Can He Do Better?

I saw I Can Do Bad All By Myself this weekend and it was ok. My biggest problem with Tyler Perry is that his movies in the grand universe of movies just aren't that good. I hated The Family That Preys so much that I unloaded the dvd for a $1, although I had purchased it from Best Buy for considerably more. A costly mistake. [That's the last time I buy a dvd before seeing the movie first.] His other work is only so-so. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny Tyler Perry's hustle. He has built a media empire entirely outside the traditional Hollywood system and that is no small feat. His movies make money and he's putting many actors of color to work. And he is attracting major talent. That's what I liked most about ICDBABM--Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight, and Marvin Winans. Who doesn't enjoy seeing these stars perform? Taraji P. Henson is also a good actress, but I didn't appreciate the shrillness of her character April. Really, how many times did we need to see April roll out of bed and scream at people to shut up? But she and Sandino (played by hottie Adam Rodriguez) did make a cute couple. [Never mind that Sandino's name was Italian and his character Latin. Am I being too picky?] Also Perry did the audience a favor by keeping Madea's screen time to a bare minimum. So it wasn't a total waste of a rainy afternoon, but is it too much to expect better story-telling? I don't think so.