Review of Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (2008) by Jonathan L — 09 Feb 2009

This is an atrocious film that "develops" characters and situations with broad, sweeping dialogue. It's the sort of film that names the movies it's borrowing from, in case viewers can't tell that irrelevant plot strands were added solely because they're derived from better films. In each moment, what the characters say violates what people in that situation actually would say, and the situations themselves also are oversimplified and defy credibility. The film does seem to reveal two hidden messages in the course of viewing: 1. Really good people, whether black or white, have lots and lots of money (although of course good white people have more), while bad people lose their money trying to screw people over. 2. Good people are loyal to their same-race partners; bad people hurt everyone around them by having extra-marital, inter-race relationships.

I watched this on an airplane. I stuck it out until the end because I thought a movie that offered nothing but broad plot development would resolve the plot in an interesting manner. It didn't! Instead, it ended the movie as if it had developed real characters, and as if we cared what these characters had to say and think.

If you have friends who liked this film, you should delete them immediately. You can do better.