because I came down to visit my dad and his wife and my sister wanted to see it.....

and I really liked parts and pieces of it. There is a lot of stuff that is just amateur hour but there Perry has some things going for me that are going to have me looking out for his movies in the future.

The Good:
Tyler Perry-the actor. Mr. Perry's cash cow may be Madea but good Lord in Heaven (i've decided to incorporate more prayer since it works so well for characters in black movies) I hope to god he ditches the cross-dressing gag and just acts. He was EASILY the best male lead (not that hard going up against Malik Yoba and Michael Jai White) but more than that gave a downright good performance. He's got charisma and is able to pull off the dramatic work as well.

Tasha Smith-I hate the sassy, domineering sista girl routine as a rule but she was able to infuse enough humanity and play the role w/ such freewheeling hilarity that it never felt one note or grating. Some of her work was downright hysterical. I'll look for her in the future as she took the role a lesser actress (I'm looking at you Mo'nique) could have used to sink the picture and in turn brought energy to a picture that is mostly people sitting around drinking and talking. and drinking. and talking. and talking and drinking. and crying. and drinking.

Jill Scott-Looking only slightly less ridiculous than Eddie Murphy's Sherman Klump and probably wearing his very same fat suit she is still able to give a pretty damn good performance. Her speech in the final act teeters between being overly melodramatic and absolutely honest and heartfelt. In the end she's able to sell the hell out of it. And she looked stunning in once out that ridiculous fat suit.

Sharon Leal-if Janet Jackson (more on her later) wasn't needed to get butts in seats she would be cast in the lead. Nothing groundbreaking here but she put in good work and is light years beyond Jackson in acting ability and would have run w/ the role that Jackson drags through the mud.

Mixed-
Tyler Perry-the director. Nigga Thou Art Loosed....from the theater! He's still not made the transition to film director and a lot of his blocking and direction reflects this. So we get scene after scene of people sitting down in a semi-circle talking arranged as they would be on the stage. The upside is that Perry will stay in his master shot longer than a lot of newer directors. He needs a really good DP (much like . He was paired w/ an adequate one on this and so the film almost looked like a film at parts but he needs someone with an eye. He's adept at the comedy even though there are a few times where it gets a little broader than it really needs to be and he has a foundation to grow on with the dramatic work. If he could master the art of subtlety and nuance he'd really be someone to watch. But it is going to be a long, hard road to hoe though. He needs to learn pacing as the movie kind of jolts along never flowing particularly smoothly. Again, his theater background isn't of great service. A good editor would help him immensely.


Bad-
Production Design-Shit. Pure shit. Production design should never pull you out of the movie. And here I couldn't stop staring at the ridiculously decorated sets. The interior of the supposedly romantic log cabin was about as far from romantic as you can get largely because it never felt real. Again Perry's theatrical background betrays him. His interiors look like theater sets which is never good. I hope with continued success and its rewards he'll be able to start putting that money back up on screen. Hopefully they won't blow the bulk of that money on candles as they did for this movie.

The three male co-stars-Richard Jones' character is so ridiculously evil I was waiting for him to twirl his moustache. Good Lord. Michael Jai White when not looking absolutely ridiculous sounds absolutley ridiculous. His 'dramatic' scene recalled his work in Spawn. Think about that. Malik Yoba is adequate in the lighter scenes but isn't equipped to do any dramatic heavy lifting.

Janet Jackson-She deserves a Razzie. If there is a god in heaven she would win the award for worst performance of the year. She is deadweight and given way too much to do. In ideal world she would have been cast as the girl serving coffee in the diner. She is the worst thing about every scene she is in and her sole acting talent seems to be her ability to get progressively get worse as the movie goes along. Janet Jackson. You are a pox on black cinema (I remember Poetic Justice).

It's a really mixed bag of a movie something a better writer/director could have done something great with instead we get a bad movie that has enough good elements that indicate Perry may grow into a decent filmmaker and actually make some genuinely good movies. Deeply flawed but still a lot of fun.