Diary of a Mad Black Woman

This obscenely hypocritical comedy-drama climbs high on a rickety soapbox to loudly preach Christian values, then turns around to cheer on its wronged-wife heroine (Kimberly Elise) as she takes cruel revenge against her once-abusive husband--after he becomes crippled and helpless. But the film's one-dimensional characters, stereotypical humor, cheap sentiment, and simplistic life lessons are apparent long before it trips over its insultingly disingenuous double standards. Elise plays Helen, a gorgeous, gutless doormat whose cartoonishly evil, ultra-wealthy defense-attorney husband (Steve Harris) throws her out of their mansion so his gold-digging mistress can move in. But her recovery and inevitable rediscovery of self-worth quickly becomes a contrived fairytale affair when the moving man who comes to take her stuff away turns out to be a selfless, unwavering, Harlequin-fantasy hunk (Shemar Moore). Throw in a gun-toting, ghetto-sassy granny (played in bad-wig and pendulous-breasts drag by screenwriter Tyler Perry) for comic relief, the husband's cheap comeuppance (shot by a client), and the insincere, painfully blunt message that Christian faith can fix any problem, and you've got the makings of a contemptibly shallow crowd-pleaser. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either a widescreen or full screen version, DVD extras include audio commentary by playwright and costar Tyler Perry, a 21-minute “making-of” featurette, a “Who is Tyler Perry?” featurette (13 min.), outtakes (3 min.), three minutes of “Reflections on Diary,” a “You Can Do It…It's Electric” how-to dance featurette (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a dud film.] (R. Blackwelder)[Blu-ray Review—Dec. 21, 2010—Lionsgate, 116 min., PG-13, $19.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2005's Diary of a Mad Black Woman features a great transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 audio. Blu-ray extras include two audio commentaries (the first with writer-producer Tyler Perry; the second with director Darren Grant and star Kimberly Elise), deleted scenes (21 min.), a “making-of” featurette (21 min.), “The Real Mad Black Women” interviews with real women (17 min.), five musical montages (14 min.), a “Who's Tyler Perry?” featurette (13 min.), a “Tyler Perry Spotlight” (12 min.), “The ‘ATL'” location featurette (10 min.), outtakes (4 min.), a “You Can Do It…It's Electric” dance scene (3 min.), a “Reflections” featurette, a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for a lame film.]