'Alex Cross' Review

Having never read any of James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, I can't say I have a specific vision of what the character should look like or how he should be embodied. But after seeing Alex Cross, I'm not convinced Tyler Perry was the right choice. He's likable, I suppose, but he's just not gripping enough of an onscreen presence. You can read my review of Alex Cross (or, as I like to call it, Tyler Perry's I Can Do Cross All by Myself) over at Screen International.

'Think Like a Man' Review

If nothing else, Think Like a Man will probably go down in cinematic history as containing the single best joke about Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls ever. Other than that, it's a pretty by-the-numbers contemporary romantic comedy. And by that, I mean that it's all about its game-playing: Everybody in the movie operates under the principle that to find love, you have to treat the members of the opposite sex as a bunch of deceitful creeps you have to outsmart. Dating sure sounds stressful these days. My Think Like a Man review is up at Screen International.

'for colored girls' review

You remember how the Saw films supposedly created "torture porn"? Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls might be the start of another, even-more-frightening genre: victim porn. The African-American women whose lives we follow in this film have to be the most massively woe-is-me clan I've ever encountered. My review is up at Screen International.