Peeples (2013)

Undescribable Perfection

So much average

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Even though the trailer I saw for this looked pretty good, I wasn't exactly expecting too much given this was produced by Tyler Perry. Thankfully I can report that while his influence can be felt, this movie stays away from the overt messaging and preachiness of his other work (directing, mostly). To concisely describe this movie, it's like an African-American version of MEET THE PARENTS, although it isn't quite as funny. The humor comes in fits and spurts, but when it does come it is really hilarious. The plot also feels kind of episodic, moving towards a finale that you can see coming a mile away. Still, the journey there is quite an entertaining one. The acting is just fine for this kind of material, and Craig Robinson does bring this nice everyman comic persona to the film, but I thought that David Alan Grier and Malcolm Barrett (playing Craig Robinson's brother) were the standouts here. Kerry Washington also does a nice job, although this isn't some of her best work. Some other downsides include a rather trite treatment of homosexuality (one of the Peeple daughters is a lesbian) and the way the plot is tied up in a nice ribbon at the end almost too quickly. However, the camaraderie and chemistry in the cast is palpable and this makes all of the shortcomings liveable. Overall, given its rather lukewarm reception, I feel that this is an underrated gem and one of the better entries in Tyler Perry's filmography.

Watching Peeples turned out to be a pleasant way to pass time while I'm away from home on an extended business trip. I remember seeing the Peeples trailers on TV and online last year, but I forgot about the movie until I browsed on Netflix. Granted, the movie definitely isn't Oscar material, but it's definitely a fun movie to watch. There have been movies I've viewed that made me regret I wasted my time watching them and left me feeling upset because I couldn't get that 90 or 120 minutes back. Peeples isn't one of those movies. Peeples is a movie that is relaxing to watch. You won't burn too much white matter viewing the movie, but it makes one think about pretentiousness and 'rich people's problems' can be. Don't go in with seriousness when you watch this movie. It's lighthearted with the feathery touches on love, humor, priorities, family, acceptance and life choices. I didn't know Tyler Perry made the movie until I viewed the credits. It didn't make a difference, but it surprised me that he made it. He's definitely changing up his movie- making style or at least adding to it. I enjoyed the movie. I'll watch it again with my family on movie night. It's kind of cute how Kerry Washington claps her hands in happiness in Peeples like she did in Django. David Allen Grier made for a very unlikely patriarch, but he pulled it off nicely due to the nice chemistry with S. Epatha Merkerson and the other cast members who made up the family and his conflicts with Craig Robinson. I liked the entire cast. I hope Tyler Perry makes a Peeples II. He can polish it up a bit for the naysayers or leave it 'as is' for a nice continuation, but I fell in love with the Peeples clan. They truly have room to develop as characters on screen. It would be interesting to see what Tyler Perry comes up with in the sequel. I'm going to buy a ticket to go to the movie theater if he brings the lovable clan back to life in a sequel, though.

. . . which is par for the course for films which Hollywood is trying to market to the "urban" crowd. Anything which has to do with genitalia and poop is thrown into previews for flicks with minority-predominant casts (which means if a movie such as PEEPLES has 125 seconds of such material in its 94 minute, 45.13-second running time, and the studio wants a trailer running two minutes, then the producer honchos have to edit five seconds of what they consider "visual bait" out of the preview). What you do not really get a sense of from the "blaxploitation" trailer put out there for PEEPLES is that this feature is mostly about the greatest novel in American literature, MOBY DICK. Protagonist or main character Wade Walker (played by Craig Robinson) is an ordinary boy from south Detroit or Brooklyn who fixes his harpoon sights on a prize catch named Grace Peeples (Kerry Washington). Writer\Director Tina Gordon Chism makes it crystal clear that "Wade" is her Capt. Ahab, with Grace standing in for the white whale, by placing the action in a Connecticut community which still has Herman Melville\Moby Dick Days every summer (featuring Grace's dad, Judge Peeples, as Ahab, in a kind of "icky" flirtation with incest). All in all, this is the best reinterpretation of Melville done in the 2000s so far (but, as they say, the century is still young).

I could not help but notice a post that read "Peeples" should be rated R for "lesbian situations." Exactly what is that supposed to mean? What if I said it should be rated R for heterosexual situations? Does that make any sense? It sounds weird. I wonder if this person goes around throwing the rated R sticker on movies just because they have lesbian characters. That is bigoted. Same-sex attraction is not just an adult thing and there is nothing wrong or inappropriate about being a lesbian.Now to my review: Wade (Craig Robinson) is trying to find the perfect time to propose to his girlfriend Grace (Kerry Washington) but has no luck. When Grace visits her family in the Hamptons, Wade decides to show up by surprise and meet the family himself.I enjoyed seeing Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington in the movie "Peeples". I thought it was funny. I took my mom to see the movie on Mother's Day and she loved it. One of my favorite scenes was when Grace tried to introduce Wade to her parents.I believe the PG-13 rating fits the movie. I notice some people on here would beg to differ.There are no nudity or sex scenes included. There is this one scene where Wade has Grace over his lap and he is spanking her, but that's about it. This movie does a perfectly good job at binding everything together to form a family comedy to enjoy. I plan to see this movie again.(Ms. Review is a 25 year old female who writes short stories on her free time.)