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Review: Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself

Tyler Perry's latest is not so bad at all, really
By SHAULA CLARK  |  September 16, 2009
2.5 2.5 Stars

 

Tyler Perry's latest crackles with electricity, thanks to heaps of boffo acting talent, high-octane musical interludes, and the most easy-to-root-for electrocution scene since Ernest Goes to Jail. True, the sparks aren't in Perry's script, a soppy hanky moistener in which callous nightclub singer April (played by the mesmerizing Taraji P. Henson) finds herself pressured to take in a Colombian handyman (Adam Rodriguez) and a litter of traumatized orphans spawned by her crackhead sister.

But Perry's incandescent cast, which also boasts Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight, and gospel singer Marvin Winans, is more than capable of shouldering this morality play, and Perry's in-drag alter ego, Madea, adds some welcome comic relief.

Read between the lines and you can find some squirm-inducing sour notes — it seems April is forever destined to be a reflection of her man — but overall, I Can Do Bad does just fine.

Related: Boo-ya!, Rare treats, Review: Taam China Glatt Kosher Chinese Cuisine, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Mary J. Blige,  More more >
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ARTICLES BY SHAULA CLARK
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    "We're sitting here . . . and we're talking, but nobody's actually saying anything."
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    Phil Grabsky's exhaustive documentary doesn't exactly dispel any stereotypes about Beethoven's being a shaggy genius prone to rages.
  •   52 WAYS TO LEAVE 2009  |  December 30, 2009
    Your usual lackadaisical approach to New Year's Eve — just see what happens and go with the flow — is not going to cut it this year. Sure, the end of this decade may not have the same kind of new-millennium pressure riding on it as the last one, but the plunge into 2010 is a milestone nonetheless.
  •   REVIEW: BROTHERS  |  December 09, 2009
    Operation Enduring Freedom seems to have replaced Vietnam as Hollywood's go-to military quagmire from which to dredge gut-wrenching meditations on the psychological carnage of war.

 See all articles by: SHAULA CLARK

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