I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Best movie ever!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

First off it is a well known fact that Tyler Perry is a man of faith, and he stays true to that in the majority of his films. So when watching a movie and taking the time to critique it for others, is it fair to the population looking for advice on whether this movie is worth a watch or not to critique it from a biased standpoint? I absolutely do not, so in effort to be non- biased and neutral on the morals I choose to rate this movie based on what it should be rated on, the quality of the film. All the actors in this movie had at least one moment worth mentioning (especially Henson)! Sure not every moment was incredible or Oscar worthy, but how many movies have you watched that received a 3.8 rating can you say...all actors had at least one moment of solid acting. None in my opinion. This film revolves and thrives off of real life issues when living in inner city. Now if you have never experienced, or know little of, you may automatically under appreciated this film. What many people saw in this film as cliché were really moments Perry attempted to address those real life issues. Most movies you watch today are 2 hours of meaningless entertainment offering nothing more then a way to shut off your mind from life and leave the theater dumber then when you came it (not that that's not fun once in awhile). But what makes those films better then a film like this? Boldly Perry offers an acceptable mixture of heart, emotion, humor, and real life. If your not interested in movies about life that will attempt to tug at your heart, without fear of showing the real side of an underprivileged and abusive life, then you will enjoy this film. If you prefer movies with meaningless entertainment, or humor then avoid this film.

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.

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.

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!