Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Adam Rodriguez, Hope Olaide Wilson, Kwesi Nii-Lante Boakye, Frederick Siglar, Tyler Perry
Director: Tyler Perry (The Family That Preys, Madea’s Family Reunion)
Running Time: 1 hr 53 min
Release Date: Sept. 11, 2009
Budget: $13 million
Average Critics’ Score: 67%
“It’s the best Tyler Perry movie to date…” Ty Burr, Boston Globe
“…melodramatic predictability.” Peter Debruge, Variety
Perry’s latest family melodrama is predictable and follows an all too-familiar storyline, but the strong acting, good heart and well-produced songs performed by megawatt singers Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige make for an engrossing, optimistic film. Like 2004’s Raising Helen and 2007’s No Reservations, Bad is about April (Henson), an unhappy, hard-drinking nightclub singer who learns to forgo her selfish ways when she’s forced to take in her dead sister’s three emotionally abused children (Nii-Lante Boakye, Siglar and a wonderful Olaide Wilson). While the ending’s a bit forced and the not-so-subtle songs are a tad corny, Perry keeps the mood light with a few amusing scenes featuring his alter ego, Madea, the sassy grandma.
