Why the Hell Did They Get Married?

In what I thought was one of the most competitive weekends at the box office in a long time, "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?" outsold several new and existing films beating out The Rock, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Cate Blanchett with a strong $21.5 million in revenue. But are we really surprised?

Tyler's films and stage plays are giving black movie goers what they want, something relatable with people they want to see. However according to Lionsgate President Tom Ortenberg, the film's distributer, "Box-office analysts, most of whom predicted Perry's new film would open in the $10 million to $15 million range, relied on consumer tracking surveys that continually underestimate the filmmaker because his audience comprises nontraditional moviegoers." While I agree mostly with what Ortenberg has to say... 'nontraditional'... really?

When me and the Dark Knight arrived at the movie theater at 1:00pm for the 1:15pm howing, I was only a little surprised that we were sitting 4 rows from the screen. Luckily I prepurchased our tickets. As we settled in and began to watch the film, I looked through some of the bad acting to see characters that I recognized. Although Janet was often billed as the front runner... the story was about Jill Scott's character, and Jill stole the show. Tasha Smith's an emasculating bigmouth character provided the needed comic relief and I think brought attention to the little alcoholic in ourselves. But my favorite and most believable character in the movie was Richard T. Jones. Jones plays the demoralizing husband of meek, overweight Jill Scott, but while he plays his role quite well, you see faults in the script because there is no way you could be close friends with a man like this.

Regardless of the millions and millions of dollars Tyler makes on his films, he is still a far cry from the cinematic masterpieces such as the Color Purple, What's Love Got to Do With It and Love Jones. This film gives you two hours of enjoyment. Hopefully we can get Tyler to do a film on voting next November.