Why Did I Get Married Too?

I was a bit too young to remember the last Tyler Perry movie I saw, and was never exposed to any of his actual plays. Thus, I held neutral expectations for "Why Did I Get Married Too," though I heard that its predecessor was quite good. I ALMOST left the theater taken aback at Perry's exceptional directing and understanding of human emotions. Unfortunately, that was all but squashed by one of the worst endings I've seen in a long time.

The plot is quite straightforward. Terry (Tyler Perry) and Diane (Sharon Leal) embark on their yearly couples retreat (sounds familiar?) with their friends, all of whom are also married. Marcus (Michael Jai White) and Angela (Tasha Smith) are constantly at odds with each other for any reason they (as in mostly Angela) can fathom, Troy (Lamman Rucker) and Sheila (Jill Scott) are battling the all-too-real consequences of unemployment, while Patricia (Janet Jackson) and Gavin (Mailk Yoba) serve as the model relationship for the group. The retreat is brought back to a harsh reality when Sheila's former husband, Mike (Richard Jones), unknowingly books time with the group's beach house for the weekend. His interruption, unbeknownst to the couples, tests their relationships as their own flaws slowly unravel and manifest themselves.

Perry's playwriting influences are made apparent right from the beginning, as each character behaves and builds in a play-like manner. This works strongly in his favor, as each character is developed well enough to bring significant amounts of powerful tension and drama later into the film. Perry also fiddles with the emotions of his audience like a puppet master, tossing them from angst to anger to happiness with incredible ease and lightning-fast timing. Every actor was stretched to their emotional limits in this film; I found Jackson's performance shockingly spectacular here and her conflict with Yoba to be one of the most intense partnerships I've seen in a while. In short, I felt like I was yanked from my seat and strapped onto the front of an emotional roller-coaster right from the beginning.

Unfortunately, that trains flew off the tracks into a horrible crash landing in the film's final ten minutes. While the ending was somewhat unexpected, it was certainly not the ending I *wanted* to expect. It was as if Perry waited an hour and 50 minutes to cram all of the clichéd, fantasy, happy-ending-feel-goodness Hollywood delivers in spades. The last two minutes were especially insulting. It was so appalling for me, in fact, that it made me spend the two hour train ride home realizing many of the other plot holes and unanswered questions Perry made irrelevant for me beforehand. I'm just going to assume that Perry didn't write the ending; it makes more sense.

All in all, the film is exceptionally well-made, incredibly moving and does not rely on its previous installment for the audience to wholly appreciate. Even despite its questionably poor ending, I highly recommend it.

Why Did I Get Married Too (2010)

I didn't see the first one, so can only approach this for what it was--an ensemble film that works with the problems of contemporary marriage. Yes, in particular this focuses on black America, but Perry seems to pull out the ways this part of the culture resembles American culture at large. And so there lies the flaw, in a way, of making much of this movie: it inevitably revisits familiar material. Does it do it well, or with freshness, or any edge of originality? Maybe only in the sense that it represents very very well to do African Americans, a segment not typical Hollywood fodder.

This isn't a rotten film, as some viewers like to say, but it isn't as well acted, sharply written, exquisitely filmed, or narratively interesting as it could have been by far. And it compares badly with Perry's wonderful "For Colored Girls." You might say this is ambitious--there are nine full blown main characters, each more or less equally dealing with their spouses--but in a way it is overwhelming, and for me at least I had trouble keeping all the story lines straight at first. But these narratives don't ever quite get fleshed out as fully as they need to be, both for their own sake, as small stories, but for the movie as a whole, since none of the content really goes deep. I don't mean it isn't emotional, but it's moving in a surface way.

If you do give this a shot, be aware that the second half of the movie is much better. It's less chitchatty, more serious, has better acting (including some really moving, intense stuff) and has the various plots intertwine and get a little edgy. But also be aware that none of this is especially well done. It rides in a style that might really be called prime time television, interesting but not amazing or transforming.

I don't think I have ever laughed harder at a movie I watched out of boredom. I found this gem as I was perusing Netflix instant-watch, and I'm glad I decided to watch it.

Comedy is prevalent within the first couple scenes. Unlike many of the films made today, it was refreshing to watch a movie that could make me laugh while exploring serious subject matter. The film covers all realms of marriage difficulties, many of which are real problems facing today's couples.

As I was new to Perry's films, I looked up some of his other movies on IMDb. To my disdain, almost all of his films received bad reviews. Why? Perry took the "black stereotype" and made a farce out of it. The movie is completely satirical, and should be perceived as such. Also - Tasha Smith made me laugh the entire movie.

The original "Married" was not Oscar material, but it was at least a solid 5 or 6 on a 10-point scale. It had some freshness and some unpredictability to it that at least made for some fun entertainment.

The sequel is none of these things.

Quite possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Clichéd to the hilt. Weak, repetitive, IQ-lowering humor bordering on sloppy slapstick. From the slow beginning to the disappointing end, this movie is starved. The plot is begging for more development, the actors are aching for better utilization of their characters, and the script is pleading to be burnt to ashes.

Like Perry's "I Can Do Bad," this movie seems rushed as if very little thought was put into making it. I have no idea how the mess I saw on that screen made it pass the editing booth. There's just no way...unless someone was trying to beat some kind of deadline and concluded that since this movie is guaranteed to win the box office, "who cares about quality? We make it and 'they' will come. Release it." And release this stink bomb of a film they did. What a waste.

I hate to be all negative, so I will try to offer one positive. Like in the first movie, Janet stretches her acting and almost comes off as a decent actor. Kudos to Perry for helping get that out of her I guess.

And with that, I'll turn in as I'm sleepy after watching that sleep-inducing tripe of a film. Maybe in the morning I'll feel less angry about giving away two hours of my time that I will never get back. And don't say you weren't warned...even if you're a Tyler Perry fan, you will find my critique to be true.

Toodles

Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows our four couples from the first film getting together for their annual couples trip. This time there will be one new couple and all new problems. Can the group work together to overcome their drama or will the drama overcome them?

This movie is written, stars and is directed by Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) and also stars Janet Jackson (Poetic Justice), Jill Scott (Baggage Claim), Sharon Leal (Dreamgirls), Malik Yoba (Cool Runnings), Richard T. Jones (Event Horizon) and Tasha Smith (The Whole Ten Yards).

Perry did a great job of bringing back the original cast for this picture. It was great seeing them again and picking up where the first film left off. The cameos were also awesome and I loved seeing Louis Gossett Jr. (Iron Eagle), Cicely Tyson (The Help) and Dwayne Johnson (Black Adam). The storyline was very uneven. The ex husband coming on the trip seemed awkward and forced. It's too bad because the divorce was so well written and executed. The drunk night coming home was super sad and the "move out day" was perfectly depicted. Janet Jackson delivers a tremendous performance. There's a car crash scene that is awesome and the twist ending was great.

Overall, this is a very uneven movie that is definitely worth a watch but not as good as it should have been. I would score this a 5.5-6/10 and strongly recommend it.