In 2009, entertainer, game show host, and radio personality Steve Harvey released a book called Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment, and after plugging it on The Oprah Winfrey Show, it quickly climbed to the top of the bestseller's lists and soared in popularity with women everywhere. This sudden surge in demand for a book "exposing" men for what they really are led Harvey to create a follow-up novel called Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man, but considering how this film became a surprising box office success, it wouldn't surprise me if we'll be talking about that film in a matter of time.
In my above sentence, I put the word "exposing" in quotations because I am unable to fathom why Harvey's self-help book has gained so much notoriety amongst single women. It seems everything that is discussed in the film about men wanting sex, wanting a looser relationship, and wanting less constraints in a commitment is something most people knew before this book surfaced. Did someone just need to print them and spell them out for people? Did it really need to ostracize men as the soul source of many relationship problems, and continue to feed the idea that all men are cut from the same cloth? I'm not sure, but as a film motivated to take the idea of a self-help book and incorporate its ideology into a film counterpart, it's labored and shockingly uninteresting for the most part.
The film follows the lives of several couples, whose relationships are failing because, of course, it's the males efforts or lack thereof that are soiling the chemistry and the recipe for success. We have Dominic (Michael Ealy) a capable, but unmotivated soul; a trait that his new business executive girlfriend, Lauren (Taraji P. Henson) can definitely change. Michael (Terrence J), a man so attached to his mother that the girlfriend becomes the second priority. His high school crush, Candace (Regina Hall), a single mom as well, whom he recently reconnects with, feels that in order to make a relationship work, she'll need to fix this. Jeremy (Jerry Ferrara) is dating Kristen (Gabrielle Union), who is upset because he is reluctant to pop the question and is very fearful of committing to anything. And who could forget Zeke's (Romany Malco) dilemma? His girlfriend Mya (Meagan Good) puts him on a love lockdown, meaning that since he is known as a player and a complete and total ladies man, that he will be prohibited from sex until ninety days of knowing each other.
It's also an obligation that these pals have a wise-ass best friend who, in this case, is Kevin Hart's Cedric, recently divorced, and frequents many strip clubs. He's definitely the most interesting character here, but look at his competition. Uninteresting males accompanied by equally uninteresting females in a contrived plot serving as extended product placement for a surprise bestseller. Put that on the back of the DVD.
So, it takes the men a little while to piece together why their girlfriends have become vindictive and overcompensating, and soon they realize they have unwillingly become victims to their new passing-phase, which is the self-help novel. They decide to read it and use Harvey's ideology against the women as a defense tactic for themselves. Color me not surprised, but heartbroken. Two wrongs don't make a right, and this is where contrivance triumphs logic, reason, and humanity.
Think Like a Man is also plagued with the most hopelessly unbelievable setup of the year, so far. Even more asinine than our sixteenth president being a cold blooded vampire hunter. As we watch this film, we see women who appear to be compassionate, understanding, and, for the most part, good-natured. One impossibly tries to grasp the idea that these women would become gridlocked to the rules of the genius of Steve Harvey that they'd begin to live their life by his advice and tips. One finds it almost shiveringly absurd that an independent, free-thinking individual would not realize that these ideas of men being motivated by sex and ego, along with requesting the loosest possible rules by women, have existed for the past hundred years and will probably lurk around for another hundred years. I hate to say this, but the film stereotypes men into careless, unfeeling slobs and doesn't leave much redemption for the women. C'mon, this is sitcom stuff.
Think Like a Man was written by Keith Merryman and David A. Newman, who are responsible for penning last year's Friends With Benefits, a comedy I've grown to think less of over time. It was essentially a romantic comedy playing dress-up, acting like it wasn't part of the cliché crowd, but when the layers of dress-clothes came off one by one, by the third act, we saw what was coming and we became disappointed and slightly cheated. Think Like a Man is a little different. It shows up with a questionably quirky premise, offers the disheartening thoughts that women can and will be manipulated by loose-lipped trite composed into a novel, men will continue to accept and receive most blame for failing relationships, and occasionally, we'll be poked in the gut with a zinger by comedian Kevin Hart. To me, it sounds like an overlong date night from hell.
Starring: Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Kevin Hart, Terrence J, Taraji P. Henson, Romany Malco, Gabrielle Union, and Steve Harvey. Directed by: Tim Story.
In my above sentence, I put the word "exposing" in quotations because I am unable to fathom why Harvey's self-help book has gained so much notoriety amongst single women. It seems everything that is discussed in the film about men wanting sex, wanting a looser relationship, and wanting less constraints in a commitment is something most people knew before this book surfaced. Did someone just need to print them and spell them out for people? Did it really need to ostracize men as the soul source of many relationship problems, and continue to feed the idea that all men are cut from the same cloth? I'm not sure, but as a film motivated to take the idea of a self-help book and incorporate its ideology into a film counterpart, it's labored and shockingly uninteresting for the most part.
The film follows the lives of several couples, whose relationships are failing because, of course, it's the males efforts or lack thereof that are soiling the chemistry and the recipe for success. We have Dominic (Michael Ealy) a capable, but unmotivated soul; a trait that his new business executive girlfriend, Lauren (Taraji P. Henson) can definitely change. Michael (Terrence J), a man so attached to his mother that the girlfriend becomes the second priority. His high school crush, Candace (Regina Hall), a single mom as well, whom he recently reconnects with, feels that in order to make a relationship work, she'll need to fix this. Jeremy (Jerry Ferrara) is dating Kristen (Gabrielle Union), who is upset because he is reluctant to pop the question and is very fearful of committing to anything. And who could forget Zeke's (Romany Malco) dilemma? His girlfriend Mya (Meagan Good) puts him on a love lockdown, meaning that since he is known as a player and a complete and total ladies man, that he will be prohibited from sex until ninety days of knowing each other.
It's also an obligation that these pals have a wise-ass best friend who, in this case, is Kevin Hart's Cedric, recently divorced, and frequents many strip clubs. He's definitely the most interesting character here, but look at his competition. Uninteresting males accompanied by equally uninteresting females in a contrived plot serving as extended product placement for a surprise bestseller. Put that on the back of the DVD.
So, it takes the men a little while to piece together why their girlfriends have become vindictive and overcompensating, and soon they realize they have unwillingly become victims to their new passing-phase, which is the self-help novel. They decide to read it and use Harvey's ideology against the women as a defense tactic for themselves. Color me not surprised, but heartbroken. Two wrongs don't make a right, and this is where contrivance triumphs logic, reason, and humanity.
Think Like a Man is also plagued with the most hopelessly unbelievable setup of the year, so far. Even more asinine than our sixteenth president being a cold blooded vampire hunter. As we watch this film, we see women who appear to be compassionate, understanding, and, for the most part, good-natured. One impossibly tries to grasp the idea that these women would become gridlocked to the rules of the genius of Steve Harvey that they'd begin to live their life by his advice and tips. One finds it almost shiveringly absurd that an independent, free-thinking individual would not realize that these ideas of men being motivated by sex and ego, along with requesting the loosest possible rules by women, have existed for the past hundred years and will probably lurk around for another hundred years. I hate to say this, but the film stereotypes men into careless, unfeeling slobs and doesn't leave much redemption for the women. C'mon, this is sitcom stuff.
Think Like a Man was written by Keith Merryman and David A. Newman, who are responsible for penning last year's Friends With Benefits, a comedy I've grown to think less of over time. It was essentially a romantic comedy playing dress-up, acting like it wasn't part of the cliché crowd, but when the layers of dress-clothes came off one by one, by the third act, we saw what was coming and we became disappointed and slightly cheated. Think Like a Man is a little different. It shows up with a questionably quirky premise, offers the disheartening thoughts that women can and will be manipulated by loose-lipped trite composed into a novel, men will continue to accept and receive most blame for failing relationships, and occasionally, we'll be poked in the gut with a zinger by comedian Kevin Hart. To me, it sounds like an overlong date night from hell.
Starring: Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Kevin Hart, Terrence J, Taraji P. Henson, Romany Malco, Gabrielle Union, and Steve Harvey. Directed by: Tim Story.