Tyler Perry

[sereneorange]

So I finally saw a Tyler Perry movie (Madea's Family Reunion) He is huge, right? I caught about 5 minutes of the TV show with his name attached to it, and it was complete crap, so I thought I would give a movie a try. It wasn't a whole lot better. I was amazing to see so many actors and actresses that I adore doing such a craptacular film (Cicely Tyson, Lynn Whitfield, Blair Underwood). There were many parts where it could have gone good, and just didn't. The writing was poor, the accents were exaggerated, the characters were one dimensional.

Oh, and the repeated attempts by the supposedly intelligent Lisa to leave the man who threatens to kill her while he is home and sleeping made me crave a scene where he finally kills her dumb ass. Even a  stupid woman would know to wait for the man to go to work to pack her shit and go. I am disappointed that Perry couldn't have found a better way to move the story along.

I am not bothering with another. 112 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Comments

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

They are targeted to a very specific audience...and, to the rest of the world, they suck. Bottom line.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

And the message is more important than the story.

I mean to him. I prefer an actual story.

Also, it's the same movie ALL the time.

GAH!!!

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

But O, we're black... we're *supposed* to like Tyler Perry movies! /sarcasm

Honestly, I couldn't agree with you more.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

My sister loves them.

She's not into movie "depth."

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

My mother loves them as well.

I refuse to even watch the DVDs she has purchased.

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

Yeah most of his stuff is crap, I can hardly stand more than five minutes of it myself. However I really liked a movie he did relatively recently, Why Did I Ever Get Married? or something to that effect. It too had a great cast (I'm still in love with Janet Jackson omgz) and it was genuinely funny.

Sure parts were dumb, contrived, and predictable, but overall I enjoyed it. There's a scene early on when one of the couples is taking a train (the story involves 4 couples headed to a winter cabin to spend the weekend together). I don't want to say much about the scene, but if you don't find it funny then it's probably not the movie for you.

... ;D

[theclamsman.livejournal.com]

RACIST!!1

But no, what the first commenter said was right. Targeted for a certain audience. Same goes for all of the movies you see on TVOne or BET. I never really saw a real difference between the genres and the cultures until the late 90's when it really started to diverge between white/black (but it shouldn't right, since we're a huge melting pot, blah blah blah). There used to be a time when "black" movies would have a broader appeal, but it seems that now the only ones that do have that cross-cultural appeal are movies done by the Wayans Brothers...and mostly comedies (because more often than not, laughter crosses racial lines and even mentions those racial lines/don't have barriers; but nobody wants to get caught up in anyone elses' cultural DRAMA!11 because that'd take too much thinking/comprehension). But even those are becoming a bit divergent/polarizing (there's a new Christmas movie out right now...I think it's This Christmas? Has a lot of good black actors...), but looks like a light drama. (FTR, there's another Christmas movie coming out with John Leguizamo that is a hispanic comedy...at least that's the flavor that I got from it...and I think the only reason I'm seeing commercials for it on USA is because it stars the bitch from The Starter Wife (Debra Messing...the chick from Will & Grace who looks like a transsexual).)

May be a money and marketing thing, too. Hollywood isn't going to market something to an audience it doesn't think it can't immediately captivate/waste its money. I don't think it's exactly fair, but that's the way the machine works. How many ads did you see for Denzel's The Great Debaters? Yet it received rave reviews and a bunch of award nominations/wins, because it's a good movie. You really have to go to small, good independent video rental stores to take a look at what we're missing re: good movies that Hollywood doesn't "waste its time" marketing. Perry's movie got its marketing because he did cross cultural lines/is known for his comedy, but if he keeps making Madea movies he's going to crawl into that pigeonhole real quick, if he isn't there already.

Re: ... ;D

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

trust me. It isn't the inside cultural jokes I am not getting. It was just poorly written.

I love John Leguizamo so much. I am looking forward to seeing that. I have been seeing the commercials all week. I swear I will see almost anything he is in (although, for most movies, I just wait for the DVD. I go to the movies maybe 3 times a year

I actually did see a lot of ads on TV for The Great Debaters.

What did Debra do to you? Ouch!

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I agree - I watched Diary of a Mad Black Woman and was not at all impressed. It bored me to sleep about halfway through it. *shrug* I haven't wasted any more time on Tyler Payne. If I see his name on it, I keep clicking the remote. It's just not funny to me.

[tempest-azure.livejournal.com]

I don't like how his stories flow. He always misses something. The acting is usually not very good, aside from some people (and usually it isn't their best work).

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

I think the sub par acting has a lot to do with the material they are given to work with.

[onnotangu.livejournal.com]

Oh look it's the black dame edna..only dumber.

[serene-orange.livejournal.com]

lol