Very rarely is
anything with Tyler Perry’s name attached going to be unpredictable. He has
franchised his name into a safe and generic type of entertainment, and his
films and television shows can all be exactly the same as long as he continues
to draw in audiences that want more of the same. Thankfully he has taken only a
producer position in Tyler Perry Presents
Peeples, though the locations look remarkably familiar and the narrative is
far from original or surprising. The most surprising thing about this film is
how unsympathetic and distasteful the romantic female lead is for a film
written and directed by a woman.
Essentially
ripping off Meet the Parents in as
many aspects as possible without threat of plagiarism, writer Tina Gordon Chism
(Drumline, ATL) also made this her directorial debut. Craig Robinson is the
film’s sliver lining as Wade, a modest man who takes it upon himself to show up
and meet his girlfriend’s wealthy family in hopes of asking for her hand in
marriage. When it turns out that his girlfriend, Grace (Kerry Washington), has
never even told her family that she was dating Wade, he lets it go far too
easily. When he discovers that she has been keeping many other things from him,
including a plethora of local lovers a solid twenty years older than her and a
criminal record, it becomes obnoxious that Wade still wants to marry her. The
film makes him a saint and that just makes him too good for the entire family,
including the judgmental Judge Peeples (David Alan Greer), Grace’s father.
When this film
wasn’t annoying me, I was entertained because of Robinson. There isn’t much
material to go on here and it feels like a product more than a piece of art,
but it makes for a decently bland evening’s entertainment. The Blu-ray release
also includes a digital copy, along with a few featurettes, a commentary track,
and a gag reel.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 4/10
Historical
Significance: 1/10
Disc Features: 7/10
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