Filmstrip

I just finished watching “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”. The movie was listed in Blockbuster as a comedy, but it was really one long advertisement for Mother Church (“Can I get an A-Men? Praise Jeeez-us!). One of the reviewers actually had a similar experience to mine:

“This Diary needs some editing. There are about three movies' worth of storylines going on in writer-producer-actor-cross-dresser Tyler Perry's flick....” more .

The only comedy was some pretty camp comedy relief, and the only laugh I got was Tyler Perry as an old man, delivering a line to Tyler Perry, the crazed Grandma. The reviewers gave this movie a “C” on average, and there were many viewers that came to its defense, but I think the reviewers got it right this time. Here is an example of one of the movie’s defenders:

“This movie comes from a play produced by tyler perry. And it' here to prove a point to people don't let no man or woman run your life. And be an individual at all times have your own life even if your married. but we always look at the movie and not what it's about”

Ok, I’m a language snob, and that badly punctuated, run-on sentence offends me. Beyond that, this is not the message that I got from this movie. The message I saw was, “Come back to Mother Church, and we will solve all of your problems”. Never mind that the Church stole your self-esteem in the first place, creating the victims that the protagonists have become in this movie. Never mind that it seldom works that way in real life. There is even a Baptist “halleluiah” song that contains the words “Not Muhammad, not Buddha,...” Yup, the church can solve all your problems. We are also treated to a scene that propounds the myth that marijuana is an hallucinogen. Somebody has been watching too much “Reefer Madness”. Eddie Murphy has nothing to fear in terms of competition from Tyler Perry. One barber shop scene from "Coming to America" is worth this entire movie. "Diary" is a dog’s breakfast.