Black Snake Moan

**/****     BLACK SNAKE MOAN (R)

Director and writer Craig Brewer found tremendous success in 2005 with his first theatrical release, Hustle & Flow. The story of a Memphis hustler turned aspiring rapper won the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and landed Terrence Howard his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Now two years later, Brewer returns to Memphis, partners up with Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci, and delivers the interesting bluesy-drama Black Snake Moan.

Rae (Ricci) is a small-town nymphomaniac, who aims to calm her wild ways by settling down with her boyfriend Ronnie (Justin Timberlake). But when Ronnie leaves on deployment with the National Guard, Rae returns to her dangerous partying habits, including a sexual hook-up with Ronnie’s friend Gill (Michael Raymond-James). An angry Gill soon physically abuses Rae, leaving her battered and bruised on the side of the road.

The next morning, her body is discovered by Lazarus (Jackson), a deeply religious and emotional man who is distraught over his recent divorce with his wife. Lazarus takes Rae back to his house and helps to nurse her back to health, before chaining her up and working towards taming her crazy behavior. But while Lazarus works at cleansing Rae’s soul, she enables Lazarus to find some much needed strength for himself.

A highly distinct film heavily supported by some fine acting, Black Snake Moan is a movie that will be immensely loved by some, and undeniably loathed by others. The story of an older man and a younger woman both at rough patches in their life and leaning on each other for support is absorbing, but it never quite becomes the movie one would have hoped, relying too much on its trashy exploitation premise before presenting us with an overly forced resolution.

Brewer once again showcases his talents as a director, carefully constructing a movie that has a unique and gritty style to it, providing an appealing dark and moody atmosphere, all the while making great use of its blues soundtrack. But Brewer continues to struggle with the writing in his movies, basing everything in Black Snake Moan around feebly-written characters involved in ridiculous plot occurences and spouting off preachy dialogue.

Much like Hustle & Flow, the main selling point of the film is the lead work of Jackson (Snakes on a Plane, Freedomland) and Ricci (Cursed, Monster). Both take on challenging roles and do a great job at making the audience buy into their characters, even when the script let’s them down. Ricci is incredibly daring as Rae, having been filmed in several provocative states of undress, but still managing to command your attention through her strong performance.

A film that evokes curiosity and confers an unparalleled quality on the big screen, in the end, Black Snake Moan is hampered by its lack of developments and lazy writing.

Diggers

*/****     DIGGERS (R)

Critically-acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh was nominated for Best Director at this past year’s Independent Spirit Awards for his high-definition flick Bubble. The low-budget picture featuring amateur and unknown actors was released simultaneously in movie theaters and on the cable/satellite television network HDNet Movies, with a DVD release just days later. Many theaters perceived this tactic to be a threat, and banned Bubble from being shown on the big screen. But that hasn’t stopped the release of this year’s low-budget film Diggers from following the same path of being released to theaters, on cable and on DVD within days of each other.

In 1976 Long Island, a group of four young working-class friends have each decided to follow in the footsteps of their fathers by becoming independent clam diggers. But as the foursome begin to move forward through their adult lives, they each begin to face a ton of hardships, largely brought on by a big fishing corporation that has recently moved into the area and has started to hurt the profits of the local residents. But a number of other personal problems have allowed the gang of guys to start considering altering their course of life.

Clam digger and photographer Hunt (Paul Rudd) just lost his father, and has uncharacteristically sparked a summertime romance with a young Manhattan woman named Zoe (Lauren Ambrose). As Hunt begins to question his life, he is quickly pulled back to reality with the news that his divorced sister Gina (Maura Tierney) has recently started a fling of her own with his friend Jack (Ron Eldard). Hunt’s best friend Lozo’s (Ken Marino) marital problems with wife Julie (Sarah Paulson) increase with the announcement of her unexpected pregnancy, and his buddy Cons (Josh Hamilton) seems much more concerned with waxing philosophy in a stoned-state than he does tackling life’s challenges.

A simple and intimate buddy film, Diggers is a low-key independent production that has a lot to like, but unfortunately, it is all executed in such a poor manner. While it is refreshing to watch a low-budget picture that doesn’t need the over-the-top zaniness and off-the-wall, eccentric characters that are usually a staple in these type of coming-of-age stories, Diggers is a rather mundane movie where a lot seems poised to happen, but nothing ever does.

Written by Marino and helmed by music video director Katherine Dieckmann, Diggers never takes itself too seriously and merely invests all of its drama in real-life scenarios that mirror any young adults life. But while you are invested in the characters and their problems, none of them are ever fully developed, and the film sort of bumbles through each scene and potential conflict without no clear direction and without need for any conclusions.

The actors all do a decent job, with strong supporting work on display from Marino (Reno 911!: Miami, Hoodwinked) and Tierney (Welcome to Mooseport, TV’s ER). Both manage to steal each scene they are in, giving believable performances, even when the writing and direction makes it hard to comprehend why they say or act in the manner in which they do. The rest of the movie’s ensemble keeps ahold of your attention, as well, but they feel about as minor as their character structure.

A likeable movie with an extremely thin script, Diggers is an understated picture that unfortunately fails to provide its great cast or its audience with anything of significance.

Reno 911!: Miami

 */****     RENO 911!: MIAMI (R)

In the summer of 2003, Comedy Central debuted the mockumentary television show Reno 911!. A parody of the popular Fox television show COPS, Reno 911! is an improvised show that follows a fictional group of seven irreverent and colorful sheriff deputies in Reno, Nevada, whose work in the department is being documented by a television camera crew. Produced by Danny DeVito, Reno 911! recently completed its fourth season on-air, and the show branched out into the motion picture world with the release of this year’s Reno 911!: Miami.

The deputies with the Reno Sheriff’s Department have been invited to attend the annual National Police Convention in Miami, Florida, but upon arrival, the group discovers that their names are not on the entrance list and they are not allowed to enter the site of the convention. But a bio-chemical terrorist attack forces all of the local law enforcement authorities in the area to be locked inside of the Convention Center, leaving the members of the Reno Sheriff’s Department as the only available law enforcement group in Miami.

Taking over the headquarters of the Miami Police Department, the deputies begin to respond to all of the emergency calls in Miami, including an alligator swimming in a residential pool and a dead whale that has washed up on the beach. But their biggest case involves the bio-chemical attack at the National Police Convention, which the Reno Sheriff’s Department discovers may have been a local government conspiracy.

Filled to the brim with cheap jokes and a mostly non-existent plotline, Reno 911!: Miami is only 84-minutes long, but its tired and ultimately unfunny repertoire makes the film a chore to sit through. While the movie could have worked as a throwback to the cult comedy classic Police Academy, or tried a little harder to actually develop itself into a full-length film like the 2002 Broken Lizard film Super Troopers, Reno 911!: Miami is simply a more foul version of the television show it’s based on, and the movie also begins to wear out its welcome about 30-minutes in.

Written by the show’s stars Robert Ben Garant (Night at the Museum, Let’s Go to Prison), Kerri Kenney (TV’s The State) and Thomas Lennon (Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Pacifier), the movie overextends the outrageous skits seen in the Comedy Central television show, and a few chuckles do manage to slip-out from time-to-time. But the writers failed to give the movie a cohesive or interesting storyline, with most of the plotline I described above established in either the first-ten minutes or in the final-ten minutes of the flick. Frankly, this movie offers absolutely no reason for fans of Reno: 911! to see this picture instead of just watching any number of reruns on cable.

While the actors in the movie appear to be enjoying themselves, and even though the improvised nature of the film makes the picture seem fun and fresh, Reno 911!: Miami relies too heavily on one-liners and sight gags, neglecting to properly build to any laugh-out-loud moments or offer a rewarding punch line to a scene. And the movie doesn’t take enough advantage of its beautiful surroundings or its R-rating, paling in comparison to the gross-out and disrespectful comedies that have cluttered the marketplace in recent years.

A longer and more vulgar version of the popular television series, Reno 911!: Miami only exists to make a buck off of its already established fanbase.

Primeval

*/****     PRIMEVAL (R)

A one-ton crocodile named Gustave is one of the largest crocodiles known to man, residing on a river island near Lake Tananyika in Burundi, Africa. National Geographic reports that Gustave was most recently sighted in April of 2007, and although he is believed to be over 100 years of age, rumors surrounding the oversized animal suggest that he is responsible for the death of over three-hundred humans. Possibly worse than coming into contact with Gustave in real-life, though, is having to watch this year’s awful-thriller that the menacing croc inspired, called Primeval.

Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) is a television journalist asked to go to war-torn Burundi, Africa with reporter Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton) to cover the incredible story of Gustave. A hard-nosed and legit journalist, Manfrey seems entirely uninspired with the task of having to report on a killer crocodile, but Masters believes that capturing the large animal who recently devoured a noted scientist on an expedition is just the opportunity she needs to break into bigger forms of television news.

Television cameraman Steven Johnson (Orlando Bloom), along with scientist Jacob Krieg (Jurgen Prochnow) and a Crocodile Hunter-esque television host Matthew Collins (Gideon Emery), all tag along with Manfrey and Masters, with traps set-up along Lake Tananyika that they hope will capture the crocodile. But staying in a small village in Burundi places each of the individuals right in the center of an ongoing civil war between Huti and Tutsi that could also have deadly effects on the group.

One of those unintentionally funny flicks, Primeval could have also been an enjoyable ride had they played up the campiness of the storyline like in Slither or Snakes on a Plane, but instead the film tries way too hard to become a serious B-movie with an overabundance of dramatic elements stolen from Blood Diamond or Catch a Fire. The movie lacks a clear direction, unfortunately spending very little time on the vicious killer animal the television crew is seeking out, and more on trying to deliver a message on the type of devastation taking place in the nearby war zone, yet without a strong grasp on what that message should be.

The screenplay by long-time collaborators John Brancato and Michael Ferris (Catwoman, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) is hokey and filled with silly dialogue during its most dramatic moments. The constant shifts in stories also makes it hard for director Michael Katleman to guide an audience through his feature-film directorial debut, but Katleman does an adequate job at keeping things tightly paced and continously moving.

The visual effects are baffling, with Gustave merely a badly computer generated character who offers up more laughs than he does striking fear in movie goers. And the stiff acting is also painful to watch, plus the lead characters of Jones (Runaway Jury, TV’s Father of the Pride), Langton (The Benchwarmers, TV’s Friday Night Lights) and Purcell (Blade: Trinity, TV’s Prison Break) are all one-note, highly uninteresting people to follow.

A mediocre tale, Primeval begins with an interesting premise and is never boring, but it’s also not worth much more than a late-night cable viewing.

Hostel: Part II

1/2-a-star/****     HOSTEL: PART II (R)

In the first part of 2006, horror film director Eli Roth released his second feature-film, Hostel. A crazy and sadistic picture, Hostel followed three backpackers in Europe who are lured to a hostel in Slovakia, only to be violently terrorized and tortured upon arrival. While far from great or even good, Hostel was still a surprising film that didn’t hold back when it came to showcassing excessive amounts of bloodshed. A little over a year later, Roth has released Hostel: Part II, which offers fans of the first movie nothing new, and actually feels like a dreadful carbon-copy of its predecessor.

American college students Beth (Lauren German), Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) and Whitney (Bijou Phillips) are studying abroad in Italy. The financially wealthy Beth is the tame and cool one of the group, while Lorna is the nerdy and annoying type and Whitney is the wild and crazy chick. After a scary encounter with a robber on a train, the three are comforted by passenger Axelle (Vera Jordanova), who invites the three to join her on vacation in Slovakia.

The women check into the hostel, where the desk clerk at the hotel uploads their images to a website and, unbeknownst to the ladies, auctions the three of them off to Americans Todd (Richard Burgi) and his best-friend Stuart (Roger Bart), who plan to torture and kill the women. But once in Slovakia, Stuart begins to have second thoughts about the outrageous and grotesque things he is about to take part in.

An unpleasant and distasteful movie, Hostel: Part II accomplishes the overabundance of sex, violence and unsettling images that it sets out to achieve, but it does so without creating anything remotely interesting to offset what audiences have come to expect based off the severe nature of the first film. Similar to recent gross-out comedies that fail to make us laugh, Hostel: Part II spends way too much time trying make your stomach turn instead of trying to become an intriguing or involving scare-flick.

One of the movie’s major problems is the lack of character development in Roth’s script, which only asks us to sympathize with the people being tortured, not because they are decent human beings, but because they are being terrorized by a group of repulsive, not-so decent human beings. And while that may be something that I would be sympathetic towards if this situation were to occur in real-life, as a viewer of this movie, the least Roth could have done was afford me a reason to care about how a particular person is being treated.

The acting is incredibly stale and much of Hostel: Part II’s narrative feels redundant, based upon what we saw in the original film. A hurried flick with zero-suspense, only the tiniest bit of audience interest is formed through wondering what kind of bizarre concoctions Roth has decided to now demonize his lame characters with.

Lacking the shock and awe factor of the original picture, Hostel: Part II is cheap and trashy junk that unfortunately leaves the door open for a possible third film in Roth’s now predictable saga.

The Namesake

 

***.5/****     THE NAMESAKE (PG-13) 

Jhumpa Lahiri is a contemporary Indian American author who won a Pulitzer Prize for her short story collection “Interpreter of Maladies.” Following her prize winning work, Lahiri would go on to publish her first novel in 2003, entitled “The Namesake.” The story spans more than thirty years in the life of the Gangulis, a fictional family that has immigrated to the United States and the discovery of a cultural gap that is formed between the parents and the children. Two longtime collaborator’s, director Mira Nair and screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala, have now adapted Lahiri’s book and have turned The Namesake into one of the great films of 2007.

Newlywed Indian couple Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) and Ashima Ganguli (Tabu) have fled their homeland of Kolkata and have settled into a new life in New York City. Shortly thereafter, the couple welcomes the birth of their first child. The hospital staff requests that the Ganguli’s come up with a name for their child for the birth certificate, with Ashoke deciding to name his son Gogol, after his favorite author Nikolai Gogol.

Years later, Gogol’s (Kal Penn) name has brought him a lot of embarrassment, so he changes his name to Nikhil (or Nick). Nikhil also separates himself further from his parents closely-held Indian beliefs by dating a white college student named Maxine Ratliff (Jacinda Barrett). But following the death of his father, a traumatized Nikhil destroys his relationship with Maxine once he elects to revisit his heritage, including beginning a relationship with childhood Indian friend Moushumi Mazumdar (Zuleikha Robinson).

An honest and touching story, The Namesake isn’t the most deeply sentimental or powerfully-felt film, but it is a well-crafted journey of finding one’s-self and the discovery of what makes someone unique and different. The picture is beautifully photographed and carries it with it a magnificient original score from Nitin Sawhney. And while the movie moves a little slow under Nair’s (Vanity Fair) direction, it still manages to hit all of the right emotional notes.

The terrific adapted screenplay from Taraporevala (Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay!) stretches over the course of several years and applies an amazing amount of depth to each character and story presented. The sensitive and subtle portrayal of the Ganguli family resonates without difficulty, and Taraporevala adds just the right amount of light humor to ease the mood, creating a much more affecting drama.

Kal Penn (Epic Movie, Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj) manages to step away from the world of moronic comedies and succeeds in his toughest film role to date. And while the majority of the story centers around Gogol, The Namesake truly is a multi-layered picture with a great ensemble, including the real stars of the movie, Khan and Tabu. Both are engrossing on the screen, with Tabu delivering one of the finest female performances in the early part of the year.

A poignant movie that is rich in texture, The Namesake is a wonderful film with strong performances and a heartfelt story.

Surf’s Up

*.5/****     SURF’S UP (PG) 

In 2005, Luc Jacquet released the film March of the Penguins, which documented the yearly journeys of the emperor penguins to their traditional breeding ground. The Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, March of the Penguins grossed over $77 million and started a new-found love with penguins in film. 2006’s animated pic Happy Feet showed us emperor penguins who find their soulmates through song and dance. Taking in nearly $200 million at the box-office, Happy Feet picked up the Oscar for Best Animated Film at this year’s Academy Award ceremony. Now, Hollywood’s recent love affair with penguins continues with this year’s release of the animated flick Surf’s Up.

Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) is an up-and-coming teenage surfer in Shiverpool, Antartica, who developed an intense passion for the sport of surfing following a childhood encounter with surfing legend “Big Z.” Maverick’s talents in the water attract the attention of talent scout Mikey Abromowitz (Mario Cantone), who recruits Cody to compete in the 10th Annual “Big Z” Memorial Surf-Off at Pen Gu Island, and broadcasted live on SPEN (Sports Penguin Entertainment Network).

Days before the competition, Maverick challenges the surfing world’s current top performer Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader) to an impromptu surf-off, but the youngster is in way over his head, and ends up embarrassing himself on the big waves. But a local native of Pen Gu Island named Geek (Jeff Bridges) decides to take Maverick under his wing, and helps Cody prepare for the renowned Memorial Surf-Off.

A refreshing and inventive animated tale, Surf’s Up is presented on-screen in a mockumentary-filmmaking style popularized by recent Christopher Guest films like Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. The format is pleasant early on, with the overall direction, interviews and character interactions wonderfully encapsulating the feel of a documentary. But midway through the film, the mockumentary method gravitates towards a basic narrative structure, and late-returns to the distinct concept begin to feel out-of-place and slightly distracting.

While the animation work in Surf’s Up is an improvement from the work in Sony Pictures Animation’s 2006 release Open Season, the mockumentary structure doesn’t allow for the film to become overly visual, as the movie is hampered by too many stand-in place interviews and too many background stories presented as still photographs as opposed to archive video footage. The surfing competition is also lacking, with the action not as exciting as one would hope.

The story follows the typical pattern experienced in recent animation productions, but the mockumentary approach does allow for the story to feel new and the writers wisely use the format to bring to life some charming, off-beat humor. Unfortunately, despite some talented voice work in the movie, most of the characters are writing without any depth, and repeat what feels like the same joke and same dialogue throughout the film.

A laid-back and mildly entertaining flick, Surf’s Up unique mockumentary style will grab your attention in the beginning, but it doesn’t have the capabilities needed to continue to grasp your attention until the very end.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

*/****     FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (PG) 

The comic book craze in Hollywood continues with the release of this year’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer — a sequel to the 2005 summer blockbuster Fantastic Four. Based on the Marvel comic book characters, Fantastic Four followed a group of four scientists who become exposed to cosmic radiation that alters their DNA and provides them with superhuman powers. A second-tier level comic book-based movie that still managed to gross nearly $200 million, Fantastic Four joined Halle Berry’s Catwoman as one of the worst comic book films of all-time. But even the original couldn’t prepare movie audiences for the overall absurdness that is experienced in its 2007 sequel.

American gossip rags are alive with activity as Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) prepare to exchange nuptials, but the legitimate national news media is more concerned with strange electronic and climatic disturbances occuring all over the world. While the Fantastic Four agreed as a group to avoid any involvement in assisting the United States government in trying to resolve the disastrous events across the globe, they are soon forced to act after Richards and Storm’s lavish wedding ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of the Silver Surfer (body: Doug Jones; voice: Laurence Fishburne).

The group learns that the Silver Surfer serves as a herald for the evil Galactus — a dark, billowing cloud in the universe that is devouring planets and has set its eyes on Earth as its next target. The United States Army enlists the help of the Fantastic Four, as well as the foursome’s former nemisis Victor Von Doom, to finally bring Galactus’ reign of terror to an end.

Where most of the recent comic book adaptations have turned towards darker character studies and overly long runtimes, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a brisk and non-threatening picture that provides a bit of enjoyment for its audience, but the movie also takes a drastic leap over the silly and childish line that was drawn by its predecessor two years ago, and now lands into a new, laughably foolish territory.

Entirely non-involving, the Fantastic Four series suffers from a cast of characters that are cartoonishly-designed, unlikeable and never devevlop, grow or learn any important moral values. Instead, they remain the same vapid people from the start of the film until the very end, and their ludicrous and irrational storylines are so predictable and without intrigue that the audience never believes for a second that any of the heroes presented are ever at risk or in any danger.

Way too much time is devoted to the dull relationship of Richards and Storm, with the two flat actors involved so painful to watch that they make the relationships of Peter and Mary Jane in the Spider-Man series and Will and Elizabeth in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise seem like something created by Bogie and Bacall. And it is amusing to me that the best actor of the bunch, Michael Chiklis (Do Not Disturb, TV’s The Shield), is the most underutilized character in the film, and unfortunately masked under thick orange rock as the Thing.

Outside of some decent visual effects work, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer feels like the type of movie that would be much better suited for a 30-minute time slot on Saturday mornings.

Breach

**.5/****     BREACH (R)

Described as possibly the worst intelligence disaster in United States history, FBI Agent Robert Hanssen was arrested in February of 2001 for selling American secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds over a 15-year period. Hanssen pled guilty to 15-counts of espionage, and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Director Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) brings this well-documented story to the big-screen in the form of this year’s Breach, but he ends up investing most of the film’s narrative on the wrong lead character.

A junior FBI employee training and working to hopefully become an agent, Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe) lands his first major assignment through Special Agent Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney). Burroughs asks O’Neill to work as an undercover clerk for renowned operative Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), who has been relocated to a new division. Burroughs informs O’Neill that Hanssen is being monitored because the FBI discovered evidence that he is a sexual deviant, but Eric becomes suspicious of this claim after finding nothing of interest that would lead him to question Hanssen’s lifestyle.

After O’Neill manages to earn the respect of Hanssen, Kate informs Eric that Hanssen is actually under investigation by the FBI for having been a spy for the Soviet Union and Russia for nearly 15-years. The FBI is determined to catch Hanssen in the act of espionage, and O’Neill drags himself deeper into the case hoping to help the FBI uncover the truth behind these claims.

A fascinating and entertaining movie, Breach may lose some of its desired suspense because it notes the end result of the case before the story ever begins, but the film does achieve its overall goal by becoming an interesting psychological drama. Breach is an unconventional picture that isn’t concerned with the predictable cheap thrills and shocking twists that are usually prevalant in this genre of film, and instead relies on smart, simplistic storytelling and its fine actors to carry the film.

Academy Award winner Cooper (Syriana, Jarhead) has shown for years that he is one of the better supporting actors around, and is finally given the chance to headline a motion picture. Cooper not only takes the ball and runs with it, he also ends up scoring the go-ahead touchdown by turning in an enthralling performance. Cooper’s character would have been a lot stronger, though, had he been able to work with a better sparring partner than Phillippe (Flags of Our Fathers, Crash), who continues to improve as an actor, but is mismatched and miscast in this film.

Academy Award nominee Linney (Man of the Year, Driving Lessons), Gary Cole (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, TV’s The West Wing), and Dennis Haysbert (Jarhead, TV’s 24) do an adequate job in their supporting efforts, but they are unfortunately only relied upon intermittently. Writers Adam Mazer and William Rotko do a commendable job with their first screenplay, but the script is padded with too many distracting sub-plots that, in the end, are rather insignificant to the overall plot.

An enjoyable film made even more effective by Chris Cooper’s outstanding performance, Breach manages to hold your attention but ends up missing the mark on becoming a must-see movie.

Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls

*/****     TYLER PERRY’S DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS 

Tyler Perry is a successful African-American playwright and theater producer who recently crossed over into film when he adapted his play Diary of a Mad Black Woman for the big-screen in 2005. Starring CableAce Award winner Kimberly Elise, Diary of a Mad Black Woman went on to gross over $50 million and led to Perry’s directorial debut in 2006 with Madea’s Family Reunion. The movie, starring Blair Underwood and Lynn Whitfield became another hit, taking in over $63 million at the box-office. This success has led to the release of Perry’s quickly put together third film — the melodramatic mess – Daddy’s Little Girls.

Monty James (Idris Elba) is a single father of three with dreams of one day opening his own mechanic shop. His daughters Sierra (Sierra Aylina McClain), Lauryn (Lauryn Alisa McClain) and China (China Anne McClain) currently live with Monty’s mother-in-law, while James does his best to support his daughters from paycheck to paycheck. But following the death of his mother-in-law, Monty has to move his daughters in with him in his small, one-bedroom apartment, and decides to take on a second-job in order to provide for them financially.

James’ nighttime job involves him chauffeuring around a young and successful lawyer named Julia (Gabrielle Union). One night while transporting Julia from her office to her apartment, a freak accident at home with his daughters results in James losing custody of his kids to their estranged mother Jennifer (Tasha Smith) and her drug dealing boyfriend Joe (Gary Sturgis). This move forces Monty to have to turn his boss Julia for help in once again gaining custody of his three daughters.

I respect Tyler Perry and his desire to want to make inspirational, family-friendly movies with an African-American ensemble, but it’s unfortunate that movies like Daddy’s Little Girls are brought down by Perry’s sensationalized and heavy-handed storytelling. The movie’s script is far from discreet, constantly hitting you over the head with the idea that it’s a unique story because it talks about a successful, independent black female in the business world and a black single father who actually loves his children. While this overdramatic style is somewhat easy to excuse, it’s Perry’s insistence on perpetuating the worst of black stereotypes in this movie’s anti-heroes that ultimately ends up hurting the picture.

Despite the sentimental and predictable narrative, Perry’s screenplay wisely leaves out his annoying, famed character Mable “Madea” Simmons and also avoids trying to force comedy into parts of the movie where it doesn’t belong. Some light humor is presented throughout, but this movie is entirely centered around the drama in each of the character’s lives. Also, Perry has shown he has improved as a director, with Daddy’s Little Girls serving as a better paced movie that is more visually entertaining than his previous flick.

While most of the supporting cast lacks any depth to their characters, Elba (The Gospel, TV’s The Wire) and Union (Running with Scissors, The Honeymooners) do an adequate job helping to carry the film. Neither of the two manage to rise above the material, but they do possess a fine chemistry on-screen with each other that at least makes their scenes in the movie bareable to watch.

An endearing film with numerous flaws, Daddy’s Little Girls feels like an after-school special made with a bigger budget and a much better cast.