TYLER PERRY'S "TEMPTATION" - CANDILARIA'S REVIEW

So Tiffany and I, along with friends, Tamara and Joy, decided to watch the movie "Temptation" last night.

I listened to people's opinions and the reviews for this movie and the majority of them were basically "OMG, that was a great movie!" or "Chile, that movie was so deep!" and "Boy, I didn't expect that one!", oh and my favorite "It was life-changing!"....So, I thought this was definitely a "must-see".

Hmmmm...Really??? 

Unfortunately, Tyler Perry (TP) will receive the public backlash and not the writers. I guess that's what happens when you attach your name to the beginning of the movie title. 

Dear Writer's, I think I could have written a better script, thank you!   

I do not despise TP movies like a lot of people apparently do (Good Deeds was actually pretty OK, oh and For Colored Girls) but I'm not a HUGE fan either. 

Temptation, Temptation, Temptation...is highly predictable much like all of his other flicks.  This is disappointing to me because TP, being a man with such influence, had a great opportunity to create an extraordinary movie that could have really shaken the ground. An opportunity to enter people's minds and jack it right up.  This did not.

I will give my opinion but I will expose some details because I need to make my point, dangit! Sorry!  So if you haven't watched it yet you can stop reading now.



The characters Judith (Journee Smollet-Bell) and her husband Brice (Lance Cross) had a "fairy-tale" love story.  They met as kids, fell in love, and were inseparable by the time they were teenagers and married by 19 (SERIOUSLY?). Hmmmm....say...what?, maybe 1% of the population in the world experiences that type of relationship?  Ten minutes into the movie and already I cannot relate.  

Brice is a settled pharmacist and Judith is an ambitious therapist or marriage counselor with a master's degree wanting her own firm.  She is employed at a high-class matchmaking firm which goes against her Christian upbringing. These characters lacked depth and there was absolutely no relationship development.  Honestly, there weren't any MAJOR issues that I could see that warranted Judith's extreme behaviour.  Ok, he forgot her birthday 2 years in a row....that was very unrealistic and not believable.  If there are husbands out there like this then tings really mash up! 

Judith wanted to grow, and Brice was comfortable. Judith didn't really seem to communicate her thoughts and feelings of unhappiness to her husband.  Then here comes Harley (Robbie Jones) aka Mr. Captain Save Her, an extremely wealthy guy who walks into the match-making firm and says all the right predictable things to get Judith's heart racing, like "If I was your man, I would never forget your birthday." (yawn) and "I can help you with your firm, I am a business man" (aww, how sweet) and "Does [your husband] challenge your mind? (you mean like how you seem to do?!)  Sighhhhh. Judith's head was gone in a second (poor judy) and soon she turned into a tight dress wearing, cocaine sniffing, wine swirling adulteress.  Well damn...

OK, I might mash a few corns here but I have to talk about Judith's mother because her role is important. The mother is a God fearing woman who taught her daughter how to be a good Christian woman, how to cook for her husband, how to take care of her husband, how to always be there for him, and of course preached to her about not to being swayed by the devil and the demons.  BUT...did she ever sit down and talk about the real nitty gritty of what goes on in the real world?  Judith's mother wasn't always a Christian, I'm sure she knows the deal.  When did she have REAL conversations with her very young, very innocent daughter about marriage instead of shouting scriptures at her?  I'm not saying that conversations from the Bible aren't real conversations and I'm not saying that any of this could or would have been avoided BUT what was her role in her daughter's demise?  

After the movie I heard a group of older ladies call Judith a "stupid little girl".  Wow, no sympathy for this leading lady!  A bit harsh, eh?  No she wasn't stupid.  She made a horrible mistake, one that she was obviously never equipped to avoid.  "Yeah, ya stupid, and because you so stupid to allow the devil into ya life you ga pay with catastrophic consequences".  That's all I could hear coming out of their mouths.  Hmmmmm.....is that the lesson we should take from this movie? 

So many things I would have changed in this movie to make it believable.  Tyler Perry, you should give me a call, let's create something people can really relate to.    

Have you watched it? What do you think about this movie? Did you enjoy it?  What message did you receive from it? Would you change anything? If so, what would you change?

Signed, 
A disappointed, Candilaria

Tyler, Tyler, Tyler....

courtesy of tylerperrystemptation.webstarts.com

Last night we finally went to the movies to watch Tyler Perry's Temptations. Lord help us!
Can you tell I am not a big Tyler Perry fan?

The movie was about marriage.
I'm married.
Let's go to the movies!



Now I will not reveal the plot but here is a summary.

Two teenagers get permission to get married at nineteen. They grow up and live a married life.  The wife is feeling unfulfilled, bored and taken for granted. The wife has a job as a marriage counselor at a matchmaking firm. In walks a single man who is attracted to her. She reveals as a good Christian woman she has only been with her husband. This single man is wealthy and requests her service to assist him on a project. While working in close proximity the woman is tempted by the man.

The main character went from 

devoted fully covered wife.

courtesy of www.guardian.co.uk

To being tempted wife.

courtesy of www.guardian.co.uk

To turned out wife.

courtesy of movies.yahoo.com

After viewing, the moral to this storyline is simple. Don't get married when you are nineteen. Live your life. Figure out who you want to be. Figure out what you like from what you do like. You need to know before you commit to marriage. Why? Because one day a wealthy, white teeth, well-dressed man is going to walk into your world. At this point you need to know what to do. If you get married at nineteen you won't know what to do.


Did I enjoy the movie?
Not so much!

Did I relate to the movie?
Not so much!

Did I learn anything from the movie?
Not so much!

Would I recommend this movie?
Not so much!

How would I change the movie?
The married couple would have had children.

That's when the boredom, unfulfilled, taking for granted feeling is intensified because all energies are spent on the children. Funds are affected so less dinners, less travel, less dates. Details are forgotten because children information consumes the brain; their schedules, their needs, their wants etc.

If this couple had children then I would have related to the movie.

I would have reunited the woman with an ex-lover, someone from college who is not a complete stranger. We all have that dude from our past who if they walked back into our lives we would accept a dinner invitation, talk about old times, laugh and talk and reconnect. The idea of 'let's do it one more time for good times sake' is more realistic for a wife from someone she has been with before than a complete stranger.

It would be difficult, damned near impossible for a strange man to woo me off my feet in 2013 with all the diseases roaming about and I have a good husband at home.

If this woman ran into an ex and they reconnected then I would have related to being tempted.

I did not relate to this movie despite it being about marriage. I did not get married at nineteen. I did not marry my first love. I do not work in an environment that totally goes against my morals. No wealthy guy can woo me off my feet because I am immediately suspicious of men who spend lots of money on women. No single guy can woo me off my feet because at this stage of my life, if you aren't married at my age and you have never been married, you are crazy or gay.

As for Tyler Perry's ability to produce a movie, that is an entirely different blog. People, I am a Shonda Rimes fan. I need plots to unfold, to develop, to surprise, to tear at my heart, my soul and make me ponder about my life.

Tyler Perry!
Not so much!

Tiffany

SCANDAL REVIEW: MOLLY, YOU IN DANGER GIRL!

***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER...If you haven't watched last night's episode of Scandal yet I suggest that you DO NOT read this post.***




Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

I know I am not the only one who was completely floored or flat lined after last nights episode of Scandal...
As always, I never know where to begin. Shonda never ceases to amaze me!  
What we know is that the former CIA Director Osbourne IS NOT the Mole. Soooo, #WhoIsTheMole!? Shonda, we need answers and we need them now! Why do we have to wait ANOTHER 3 weeks? 

Susan Osbourne, the wife of the late CIA Director calls on Olivia's assistance arguing that she knows her husband did not commit suicide and was in fact murdered.  After agreeing to take the case, Olivia has a conversation with Cyrus advising him of this new information but Cy could give two hoots because POTUS has already publicly outed and slandered the man that there is NO WAY they are going to re-neg and make a fool of themselves once again (you remember the hostage situation?).

I think it's fair to say that Olivia Pope and the Gladiators have landed themselves in a serious situation.  It begins when HuckleberryQuinn, (Huck and Quinn for those that didn't catch that...hehe) pair up again, but this time they are looking to exonerate a man (Osbourne) they helped build a case against in the previous episode.  Things don't go so well when they are pointed in the direction of a storage locker and poor Huck (poor poor Huck) gets knocked out, tied up, and tossed into a crate in the storage locker which happens to be connected to a money wire they found out about to Molly the night of Osbourne's fake suicide. Quinn manages to find him after hours of looking and takes him back to OPA's firm.  Molly is killed in a hit and run before she can get out of the country.  Poor Molly, she knew too much.

Cyrus has his own share of drama with his husband.  It was revealed that James kicked him out of the apartment and he's been sleeping in a hotel room for the past 22 days.  All he wants to do is go home.  All my poor friend Cy wants is to be close with Fitz again and to be home with his husband.  Poor Cy.  Listen, I love this guy. Even with all of his deviant behaviours, for some reason he is just a likable guy.  Is Cy really any different from the rest of the crew though?  Different from the POTUS, who finally confesses to Cy that he killed Verna? Different from James lying to a grand jury about Defiance?  Different from Olivia who agreed to rigging the national election? They are all seeking forgiveness.  "Would [Olivia] forgive me if she knew?" says Fitz.  Cy reassures his president "There are things we never tell [our loved ones], things we hide....It doesn't mean you don't deserve happiness"  WOW.

This leads me to the powerful and heart wrenching conversation between Fitz and Mellie. Cy convinces them to do their first interview after having America's baby as a necessary preamble to announcing his bid for re-election.  During the interview they romanticized about the way they first met.  However, later Fitz recounts with Mellie the far less romantic details of how she was "sold" to his father because "[she was] a thoroughbred racehorse" and that "it wasn't a blind date; it was a merger."  Mellie then opposes and says that "every married couple pretends," it's the ones that don't pretend who are living a fantasy.  DOUBLE WOW, that's a deep one.  That statement filled me with sadness.  We shall have a discussion about this one later!  Fitz is horrified that she says something like that and wonders if he is to blame for the way she is now. He genuinely apologizes to her.  I feel he did that maybe because he feels that "fantasy" life with Olivia.  Something Mellie has never had the chance to experience. Maybe? Hmmmmm.  So many layers to this triangle. Sighhhhh

Moving on....to Jake, that damn Jake.  He has the word shady stamped all over him!  I mean really.  But first things first.  Huck should know better than to schedule sweeps of Olivia's apartments always on the same day!!!!!!  A little unrealistic in my view.  Shonda, ya need to stop making Huck look like an amateur.  Anyhoo...Jake finds out that Olivia and the Gladiators are onto the frame job of the suicide and the mysterious bench man (whose being played by Joe Morton) tells jake "I trust you to take care of this."  Oh lawd.  So in a little back and forth phone convo between Jake and Olivia, Olivia ends up at Jake's house with dinner.  Well one thing leads to another and they end up in bed.  Are y'all feeling this union?  Me not so much.  Jake and his damn friendly face gives me the creeps.  So after their second tussle in the bed, Olivia goes into Jake's kitchen where she finds out some thangs, some serious thangs.  He's been watching you, girl!  She tries to make a run for it but Jake insists that it's not what she thinks and that he's not going to hurt her.  With such perfect timing, Jake points to the tv where we see another mysterious man enter her apartment.  In their little rumble Olivia hits her head and blacks out.  She is taken to the hospital and in a rush Jake coaches her on what to say happened and that the first time they ever met was when he saved her from being attacked in her own apartment (yes.. yes Jake, you must cover your tracks with the president).  Fitz walks in and this is where I flat lined.  He greets Olivia with his trademark "hi" and goes over to hug Liv.  It ends with Jake looking inside at them confused.  This is the next triangle to watch.  It's developing! Insert nervous look here....

What are your thoughts about last night's episode?  Let's discuss!

Signed,
an almost resuscitated Candilaria

MOVIE NIGHT: CANCELLED

Ladies, 

Sorry to say, but we have to cancel Friday's Movie Night. :(

New date to be announced at a later date.


Signed, 
the sad MWMs Management

MOVIE NIGHT: APRIL 5TH, 2013

Come and join us for a movie night on Friday, April 5th, 2013 to watch Tyler Perry's Movie "Temptation".  We will meet in the food court at 8:10 p.m.

Please RSVP by typing a comment at the bottom of this post or e-mail us at marriedworkingmothers@gmail.com

Signed, 
MWMS