Good Deeds – Short Movie Review

I never thought I’d say this, but… here’s a movie that makes me MISS Madea. Good Deeds just takes itself SO DAMN SERIOUSLY. It comes off as self parody almost immediately. The problems with the film begin and end with Tyler Perry himself. He is not leading-man material whatsoever… at least not under his own direction and with his own script. The movie is about a guy named Wesley Deeds who is not only the member of an Ivy League family, but is a wealthy rich businessman with a beautiful wife, a beautiful place to live, and everything one could ever hope for. And, he’s miserable. Why? Because, he finds himself doing all the things that other people want him to do rather than defining his own path. However, this all starts to change with Thandie Newton comes in as a down-on-her-luck janitor (Thandie Newton as a janitor…. nigga please).

Now, I can sorta/kinda admired what Tyler Perry is trying to do here. We have all these really insulting movies about the black experience made by people who don’t understand black people. While here, Tyler set out to make a movie that portrayed intelligent and thoughtful black people rather than the ghetto ones that comprise his other films. But, he’s trying WAY TOO HARD. Nearly every emotional note falls flat, and the story is just not that interesting… Not with Tyler Perry as the main character because his performance here SUCKS. It speaks volumes when you take him out of the dress and the wig, and he flounders on screen like this. The movie, also, is just boring. You’ve seen this movie before. No need to see it again.

Skip it in theaters, but it could make a decent rental if nothing else interests you.

SCORE: 5.0 (out of 10) = ALMOST CRAPPY