Synopsis
When Madea catches teenage Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decides to take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April. A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of her married boyfriend, April wants nothing to do with the kids.
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Cast
- Tyler PerryMadea
- Taraji P. HensonApril
- Adam RodriguezSandio
- Mary J. BligeTanya
- Gladys KnightWilma
- Brian J. WhiteRandy
- Hope Olaidé WilsonJennifer
- Kwesi BoakyeManny
- Frederick SiglarByron
- Renee HortonDancer (uncredited)
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
It's probably the impresario's best-made movie yet, his most joyful, and his most moving. - 75
Boston Globe
It’s the best Tyler Perry movie to date - the writer/director/actor/mogul’s most confident and competent mixture of uplifting black middle-class melodrama and low-down comedy. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
A double shot of Saturday-night lowdown chased by a cheery chug of Sunday-morning uplift. - 70
Los Angeles Times
What works best, though, is that it's practically an R&B/gospel musical. - 67
The A.V. Club
With Bad, Perry is savvy enough to let riveting musical numbers by ringers like Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige--along with Henson’s deeply empathetic performance--carry the film’s feverish emotions more than his characteristically ham-fisted screenplay. - 60
New York Daily News
Perry also spices things up with two of his most reliable fallbacks: music, and Madea. Having packed his cast with singers, he allows them all a moment to shine, with songs that deliver his patented lessons (trust in yourself, trust in others, trust in God). - 60
Variety
Perry's latest emotional roller coaster starts with considerable promise and a high-wattage cast, including Taraji P. Henson and singers Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige, before giving way to melodramatic predictability. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
Part musical, part love story, part family melodrama, part inspirational treacle, Tyler Perry's latest movie, I Can Do Bad All by Myself is something of an unholy mess. Alternately stupefying and entertaining, the film does benefit from a strong cast.
