Tyler Perry's Duplicity

It started out okay. The premise wasn't amazing, but it had just enough going on to keep me watching. The setup hinted at something interesting-maybe a decent thriller-but that potential quickly fades.

The plot becomes painfully predictable. Every twist is telegraphed well in advance, and what should've been suspenseful ends up feeling like a checklist of overused tropes.

I felt sorry for Kat Graham being surrounded by such bad actors. Some of the acting is just dire. Honestly, it feels like half the cast is reading lines off cue cards.

Kat Graham stands out as the only actor who seems to be trying, and it's a shame she's surrounded by performances that drag everything down. She deserves better.

The dialogue doesn't help. At times it's melodramatic, at others it's painfully flat. Combined with inconsistent pacing and clunky scene transitions, the whole thing starts to feel like a rushed soap opera.

And then there's the ending. Ridiculous doesn't even begin to cover it. Implausible, rushed, and honestly kind of insulting. After sticking it out, you're rewarded with a conclusion that doesn't make sense and completely undermines whatever buildup there was.

In short: a forgettable, frustrating film that wastes both its audience's time and Kat Graham's talent. Tyler Perry has done better. This one misses the mark by a mile..

I'm calling on all script writers and movie directors to take a little bit more time and flesh out a better "ending" for your films TV projects. A lot of of the shows and movies that I watch nowadays, including this particular movie, starts out interestingly enough and pique your interest with a plot that is filled with potential only to sputter out at the end. I mean, come on, let's just do a little bit better. Let's just put a little bit more effort into the endings of films and shows. These film developers are getting millions of dollars to create these projects and it's like - when it's time to write an ending or shoot the conclusion they just rush to the finish line. It's not impossible. I remember watching episodes of Game of Thrones or episodes of Better Call Saul and/or the Ozark and by the end of the episode, right before the credits roll, you just sit there with your mouth wide open. More shows and movies could strive to make people have that feeling, it's not hard. And everything does not always need to be tied into a pretty little bow - you can be a bit daring and shocking in your art, it's OK. These movies and shows lure us In with a good plot potential and then we get let down over and over and over again. It's getting tiring and folks are pretty soon, just going to stop caring (at all) about the projects you develop.

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Marley Wells (Kat Graham) is a high flying attorney, with a loving husband, Tony (Tyler Perry, also starring?!!) and her best friend, Fela (Meagan Tandy.) However, when Fela's partner, Kevin (RonReaco Lee) is slain in a police stop, by new recruit Officer Caleb (Jimi Stanton), under the supervision of family friend Shannon (Shannon LaNier), Wells's life is thrown into a whirlwind of disarray, with a devastating truth where everything may not be as it seems.

For the fourth time in the space of a year (including his two and a half hour unseen farrago Divorce in the Black), writer/director Tyler Perry has another passion project on the go that he can't wait for us all to see. Featuring a no name cast, including, it seems, the man himself, here he has a stab at a suspense thriller with a social justice slant thrown in ('cos that's still an in thing), but if at first he didn't succeed, trying, trying and trying again really hasn't worked for him.

The theme of black men being shot dead in police stops still holds a great deal of passion for many, and so it's still a fairly inspired premise on which to base a new film, but here it's delivered in such a ham fisted, heavy handed manner that it has no effect. There is the slightest hint of genuine suspense and mystery to the story, but it's quickly drowned out by descending into a preposterous, drawn out ending that pollutes the rest of the project.

Missieur Perry would do well to consider the likes of Uwe Boll, and even the 'legendary' Ed Wood, and consider his present trajectory in their direction before he gets carried away again. **

Interesting Amazon original movie.

It is a modest police thriller, in some ways also with a fairly predictable ending, which however has the greatest merit of addressing, in a fairly clear and understandable way, also some socially burning and politically always very current issues, namely the training techniques of police officers, the superficial and approximate way of closing certain legal cases through plea bargaining, the domestic violence and, above all, the racism.

Aesthetically, the work is very good, filmed in 4K, it is practically free from criticism.

In my humble opinion, it is worth seeing, provided that one has a certain indulgence towards certain glaring interpretative errors (even on the part of the protagonists, unfortunately). It is certainly not a boring movie, even if, as already mentioned, it lacks originality.

I honestly don't know what it is about Tyler Perry's movies, but he has a habit of hiring ridiculously attractive people who just can't act. Duplicity is no exception. The dialogue is painfully awkward, filled with lines that don't sound like anything real people would say, and the way the actors deliver them makes it even worse. Everything is over-acted. The entire movie feels forced, unnatural, and honestly, a little embarrassing to watch. Everything is off. Everything is melo-dramatic, overblown and just overall Youtube influencer type of acting.

The only reason I even gave this movie a chance was because of Kat Graham. She was great in The Vampire Diaries, so I know she's capable of delivering a strong performance. But here? It was actually painful to watch her act alongside people who seemed like they had never stepped in front of a camera before. Every interaction was stiff, robotic, and lacking any real chemistry. It's like they just grabbed random people off the street and put them in a major film with zero preparation.

On top of that, the plot is just messy. It's predictable, overly dramatic in the worst way, and full of cringeworthy moments that made me want to turn it off multiple times. I kept waiting for it to get better, for something to make it all worth sitting through, but it never did.

If you're looking for a well-acted, engaging movie, this is not it. It's frustratingly bad, and the only thing worse than the acting is the writing. Don't waste your time.