Think Like A Man clocks in at just over two hours. That is the sweeping epic of a romantic comedy practically and as I expected when I saw the run time it ran far too long. But you are essentially watching several romantic comedies all wrapped into one. Considering how many characters there are in the film they all have really good chemistry and camaraderie though I could have done without the constant barrage of black jokes. We get it...you're black...I'm not sure why the entire films on making fun of yourselves because of your colour. I mean imagine a romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock where she kept saying to her obligatory best friend in the film "We crackas, whatcho talking about cracka"....people wouldn't understand it...so why do we accept it from the a film with African Americans in it? Tyler Perry has never or rarely reduces to race jokes to make his films fun and powerful. There are some decent laughs, plenty of one liners and the banter between the guys in particular is fun and full of smiles. It was an interesting twist to make a film about a non-fiction book actually use the book as a focal point (probably a great sales pitch too.)
Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Hart, Terrence Jenkins, Romany Malco and Gary Owen make up the male counterparts of the film. Kevin Hart is definitely the loud mouth sarcastic comic relief but shockingly they don't overuse him and he's actually a lot of fun. Gary Owen is practically useless in the film other than to be a second white guy in the group. He has very few well delivered lines and despite being the "happily married guy" he has no story arc and you never even see his wife. The remainder of the guys all do very well. You are sure to find your favourite guy and story arc amongst them. They all have great chemistry together. Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, La La Anthony and Jenifer Lewis all make up the women of the cast. I don't think they get as much depth in character as the men do which is strange for a film whose demographic is likely women. But women will still inevitably find their favourite woman in the film too because they are all strong independent and smart women. In fact the women are far more easy to relate to and intelligent than the men are portrayed.
Director Tim Story hasn't had a host of huge success in directing. He's certainly handed a blockbuster in the form of the averagely performing Fantastic Four and he's dealt with a similar style film in the cult classic comedy Barbershop. His talent can be pinned down to handling a large cast but not leaving anyone out or making any one facet of the film less interesting and I think that is truly something to give him kudos for. I just think perhaps they were a little too ambitious in the number of stories there were in one picture but I also get that this was the point of the whole thing. I just found the pacing a little off at times and felt it sort of dragged at the end which left me a little less impressed when the romantic stories finally came together. Still some will really enjoy this and I understand the appeal. It just wasn't necessarily for my tastes. 6.5/10
Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Hart, Terrence Jenkins, Romany Malco and Gary Owen make up the male counterparts of the film. Kevin Hart is definitely the loud mouth sarcastic comic relief but shockingly they don't overuse him and he's actually a lot of fun. Gary Owen is practically useless in the film other than to be a second white guy in the group. He has very few well delivered lines and despite being the "happily married guy" he has no story arc and you never even see his wife. The remainder of the guys all do very well. You are sure to find your favourite guy and story arc amongst them. They all have great chemistry together. Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, La La Anthony and Jenifer Lewis all make up the women of the cast. I don't think they get as much depth in character as the men do which is strange for a film whose demographic is likely women. But women will still inevitably find their favourite woman in the film too because they are all strong independent and smart women. In fact the women are far more easy to relate to and intelligent than the men are portrayed.
Director Tim Story hasn't had a host of huge success in directing. He's certainly handed a blockbuster in the form of the averagely performing Fantastic Four and he's dealt with a similar style film in the cult classic comedy Barbershop. His talent can be pinned down to handling a large cast but not leaving anyone out or making any one facet of the film less interesting and I think that is truly something to give him kudos for. I just think perhaps they were a little too ambitious in the number of stories there were in one picture but I also get that this was the point of the whole thing. I just found the pacing a little off at times and felt it sort of dragged at the end which left me a little less impressed when the romantic stories finally came together. Still some will really enjoy this and I understand the appeal. It just wasn't necessarily for my tastes. 6.5/10