TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
Colibel
Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
Billie Morin
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Steve Pulaski
The Family That Preys is Tyler Perry's shameless attempt to make a cinematic soap-opera, and if you go by what soap operas are known for - heaping helpings of drama, thin characters, bland settings, and stiff dialog - the film is better than the average unsubstantial hour you could spend watching All My Children on CBS. And yet, there are several more substantial ways you could spend two hours rather than watching a Tyler Perry film. As always, the choice is yours.The film feels like a full season's worth of soap opera material compressed into a one-hundred and thirteen minute film, featuring a various array of characters and their various arrays of problems. The characters come from one of two families, either the wealthy, whitebread socialites lead by the mom, Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) or the working-class black family ran by Alice Evans (Alfre Woodard). Cartwright and Evans have remained the best of friends, despite enormous financial differences, and develop a "Thelma and Louise"-like friendship when they hit the road in a bold turquoise convertible to explore the humble countryside.Their children, all grown up and of all different ages, are the other characters we focus on. Alice's daughter is the bitchy, unfaithful Andrea (Sanaa Lathan), who is married to the ambitious, hardworking Chris Bennett (Rockmond Dunbar), who works a lowly construction worker job with his pal (Tyler Perry) working for William Cartwright (Cole Hauser). Chris has ambitions of starting his own construction company with his friend, until he realizes that first he must get his marital issues straightened out when he finds his wife has over $200,000 in a private banking account.As you can infer, this leads to unconditional drama between the families, who must work it out on their own while their mothers are living it up in the south. This family drama will likely be exciting to audience who demand a film that briefly touches on a wide-range of emotions, rarely emphasizing on one certain moral or encompassing virtue. For those who want more characterization, investment, and positivity, this is a pretty meager offering. However, Perry doesn't pull punches when it comes to juggling multiple different characters. He shows his capability here when he creates several different people, all inhabiting the same world, and all dealing with unique problems. Even if the film is overwrought, it nonetheless is a competent production that steers clear of idiocy and wooden features like many other Perry movies do.I'm also proud to see that the film sticks to its dramatic genre, regardless on how much dramatic material it infuses into its story. Coming off of the first Perry movie I watched (Diary of a Mad Black Woman roughly a year ago), I was offput by the way the film juggled an abundance of genres, ranging from melodrama to bizarre slapstick comedy to Christian-gospel to bleeding gum moral propaganda. With The Family That Preys, I respect the fact that Perry remains more attentive to the drama at hand. The last thing I wanted to see was the loudmouth, insufferable Madea show up and inflict her radical, obnoxious energy to a premise that is more about slow-moving tension. As I've seen, this is something she clearly doesn't do well with.The Family That Preys is a serviceable picture, with unanimously fine acting (especially from its leads, Bates and Woodard), a more focused agenda, and a pleasant little picture. I grossly misrepresented this film which, judging by the cover, looked like a tired "walk in the shoes of another family' film dealing with race-relations and upper vs middle class, sociological drudgery. Perry has effectively made me second-guess just how aware and intelligent he is in terms of dealing with a specific subject. Just when you think he's doing one thing, he switches over to a slightly better thing.Starring: Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, Rockmond Dunbar, Taraji P. Henson, Cole Hauser, Tyler Perry, Robin Givens, and KaDee Strickland. Directed by: Tyler Perry.
PWNYCNY
This is a good movie. The story is interesting and engaging, the acting is excellent, and the plots and subplots worthy of attention. There's lots of melodramatics as relatives clash, feelings are hurt, and friendships are tested. The main characters are upbeat, positive, and despite their flaws, likable. There's even a rich bad guy which can hardly fail to generate interest, The main player is Kathy Bates who once again gives a strong, commanding performance. The rest of the cast is equally effective, together telling a story that is provocative and entertaining. When family members clash, anything can happen, and this is the stuff from which drama emerges. Anger, laughter, betrayal, redemption, all this and more are shown in this movie. It's worth watching.
beaucheri33
This movie is really not THAT BAD, I myself am not a fan of Tyler Perry films so I didn't even bother going to see it in the theaters.. instead I watched it one night when I was bored after looking through my dad's DVD collection and decided to keep an open mind, and it really was quite watchable..First off..I believe that Alfre Woodard's character was just what this movie needed.. in the midst of all the craziness she was very grounded, caring, sincere, and most of all she was very level headed!!!! those traits are very hard to find in characters that exist in Tyler Perry's films and I was very impressed!!!! she and Kathy Bates made an awesome pair as friends who were able to put their differences aside and have a wholesome friendship, and I admired how the writers didn't go overboard with shoving the issue of Racism and Discrimination like I thought they would.. I'll admit that when I saw the previews for this film I had the impression that it would be all about chaos dealing with a white man having an affair with a black woman.. and blah blah blah.. that's why i wasn't really excited about watching it in the first place, but every main character in this film had their own set of issues.. and skin color had nothing to do with it... so kudos to Perry for thinking outside the box FOR ONCE!!!Anyway their were some things about this film that threw me off like Andrea's personality!!!She was by far just ridiculous and the most annoying character in the whole movie!!! I hated how it took so long for her husband to figure out what was going on..OMG!!!! all the evidence was there!!! he was so oblivious and that really bugged me. This film was also a bit cliché.. I mean everyone knows about Co-workers who mess around while other Co-workers giggle and gossip behind their backs until the spouses find out, and then it all goes down hill from there.. so yeah It was quite predictable that the whole Andrea and Cartwright flame would eventually fizzle, but I was at least still interested in how the story would end.Overall I enjoyed it.. It wasn't perfect, but still entertaining for the most part, and probably the best film Perry has made so far.. but that's just my opinion.
Adam Camp
OK, I've read all the other reviews, to date, and I have to agree with those who had a positive experience. I'm a 62 year old gay white male, and I gave this movie an 8/10. I am not an unreserved fan of Tyler Perry, and think some of the Madea sub-plots are pretty ugly. That said, I have watched nearly everything he's done, enjoyed most, and feel that this one is the best I've seen. The plot(s) were not difficult to follow, or swallow, and the entire cast was perfect, not a bad actor among them. As expected, Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates were truly excellent in their roles. These gals have been doing this, and doing it well, for a long time, and are perfect together. If they aren't long time friends off-camera, they surely fooled me.
