Now I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Mr. Tyler Perry. The man who was once homeless and overcame his personal obstacles to become one of the biggest and most popular Black playwrights of our generation, to now a big time player in the film world. He owns his own film studio (Tyler Perry Studios) in Atlanta, which is also the first African-American owned studio in the country. His films have grossed over 400 million dollars worldwide, not even including the success for his plays, or books. I've been somewhat biased against Mr. Perry for some time and I don't personally enjoy those "ethnic" plays, that he used to put on. I'm also not a fan of his most popular character Madea, and elderly and obnoxious Black woman who is actually Perry in drag, who is the main character this and who most of his movies are based around. I just personally find Black men dressed in drag and acting "ethnic" like such rather COONISH.
However, I commend Perry on his success and how the quality of his work has evolved drastically. Which is why I'm actually looking forward to ICDBABM. In the film Madea finds homeless kids and she relocates them with their only living relative, who is their aunt April (Taraji P. Henson). April is an alcoholic, night club singer and also a mistress who lives off of her married boyfriend (Brian White). She initially doesn't want to be bothered with the children, but her mind begins to change with the help of Sandino (Alex Rodriguez), a Mexican immigrant looking for work who moves into her basement. Eventually April changes her ways and falls in love with Sandino and they become a real family. The film features guest starring roles from Mary J. Blige and Gladys Knight as well. One thing that I can appreciate about Perry is how he gives new actors a chance to shine with big roles in his films, and I also like how he uses a lot of the same actors (a la Spike Lee).
I personally am a fan of Taraji Henson, who has worked with Perry several times before, and the movie appears to have a good natured message and story-line like most of his films do. The reason I'll watch a Tyler Perry movie now versus five years ago is because he is using better quality actors, his story lines have gotten better; they have more substance and are simply more entertaining, classier and they're not as "preachy" and religious as before. His productions are also very diverse and appeal to all ages and backgrounds and the stories are realistic. The cast of this film looks pretty solid and the trailer looks promising, so despite my 'love/hate' feeling about Perry and some of his productions, I'm going to go ahead and recommend "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" as a good flick to check out. It opens Sept. 11, 2009.
