A Perspective on Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry is a hero to parts of the black community, and the scourge of the earth to others (hello, Shorty New York). I'm going to leave my general...well, let me not say that. If I go on a rant about Tyler Perry haters - and the overlap between them and those who hate southern rap, et al - then I just do.

The one thing I'll say for now: funny how TP haters were saying "all he does is Madea: he needs to branch out" and so on...and then people found out he was playing Alex Cross and it's "he can't play Alex Cross: he needs to stick to the Madea stuff". He can't win for losing, and that says more about the haters than it does about Perry.

I haven't seen any of Perry's stage plays (actually, I saw parts of "What's Done In The Dark" at a cousin's house; but not enough to remember anything), but I have seen most of his movies. The crux of this post will be a retrospective on those films, and it will start now.




Diary of a Mad Black Woman: I didn't see this until it was showing at FSU's Student Life Cinema (bascially, you can say I saw it at a dollar movie: same time frame/situation). I'd heard a little bit about it and vaguely knew of Perry. I thought Shemar Moore's portrayal of Orlando was cheesy and that it made no sense when Helen went back to Charles, but the jewel of the movie was the background story of Brian and Deborah. Best moment of the movie was when she showed up in the church a la Shug in the Color Purple.

Madea's Family Reunion: Easily my favorite Tyler Perry movie. There was the veritable shock at the beginning. Blair Underwood, who sisters had loved for almost 20 years, in that role? Wow. Perry also told the parallel stories much more efficiently and had them mesh amazingly well in comparison to his initial effort. The casting was excellent, the story went well, and the entertainment factor was high. The only complaint I have is the lack of continuity. If Helen's mother was in the movie, she and Orlando should have at least been mentioned.

Daddy's Little Girls: I know what he was trying to do, but it just didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. One of the things I do with Perry's movies is fill in the holes myself to give myself a better experience. The girls' grandmother didn't have to die, and she should have had a larger role in the movie. It seemed like she was just there to hand off the girls to Monty. I also didn't like the false rape part of the movie. That's how they made him sympathetic? I'd have rather his legal trouble come from the situation with Jennifer and Joe. A little more interaction between Julia and the girls wouldn't have hurt either. The story just didn't seem that well-developed.

Why Did I Get Married?: This movie had much entertainment, thanks to Angela. Mike had a lot to do with that too. I couldn't figure out how all of these people got together, though. Did they all know each other during college? It just seems odd that eight people would all meet during college, pair off, and then stay together. I also think the characters were a bit over the top, especially Pat and Diane. The first half of the movie was great, but the turning point made the second half entirely too predictable.

Meet The Browns: This was when I thought things were starting to go downhill. Angela Bassett did as well as she could, but not as well as I'd seen her in other efforts. Rick Fox as a romantic male lead? No. There was a lot of silliness in the movie that I could have done without. I wasn't really sorry that I saw the movie at the time, but as time has passed I've come to believe the opinion expressed in the first sentence. Sofia Vergara and Jenifer Lewis were the highlights.

Madea Goes To Jail: My biggest complaint about Perry's movies is that the stories seem so disjointed, and nowhere was that more prevalent than in this one. Outside that, Candace's story was revealed far too late in the story: by the time it came out, I'd already lost interest in her as a character. I also thought Chuck was completely useless. Josh could have found out what Linda did on his own. Perry also went out of his way for the cheap laugh with the KMart scene (although it worked with me).

 I Can Do Bad All By Myself: Let me get the negative out of the way: Mary J. does not need to act again. Ever. Gladys Knight was pretty decent, but I wouldn't say anything past that. Now the leads did really good jobs, especially Adam Rodriguez as Sandino. Taraji's portrayal of April is the best acting job I've seen from her. Now that I think about it, I'd have rather seen her as the female lead in Meet The Browns. Ah well. Once April got the kids, the story flowed really well. Cheesy ending, but that's pretty much a Perry staple.

Why Did I Get Married Too?: This movie got under my skin. I'll get to why soon. I will say it flowed better than the first movie, even though there wasn't as much comedy. I thought having Mike as the troublemaker (and then advisor) was brilliant. Richard T. Jones played that role to perfection on both sides. My major problem with the movie was that none of the women paid for their transgressions. That irked me to no end...as you can probably tell, it still does. Patricia basically murders Gavin and gets the Rock? Ugh. The men just got run over, which I didn't appreciate at all.

For Colored Girls: People cringed at the thought of this movie, and I guess maybe I should have since Perry's immediate past efforts were underwhelming outside of I Can Do Bad All By Myself. However, I didn't walk in with preconceived notions - which a lot of people, of course, fail to do with Perry films - and just focused on my memory of the play (which I saw at FAMU). I also figured no movie with that cast could be bad...and I was right. The women were excellent in their roles, and they really made the movie. It was so different than any other Perry production: partly because it had to be.

Madea's Big Happy Family: This was an odd movie in that it had really good parts and really bad parts sewn in together. This shouldn't be a surprise since we're talking about Perry, but the bad has to do with the interweaving of the good individual stories. Kimberly's story was worth telling. I'd have rather seen her story more closely connected with Shirley's at the expense of Byron's story. Tammy's story was worth telling too. Really, I'd have liked the movie to focus on the daughters' relationship with Shirley and each other (kind-of like in Madea's Family Reunion). The movie was decent as it was, but it would have been better if the other stories developed from the Shirley-Kimberly-Tammy triangle.

Madea's Witness Protection: I want to forget everything about this movie - and I'm including things that don't even involve the movie itself. The story was horribly contrived, the humor wasn't...well, humorous...and the acting was far from notable. I don't know how this one got out of the studio, and it is terrible that this is Perry's second-highest grossing film behind Madea Goes To Jail.

Alex Cross: I thought this movie was pretty decent. It wasn't great, but I was able to go along with it and wasn't sorry I saw it when it as over. Could someone better have played Cross? Well, sure. You can say that about almost any movie, though. I started thinking about whom I'd have cast as Cross and came up rather empty. Denzel? Too old. Same for Will Smith and obviously Morgan Freeman. Maybe Idris Elba or Michael Ealy? I just can't think of anyone who'd have produced better action scenes, which was my issue with Perry. He handled the other stuff just fine. As far as the movie, I think they could have delved into Picasso's character more. They certainly had time, as the movie was only an hour and a half. Anyway, since the post is about Perry and his sole involvement was playing Cross; there's really no need to say anymore.

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Tyler Perry Movies (I've Seen)...Ranked

12. Madea's Witness Protection
11. Madea Goes To Jail
10. Why Did I Get Married Too?
9. Meet The Browns
8. Daddy's Little Girls
7. Why Did I Get Married?
6. Madea's Big Happy Family
5. Alex Cross
4. Diary Of A Mad Black Woman
3. I Can Do Bad All By Myself
2. For Colored Girls
1. Madea's Family Reunion

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Overall, I think Perry is a decent enough filmmaker. He's not the greatest, but he's not the scourge of the earth. Could he stand to improve? Sure. You can say that about almost anyone, though. I think much of Perry's criticism comes from those who want to be seen as "cool" by other critics: as if it's "the right thing to say" for inclusion into some club of pseudo-intelligent black people. For those out there who roll like that, keep rolling.

I don't find some new sense of self-actualization from watching his movies (one of the main complaints from the 'haters' is that a lot of people do), but I can't fault people who take that much from his films. Motivation is like love: it can be so fleeting that you've got to take it where you can get it. Perry's not going to save our people...but neither is Shorty New York. He's certainly not going to do it by bashing Perry. If he wants to help Perry get better, then he should offer to help - particularly with the technical aspects of film-making.

Of course, I can't blame Perry for not wanting to listen to a word Shorty says. I'd tell him to find a rock taller than he is and kick it until his foot falls off, but that's just me. I just can't see anything positive coming from public negativity. "It's constructive criticism"...stop. Commentary on lighting and shot selection is constructive criticism. Pushing your opinions on someone else is negativity. SNY does the latter.

This SNY/Perry thing reminds me of this larger scheme of division among black folks. If I start talking about that, the length of this post will double...so I'll leave it here. Besides, y'all know what I'm talking about anyway.

If Tyler Perry wants to or needs to make better movies, then he should certainly do so. However, his path to improvement has nothing to do with SNY or anyone whose opinions mirror his. He could take classes from Spielberg and they still wouldn't care. As long as he's comfortable with himself and he makes honest efforts, he has no one to answer to: least of all someone he can look down on (in more ways than one).