Okay, I wanna make one thing perfectly clear. Just because I've made a commitment to watch all of the Tyler Perry movies featuring his signature Madea character does not mean that I feel I am obligated to watch and review every movie his name is attached to. I just wanted to make this known as I coincidentally reviewed the last one, Temptation, even though it didn't have Madea in it, and I will be reviewing the next one after this, because it will have Madea in it. And Larry the Cable Guy, because Tyler Perry hates me. If one happens to come along that doesn't qualify for the Madea Challenge and I decide that I want to skip it, so be it. Anyway, I just watched The Peeples, of my own free will and unconnected from any other review series I might otherwise be doing, and admittedly, while not particularly good, it was not nearly as terrible as I was expecting it to be.
Meet
The Parents, I mean Meet The Peeples, I mean Peeples, is the story of
a man who struggles to ingratiate himself with his long-time
girlfriend's family over a long weekend, after he discovers that her
father is an overbearing control freak, and as far as the family
knows, she's been single all through their relationship. While it
doesn't take much anymore to get me to see a movie, as even if I
don't like it I'll still have fodder for a review, I have to admit
that critical content wasn't the only thing that attracted me to this
movie. Though I'm not a fan of The Office, arguably his most notable
role, I've grown to like Craig Robinson in movies like Zack and Miri
Make A Porno and Hot Tub Time Machine, and I've always loved David
Allen Grier, Blankman notwithstanding. I can't say that either of
them are bad, even if most of the material they are given is a bit
too bland to justify their respective talents.
And
that's this movie in a nutshell. It's pleasantly inoffensive, mildly
funny at times and enough to just barely sustain my interest, but
overall, just sort of...there. There are a lot of typical low key
comedy set pieces peppered throughout, about half of which pay off in
so far as they are somewhat entertaining, and a few random tangents
that seem like they may have built to something if given more time,
except clearly the exercise of writing this movie did not merit that
more time be spent on it. Everyone seems like they're having a good
time, which is usually enough to infuse some much appreciated energy
into the proceedings, and I can't say anything about the movie
suggests that I should have expected it to be any more than it is.
Its the kind of movie you can take your mom to, and since the last
movie I saw like this was The Guilt Trip, maybe I'm giving Peeples more
of a pass.
The
Tyler Perry joke I started this review with is a bit unfair actually,
as he didn't write or direct this movie, and only produced it. And
yet, while it is easily more well put together and entertaining then
anything he has written or directed, I still see shades of his
twisted worldview under the surface. For example, while there is no
beating of women, the main character is still the kind of stalwartly
true and good man typical of Tyler Perry male protagonists, and his
woman almost loses him due to her own womanly foolishness, for which
she must eventually supplicate herself to him in penance. Its not
nearly as misogynistic as the rape apology of Temptation, but it was
enough that it made me uncomfortable knowing the context. And also
there's a subplot with the sister being a lesbian, who despite being
in a relationship with a woman for several years, still needs
convincing that its not a phase by trying to sleep with a man. At
best, this presents a fundamental misunderstanding about
homosexuality, and at worst, its an offensive assumption about
lesbians that I would not ever be surprised to find in a Tyler Perry
movie.
At
the same time, Peeples employs many of the same tropes of Tyler
Perry's well trodden wheelhouse to much better effect than he has
ever seemed capable of behind the camera. The ultimate thread tying
this outwardly perfect but neatly dysfunctional family together is
the idea that everyone has secrets, and yet they hold themselves and
each other up to an impossibly high standard of honesty as dictated
by their father, who proves to be the biggest hypocrite of them all. I wouldn't
call it subtle in the abstract, but when the bar is set so low, I
have to give it to them for surprising me by not being unbearably hamfisted about it. The notion of traditional patriarchal family
dynamics is at the heart of the movie, and poked at just enough that
I almost want to give the movie credit for doing what would be tame
for any other movie, but daring for any film overseen by the king of
oppressive family morality.
At
the end of the day, Peeples is perfectly watchable, which for many
who just saw Tyler Perry's name on it and instantly recoiled
constitutes nothing short of a shock to the senses. It's by no means great or groundbreaking, and
the few genuinely funny moments are often separated by large swathes
of less interesting material that may elicit a smile at best, but
thankfully nothing close to the revulsion of something like The Guilt
Trip. The performances are mostly okay if not overly demanding of the
actors giving them, and on the whole the movie represents a low
pressure romp that might be good for a night in with the DVD player
down the road when explosions and carnage are too much to take. Can't
exactly give it a full throated recommendation, but I can't muster up
the passion to emphatically steer you away from it either. Enjoy...or not, I guess.
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