I Saw Tyler Perry's 'Good Deeds', Here's What I Think

Thandie Newton in Tyler Perry's Good Deeds

I lifted the following review from LA Times. They didn't do a bad job, I hope Tyler Perry comes across it too cos I feel almost the same way.. Having said that, 'Good Deeds' worked for me, only there were scenes that shouldn't have made the cut. Tyler Perry came off as a real good actor but crying in his movies is not a feat he has mastered, he just shouldn't have gone for it.. #EpicFail there.
I'll tell you one thing tho, I didn't waste money seeing it. I cried some in between scenes, well, 'Good Deeds' leaves you feeling that way. It
was emotionally packed, witty in some aspect and the picture was great, just so. The last scene in the movie isn't much to speak of, that won't leave you feeling so happy but it wasn't entirely bad.

Star Rating: 4 Stars.. A movie that makes me cry gets that much, 'Good Deeds' is a must watch for the ladies, you'll honestly enjoy it fa :D

BTW, I should let you know, Tyler Perry has got to be a Yoruba man in another life o.. #iSwearDown.. In the movie, you'll see a couple of really obvious marks on both his upper cheeks.. I won't be surprised if his ancestral names turn out to be Taye Kamoru Perry. Wink

Will I watch 'Good Deeds' again? Well, maybe with girlfriends, esp those that haven't seen it, I'll like to see them get all teary-eyed.. :D

I saw 'The Vow' too, just after 'Good Deeds'. I don't have enough time to discuss this but it's a freaking good movie.. Awesome is the word.. 'The Vow' starred Rachel McAdams & Channing Tatum.. Both love birds, found love, got married and not too long after were both involved in a car crash where Page, played by Rachel McAdams lost most of her memory..  he memories that matter gan gan for that matter.. Well, enof said, 'The Vow' is a must watch.

My next movie will be Denzel Washington's 'Safe House' and prolly 'Descendants' too.. I really can't wait to see them. Titanic returns to the big screen sometime in April, and this time in 3D. Can't wait.

Okies, the LA Times review below..

Even as Tyler Perry the industry grows more and more stable and certain, reliably putting out cost-effective cultural products across a number of platforms, Tyler Perry the filmmaker remains a work in progress. There is still something both oddly thrilling and endlessly frustrating about his work as writer, director and performer.

When Perry sets films within the universe of broad tones steered by his signature character of Madea, veering madly from comedy to melodrama, he seems more sure-footed than when he makes films set ostensibly in the genuine contemporary here and now. In "Tyler Perry's Good Deeds" he plays, indeed, a character named Wesley Deeds III who learns how to be genuinely good.

Set in San Francisco — though apart from outdoor establishing shots it seems the film was made in Perry's home base of Georgia — the story revolves around Wesley as head of his family's software corporation and how he seems to have his life in order. Except he increasingly feels it's a life thrust upon him and not of his own choosing. Preparing to marry Natalie (Gabrielle Union), he meets a night janitor at his office (Thandie Newton) who turns his life upside down.

At times it seems Perry wants to flirt with making an income-inequality romance, with Newton's character a struggling single mother recently evicted from her apartment. Yet in constantly re-orienting the story to the self-discovery of Wesley Deeds (you know, his character) Perry undercuts the film's contemporary resonance to fall back on the disconcerting pious self-satisfaction that often mars his work.

Newton seems so full-blooded and alive in her role, utterly compelling with an electric nerviness every moment she is on screen. As well, Union reveals a brittle steeliness that she more commonly masks with a certain sunniness. Here she somehow manages to be both cold and vulnerable at the same time. Both actresses have been wildly underserved by Hollywood and it speaks for itself that the best opportunities for either of them seem to be Tyler Perry movies.

If only someone could do the same for Perry himself. He comes across as wooden and insincere time and again in the film. Stripped of the broad strokes of his Madea character and tasked with being a real person, he seems to freeze up. Perhaps he simply spreads himself too thin as writer and director and star, but with his "Good Deeds" Tyler Perry seems not to have finished the job.