearly the people who love his stuff are there for a different reason. If money is your barometer, then Mr Perry has succeeded beyond his, or anyone's wildest dreams.

For the rest of us though his work presents a problem. Of all TP's films, this one is absolutely the worst. There are two movies here, as is the case in too many of his films. There's the Madear track and the melodrama, slapstick and tears, and never the twain shall meet. Just when you find something to laugh at with Madear and Joe, (can someone please do something about his makeup), with little to no transition boom, you're in to the melodrama. Halfway through the movie Madear and Joe go the way of the , having done their job such as it was, they exit stage left. Huh? I used to wish that TP would allow others to write, direct, produce, thinking maybe that would help. He has great impulses but he cannot for the life of him tell a story. Without a good solid script there is no movie. A great director or producer can't fix it. As TP owns the complete means of production on his films, he can't be fired. Good for him but not so good for us. And when you continue to tell the same story over, and over, and over again, how creative you are the telling of the story gets stale, old, tired, unexciting. Yet I am sure that he will continue to churn out these badly told morality plays, and folks will continue to give him their money. I don't understand it but, there it is.

Having not grown up with a silver spoon, or barely a spoon at all at times, the circumstances of his characters aren't foreign territory to me. But I came up with a generation that believed that excellence mattered, that you do something and do it well. So it irks me to no end when I see people are willing to accept mediocrity, heck not even mediocre, just bad. Just dang.

Tyler Perrys films are greatly under-rated.

[zactac · 10/10 · 22 April 2010]

I don't have any idea why so many people don't like his movies. After seeing how much of a success they are in the box office I don't understand how they can get so low after that. Well now I'm giving it my review and in a word the movie is great.

In this new installment of Tyler Perry's film making career we see how Madea meets these kids who breaks into her house and now must take them to their aunt April who is an alcoholic singer at a night club (I know, there's a problem with that alone). So when Madea takes these kids over to their aunts place things start changing. The pastor at the church in April's neighborhood sends an immigrant to live with her in exchange for fixing up her place. Thanks to all of these people who surround themselves around her, April starts to realize that there is more to life than sleeping and drinking. She might even realize that her life is worth living.

This is probably one Tyler Perry's best films. It has great music, nice comedy, and entertaining drama. Definitely a great film to watch anytime and anywhere.

Wow... Really underrated!!

[dilloncamp · 7/10 · 20 April 2021]

This movie is powerful and deep Taraji P Henson gives a breathtaking performance.

Just because it's madea doesn't mean it's always gonna be a comedy folks!

Strangely dull film from Tyler Perry

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 20 September 2009]

The first of Tyler Perry's hit stage shows, from whence the infamous Madea sprung, has been turned into an adequate but rather lifeless film. The plot concerns a young woman who sings at a local club. Her mother is sick, she is trying to raise her sisters kids (the sister died from drugs) and she's sleeping with a married man. How her life is affected by the man who comes to fix her home and the appearance of Madea (the kids tried to rob Madea's house) is the film. This is a rather by the numbers feel good film. Perry has been churning this sort of thing out for almost 2 decades and the whole affair has the feeling of being done by rote. Its clear that Perry has been losing interest in the cash cow of turning his old plays into new movies, but one wishes that he would find something to invigorate his considerable talent rather than allow it to make a film that just sort of lays there. While infinitely better than his last film Madea Goes to Jail (a film filled with so much contempt for Madea that he apparently didn't shave for some scenes) this film only springs to life during the films musical numbers. While not the worst thing that Perry has done (Jail probably is) this is not really a film thats worth paying full movie prices to see. I'd wait for cable.