Just a warning if you haven’t seen the movie and want to, stop reading now and see the movie. This review is for people who already have seen the movie, I will be saying a lot that hasn’t been said yet and could potentially ruin the movie for you.
I know this review is going to attract some anger or at least some questions, because when I look across the internet all I see is high praise for this movie but honestly I felt let down by it. To me this movie seemed like payback to anyone who had ever bootlegged or watched a bootlegged Tyler Perry play. Actually now that I think about it, every one of his “Movies” seem like they have just been an excuse to make you pay for a script that you have already seen before.
The actors were amazing and heck if this was a television mini-series it may not get the same type of feelings from me. I mean look at it this way, its approximately a 2 hour movie, so we didn’t have to take the time to really get to know any characters except for Troy, and I kind of like the way that the movie teased at all of the other couples issues. But thats ultimately my problem as well, it only teased. In the first movie we were greeted to problems and resolutions, in this one we were just given 2 hours of drama. The plot holes are enormous when you actually take time to point them out.
Angela and Marcus
We are greeted to Marcus thru a quick glance at his TV show, but how in the 2 years that passed was Marcus able to pull off getting a prominent position on this “weekend” sports cast? As I recall he didn’t spend very long in the NFL, and at least from the last movie it didn’t seem like he spent much time around the NFL, I mean I do recall him cutting hair in Angela’s salon. I’m not saying that its not possible, and yeah maybe it wasn’t meant for explanation in the context of this movie, but it does make you wonder how he was able to keep his job after Angela’s antics on live TV.
Now to Angela, who seems to be an advocate for drinking, acting out, and I guess its okay to fire a gun within your own house, without so much as a question from the police. While it may be a bit funny in a play when Madea fires off a clearly fake pop gun for comic relief, it a totally different thing when a clearly upset woman is firing off a real gun a what she thinks is her husband in their bed. Honestly neither of these characters did anything to add anything but comedic relief at best or (at least in Angela’s case) playing up negative stereotypes which have plagued our community.
Terry and Diane
I guess they had to throw in some cheating some where even if was a possible non issue. I don’t know but it seemed like Terry wasn’t really that excited about finding out the truth. Its funny how if it was a man in this situation in any other movie would have been doubted and tracked as if he was America’s most wanted. It feels like there was more to this story that was never explored.
Sheila and Troy
Way to rehash a plot line straight from Soul Food. Just a question though, did Sheila have a job? I think it was pretty clear that in the first movie she didn’t have a job until she started working at Troy’s store. Futhermore, you mean to tell me that a man that served in an elected position as a Sheriff couldn’t get a walk on job with the Atlanta Police, State Police, Highway Patrol, Park Police, Security for the falcons games? I understand that times are tough but they were saying he had been out of work for months. I know this may focus around its not what you know but who you know, but getting elected into a position is one of the best resume items you can have simply because a majority of people wanted you to serve publicly in a position. Also, who moves somewhere (that seemed to be a planned move) and doesn’t scout the job market first? I mean really, how much more difficult would it have been to I don’t know… call ahead maybe and see where they may be hiring? Also, I know Sheila had a big heart but going to Mike’s house… yeah that seemed perfectly built for this movie with nothing but a… he has cancer thrown in almost as an after thought, because up until that point there really wasn’t much basis for any long term drama between the two of them.
Gavin and Patricia
I understand they were having there issues, but we never really seem to see or hear what those issues are. Yes the loss of their son was a strain on them, but I would have really liked to hear what the conversation/argument they were having at the beach house was all about. Also with her being a therapist one would think she would be the first to recommend that they seek marriage counseling. It seemed like Gavin’s final scene was put in to do nothing more than wrap up these loose ends so that they could end the movie, otherwise this easily could have run on for a few more hours getting everyones problem to the point of resolution.
Final Thoughts
I am not saying that the movie was horrible, I just expected more from what was such a powerful movie the first go round. This seemed more to me like a reunion where they were just wanting to put all of the old actors on screen together again. I guess I may be spoiled because I was a fan of the Soul Food Series, and they tackled all of these issues in more in depth, and maybe thats what Tyler Perry is trying to do, use this movie as a backdoor pilot to Showtime or HBO for a series based on these characters (or some facsimile of these characters).
Ultimately for me this movie left me with more questions than answers and I just felt like there was very little effort put forth by the writers to clean up the script enough for a movie, this script would have been allowed to play out in a play or thru a series, but for a movie it was poor (in my opinion) put together.
All that aside I do think the actors played their characters wonderfully, but I think it could have been even better with a decent storyline for them to play out, which is why I felt let down
