The Movie
When Hollywood's current reigning drag queen, Madea (hyphenate extraordinaire Tyler Perry) is the victim of an attempted burglary, she takes matters into her own hands and turns the troubled teen/preteen perps over to their only living relative, their aunt April (Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson). So begins I Can Do Bad All by Myself, based on Perry's stage play Dear God, Are All Men Dogs?: I Can Do Bad All by Myself, essentially an urban family drama with a lot of jokes thrown in. April's also a nightclub singer, and she lives half a block from the local church, so there's plenty of music here, too.
April has enough of her own problems (guessing she's the one who can do bad all by herself, thank you very much) and raising three hard-luck kids is simply not on her agenda. But with the help of a newly arrived Colombian handyman ("handy" indeed), she begins to face her demons and finally embrace what's most important in life. The movie's at its best when exposing the harsh realities of family life, not so much when Madea goes off on one of her rants.
The Picture
The 1.78:1 image starts out generally clean and low on noise, but shadowy areas and fine textures like upholstery are soon revealed as twitchy. Out-of-focus backgrounds and foregrounds look better here than on some discs, and blacks don't always contain abundant detail but they do at least have a natural appearance overall. The image is also a little grainy, and a little too soft to make this a standout disc.
The Sound
The many "live" musical numbers and the after-hours environment of the night club where April works do a fine job of inhabiting the 5.1 channels of this DTS-HD Master Audio track, while a Baptist church on Sunday morning takes on a life of its own. Discrete off-camera voices are used intermittently, while surrounds are often subtle, but there, as when April and her handyman spend the afternoon in the park.
The Extras
The Special Features section of this Blu-ray consists of three featurettes, all in HD. "A Soulful Ensemble" (ten minutes) introduces us to the cast, particularly star Taraji P. Henson. "The Power of Music" (six minutes) explains how the music woven into the story ultimately influenced the direction of the movie. And "Tyler's Block Party" (five minutes) covers the Mary J. Blige performance that now closes the film. It's all a tad lean frankly, offering precious little insight on the reclusive auteur.
Final Thoughts
I personally didn't laugh at anything Madea had to say--and she's there mostly for comic relief--either because I've seen it all before or the material just wasn't that funny. But I do acknowledge that Tyler Perry is a major filmmaker of the moment, just as I acknowledge that underneath the silliness and occasional schmaltz of I Can Do Bad All by Myself lies a significant tale of broken people and broken families healing themselves.
Product Details
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