DVD Reviews

I Can Do Bad All By Myself - Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Jan 28, 2010, 15:30 GMT

$Lionsgate Tyler Perry\'s I Can Do Bad All By Myself (Blu-ray)When Madea, America\'s favorite pistol-packing Grandma catches sixteen-year-old Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decidesto take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April. A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of her married boyfriend Randy.April wants nothing to do with the kids. But her$

Lionsgate Tyler Perry\'s I Can Do Bad All By Myself (Blu-ray)When Madea, America\'s favorite pistol-packing Grandma catches sixteen-year-old Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decidesto take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April. A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of her married boyfriend Randy.April wants nothing to do with the kids. But her ...more

Tyler Perry has an insanely successful and prolific run of films that just seem to keep coming. I’ve only had to guess at what their appeal is, but now that I’ve seen my first Perry pic ‘I Can Do Bad All By Myself’, all I can really offer is … huh?

I Can Do Bad All By Myself is based on Perry’s stage play of the same name. The play supposedly introduced his alter-ego fat-suited ‘Madea’ character - a snappy, tree of an older woman (played by Perry) who is quick with the wisecracks but, in this film at least, is a big softy on the inside. The film is an awkward amalgam of broad emotions and broad humor – the near rape of a young girl segueing into the mumbling antics of the fat-suited Perry as Madea – that just seems tonally off.

It’s basically the film equivalent of a Sunday School Lesson complete with rousing musical numbers courtesy of Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige. The meat of the story centers on an emotionally starved closed-off nightclub singer April (Taraji P. Henson) who is so selfish in life and love that she refuses to take in the children of her dead sister when their previous caretaker, April’s mom, disappears.

Inexplicably, the film starts off with the kids trying to steal some electronic goods from Madea and her equally grumpy bro Joe (also Perry) which obviously doesn’t go over so well with Madea who is fresh out of jail if you remember – “I been to jail, I will shank you!” Madea screams at the 16-year old Jennifer (Hope Olaide Wilson) and the two younger boys Manny and Bryan (Kwesi Boakye and Freddy Siglar).

So Madea sits them down for a stern talking to and then drops them off at April’s house. April is none too happy about this disturbance.

April is seemingly just full of attitude due to her ‘man’ - a married verbally abusive punk appropriately named Randy (Brian White) who pays her bills and therefore thinks he has a say in everything she does. And he doesn’t like kids. So she at first only agrees to watch the kids. When the pastor of her church pressures her to take in a Columbian handyman Sandino (Adam Rodriquez) looking for a place to live his kindness towards the kids and towards her makes her realize that there may be more to life than what liquor and Randy have to give.

Perry does well to attract a legitimate cast for the integral female roles with Taraji P. Henson fresh off her nomination for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ to carry the pic. With April, she gets a real meaty role to chew on that while eye-rollingly melodramatic at times is able to hit a lot of effective emotional beats. The same for the young performer Hope Olaide Wilson as Jennifer - who really makes the audience work for her smile.

Other cast members don’t fare as well with Rodriguez and White both getting saddled with predictable stereotypes and Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige handed a few cursory lines to justify their acting presence. They are really there just to belt out some musical numbers - rousing though they may be.

What ultimately throws me is the strange balance of fat-suit humor (straight out of ‘Big Momma’s House’), the Christian-affirming moral growth preaching, and numerous musical numbers - which take up around fifteen to twenty minutes of plot.

I suppose I see the appeal of a film like this for certain audiences as it’s a grab-bag of genres that probably makes the perfect post-Church movie buffet. But critically, it’s somewhat hard to take seriously at times. However, there’s no denying Perry has his finger on how to write women and how to fashion stories that deal with somewhat touchy subject matter but can mold them into mostly benign entertainment.

The film is presented with a 1.78:1 AVC 1080p encode that is solid if inconsistent. Detail and depth is good for the most part but grain is sporadic. The DTS-HD Master Aud 5.1 track gets the job done well presenting some oomph to the musical numbers while giving us sharp, clean dialogue.

Special Features are a bit light but includes the ten-minute ‘A Soulful Ensemble’ with some cast interviews, ‘The Power of Music’ which highlights the musical numbers in the film and a four minute ‘Tyler’s Block Party’ which expands on the final minutes of the film. A Trailer in high-def rounds things out. Peculiarly, Tyler Perry himself is nowhere to be seen on the extras – whaat?

I’ll be the first to admit that ‘I Can Do Bad All By Myself’ isn’t really my cup of tea as (while I don’t mind some moralizing cheap laughs and inspiring music) I prefer a bit more consistency to the tone of my films. That being said, I see the appeal of this type of film for women and families and have no problem recommending it as well-meaning.