Why Did I Get Married Too?

This movie holds the distinction of being the first sequel in the Tyler Perry canon and its a distinction that's made more apparent when the film turns out to be nothing more than rehash of the first. I'm not kidding here. Instead of going on a retreat in the mountains, the cast goes on a retreat to the beach and unlike the first movie, nothing of any real interest happens here because the problems the couples are facing aren't that different from the first film. The biggest offenders here are Marcus and Angela, the comedic couple. If I recall, a big problem with their relationship in the first movie was Angela's drinking problem, which was resolved by the films end. Here, she's apparently relapsed and no one really seems to call her out on it. It seems to just be an excuse to have her over react to everything like she did before...it worked then and it does still work, but it just feels like Tyler Perry didn't know what do with her and her husband this time.

As a matter of fact, Tyler Perry really didn't seem to know what he was doing with any of the characters. Sheila, the most likable female character from the first film, kinda becomes of a twat, mainly because she keeps trying to use her abusive past as an excuse to act like she's entitled to something. There's a bit more melodrama here, mostly involving Janet Jackson's character leading to a pretty over the top moment where she goes around breaking all her glass furniture with a golf club, it pretty good stuff. The downside to the extra drama is that it all leads the biggest bullshit of an ending I've seen in while. A tragedy happens in like the last four minutes of the movie that conveniently allows all of the couples to reconcile their differences and then the movie kinda just ends on a force happy ending that takes place one year later. I seriously think this movie would have been better if Perry had just used the same concept as the original movie, but with a different cast. As it stands this is one forgettable movie.

Why Did I Get Married?

I keep saying that I'm not going to watch another Tyler Perry movie. I made an exception for this one mainly because I'm going with some friends to see the sequel this week and also because this doesn't have Madea in it at all, so the comedy/drama portions of the story should complement each other less abruptly. Why Did Get Married's story is pretty straightforward. A group of four married couples go to the mountains for some marriage retreat. While they're there, drama unfolds as the couple's learn dark secerts about their relationships and have to learn to cope with those issues and love spouses despite their faults - you know, typical Tyler Perry material.

Actually, the movie is bit more restrained on forcing messages down our throats. With Madea completely out of the picture, the scenes were able to mix the comedic and dramatic elements of the story without the sudden jumps in tone that made Madea Goes to Jail so horrible. As a result, I have to say this maybe my favorite of the Tyler Perry Movies I've seen. There isn't too much for me to really talk about though as if you've talked about one Tyler Perry film, you've basically talked about them all. I was impressed that I was able to sympathise with the characters and their motivations and some of the characters (mainly the volcanic Angela) were actually really funny. The performances are uniformly good, and the positivity promoted is a welcome relief from all the negativism inherent in some of the post-modern drama I've been sampling parts of recently.

Something else that really shocked me about this film was how both parties in the marriages were equally at fault. Normally in movies like this, the man is the one to blame because he's always either pig-headed, sexist, abusive, a cheater or all of the above. Here, only one of the men present in the movie displays those traits, and instead it's the women who have to do a bulk of the learning and changing (though the main lesson is still all about compromise), and the whole plot manages to wrap itself up in a way that doesn't feel forced or cheesy...or at least as cheesy as most Tyler Perry movies are. All in all, its a surprising solid film and I'm curious as to where the second is going to take things.