Why Did I Get Married Too?

To appreciate why my review is below average you will need to see 'Why did I get married' Basically you have four couples in the original and each have their issues and by the end each issue is resolved one way or the other. So the problem for the sequel is how do you follow up on issues that have already been resolved. The answer is to create new issues or rehash old ones. This is how the sequel goes. So we have four couples each dealing with issues again. Now there's nothing wrong with that if the issues are plausible and played out properly and have credible endings. This is where 'Why did I get married too' goes sadly wrong. Some issues were credible but the endings were not or were not given an ending whilst the most prominent issue, well I'm struggling to understand what it actually was. I had no empathy with the female lead and felt that she should have been charged with crime and I think in real life most of those characters would have nothing to do with her after what she directly caused. Sadly this is a sequel that should never have been and I can only speculate that it failed because a certain actress only signed up for the sequel so she could have the most prominent role and in so giving it to her the movie failed. You will know to whom I refer when you watch this movie. So watch this movie if only to understand why a lot of sequels fail miserably as this one did!

I don't think I have ever laughed harder at a movie I watched out of boredom. I found this gem as I was perusing Netflix instant-watch, and I'm glad I decided to watch it.

Comedy is prevalent within the first couple scenes. Unlike many of the films made today, it was refreshing to watch a movie that could make me laugh while exploring serious subject matter. The film covers all realms of marriage difficulties, many of which are real problems facing today's couples.

As I was new to Perry's films, I looked up some of his other movies on IMDb. To my disdain, almost all of his films received bad reviews. Why? Perry took the "black stereotype" and made a farce out of it. The movie is completely satirical, and should be perceived as such. Also - Tasha Smith made me laugh the entire movie.

I was a bit too young to remember the last Tyler Perry movie I saw, and was never exposed to any of his actual plays. Thus, I held neutral expectations for "Why Did I Get Married Too," though I heard that its predecessor was quite good. I ALMOST left the theater taken aback at Perry's exceptional directing and understanding of human emotions. Unfortunately, that was all but squashed by one of the worst endings I've seen in a long time.

The plot is quite straightforward. Terry (Tyler Perry) and Diane (Sharon Leal) embark on their yearly couples retreat (sounds familiar?) with their friends, all of whom are also married. Marcus (Michael Jai White) and Angela (Tasha Smith) are constantly at odds with each other for any reason they (as in mostly Angela) can fathom, Troy (Lamman Rucker) and Sheila (Jill Scott) are battling the all-too-real consequences of unemployment, while Patricia (Janet Jackson) and Gavin (Mailk Yoba) serve as the model relationship for the group. The retreat is brought back to a harsh reality when Sheila's former husband, Mike (Richard Jones), unknowingly books time with the group's beach house for the weekend. His interruption, unbeknownst to the couples, tests their relationships as their own flaws slowly unravel and manifest themselves.

Perry's playwriting influences are made apparent right from the beginning, as each character behaves and builds in a play-like manner. This works strongly in his favor, as each character is developed well enough to bring significant amounts of powerful tension and drama later into the film. Perry also fiddles with the emotions of his audience like a puppet master, tossing them from angst to anger to happiness with incredible ease and lightning-fast timing. Every actor was stretched to their emotional limits in this film; I found Jackson's performance shockingly spectacular here and her conflict with Yoba to be one of the most intense partnerships I've seen in a while. In short, I felt like I was yanked from my seat and strapped onto the front of an emotional roller-coaster right from the beginning.

Unfortunately, that trains flew off the tracks into a horrible crash landing in the film's final ten minutes. While the ending was somewhat unexpected, it was certainly not the ending I *wanted* to expect. It was as if Perry waited an hour and 50 minutes to cram all of the clichéd, fantasy, happy-ending-feel-goodness Hollywood delivers in spades. The last two minutes were especially insulting. It was so appalling for me, in fact, that it made me spend the two hour train ride home realizing many of the other plot holes and unanswered questions Perry made irrelevant for me beforehand. I'm just going to assume that Perry didn't write the ending; it makes more sense.

All in all, the film is exceptionally well-made, incredibly moving and does not rely on its previous installment for the audience to wholly appreciate. Even despite its questionably poor ending, I highly recommend it.

I am by no means a fan of Mr. Perry's work, I feel as though they movies are a simple formulaic ploy to pull cash out of the pockets of Black people. You say Jesus, roll your neck, cry a lot & then have a light skinned man save the day and there you go. This film provided all of that as usual, but was far better than the very low ratings would warrant or suggest. I believe in keeping it all real and the movie was good. Not great mind you, but good. I would like to see Perry open the door to some other struggling filmmakers and allow for greater creativity and choices, but I think he may be afraid of being shown up. Just my opinions here, but he really has got to do better or even better said we as Black people have to stop running behind anything with a Black face on the poster and make these filmmakers give us really really good movies to watch.

This movie actually turned out better than I had expected it to be. But then again, of course I didn't really have much of any expectations for a movie such as this to begin with.

"Why Did I Get Married Too?" starts out with the appearance of just another romantic comedy. But then the movie suddenly started to become so much more, as it came to be revealed all the problems and life situations that each and everyone in the different marriages were dealing with and struggling with.

The cast was rather good, and people were well cast for their individual roles. The actors and actresses performed quite well.

There are some pretty good laughs throughout the movie, just as there are moments of thick drama and emotion. So there is a bit of everything to be had in "Why Did I Get Married Too?".

I can warmly recommend that you take the time to watch this movie if you enjoy romantic comedies that have more than the usual superficial layer to them that permeates the romantic comedy genre.