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I Can Do Bad All by Myself (film)

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I Can Do Bad All by Myself
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTyler Perry
Screenplay byTyler Perry
Based onI Can Do Bad All By Myself
by Tyler Perry
Produced byTyler Perry
Reuben Cannon
Starring
CinematographyAlexander Gruszynski
Edited byMaysie Hoy
Music byAaron Zigman
Production
company
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • September 11, 2009 (2009-09-11)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$19 million[1]
Box office$51.7 million[2]

I Can Do Bad All by Myself is a 2009 American romantic musical comedy-drama film which was released on September 11, 2009. The film was directed, produced, and written by Tyler Perry,[3] who also makes an appearance in the film as his signature character Madea.[4] The rest of the cast consists of Taraji P. Henson, Adam Rodriguez, Brian White, Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight, and Marvin L. Winans. Although the film and play share the same title, the film is not an adaptation of Perry's play of the same name, the two works have different storylines as this film tells the story of an alcoholic lounge singer who is persuaded to take the custody of her niece and nephews by Madea after she catches them breaking into her house and their grandmother has gone missing. Both are named for a lyric in the Changing Faces song "G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.". It is the fifth film in the Madea franchise. I Can Do Bad All by Myself received generally mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

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Madea and Joe Simmons catch Jennifer, Manny, and Byron who had broken into their house during one night, in which Jennifer drops and breaks Joe's VCR onto the floor. The children had been residing with their grandmother, since their mother is dead. Their grandmother had been missing for reportedly four days.

April, is an alcoholic who regularly sings at Club Indigo, in which her boyfriend Randy resides with her. Randy is actually married and has children, in which he leaves during the same night to be with his wife and children during the same night of the robbery, in which April allows. The next day, Madea brings the kids to April, who is revealed to be their aunt, and she reluctantly receives them into her house. Meanwhile, Pastor Brian prompts April to take in her niece and nephews, due to their grandmother being weak and aging, and he sends Sandino to reside and work around her house. April expresses her lack in her familiarity with Sandino, and orders him to reside in the basement. Sandino eventually gives his face and attire makeover, which delights April. Randy sees April with the children, where he proceeds in calling out Sandino for unexpectedly being present inside of the house. April and Jennifer are in brief argument, with Randy attempting to verbally discipline Jennifer, to express proper manners in front of her aunt. Jennifer continued to show her seemingly unruly demeanor to Randy, who begins makes to make advances at her.

After the children visit Madea to clean her house, it is the subsequent day, where April discovers that Rose had died from a brain aneurysm on a city bus, and had been dead for around one week. In result of the lack of identification, the city ordered cremation to be in occurrence, in the event of Rose being claimed. April attempts to find comfort from Randy, who is sleeping and shrugs her off without attempting to know the reason for April attempting to receive comfort. Subsequently, April receives comfort from Sandino, while telling of her estranged relationship with her mother.

Jennifer tells Madea about her finding out of her grandmother being dead and the potential impacts on her brothers. She asks about prayer, which she said is one of the topics her grandmother notably spoke of. Inexperienced with prayer, Madea attempts to instruct her, but subsequently give incoherent stories from the Bible.

Both Tanya and Sandino tells April, how her relationship with Randy results in both him and April, neither showing proper love to each other. Sandino eventually renovates a bedroom for the children, with Manny and Byron in delight, but Jennifer feels how April does not want her or her brothers there. One Sunday morning, Sandino knocks on April's bedroom door to get her ready for church, but Randy threatens to kill him if he continues to spend time with April.

Later during the same night of the Sunday, Manny needs his insulin shot and Jennifer goes to the kitchen to get it. Randy taunts Jennifer, and attempts to rape her, but Sandino fights him off. April walks in on the fight, and Randy quickly claims, Jennifer offered him sex for money. April sends Randy to take a bath in response to the effects from the fight. After April sees Jennifer sobbingly telling the actual occurrence, April decides to question Randy, of wanting to know further detail of the occurrence. When Randy repeatedly gives the same claim, April threatens to electrocute Randy with a plugged-in radio while he is in the tub. April reveals, of how she was sexually abused by the boyfriend of her mother, named Lee, who then claimed that April suggested the act. April mocks Sandino, who attempts to forbid her from electrocuting Randy, and she subsequently drops the radio into the water. The radio short circuits, with smokes and flashes. Randy collapses onto the floor while trying to escape the tub. The short circuit, also effects the ceiling lights, which also flickers. April sees Randy in frail condition, and leaves after being alarmed of her actions. Sandino sees Randy in frail condition, and still chooses to verbally order Randy to leave the house.

April goes to the nightclub for a drink and blames herself for not seeing the signs, comparing it to how she felt ignored from her exprerience. Sandino tries to stop her from drinking, while April urgently asks Sandino, on why he left Randy alone in the house who had already been in near-death condition. Sandino reveals how he took the keys and found his way to have Randy to leave, but April avoids to get comfort from Sandino. While triggered, she asks Sandino if he is a child molester because of the attention he gives to her neice and nephews. April proceeds in taunting Sandino of the same question, in which he speaks of his childhood as a child laborer and explains how the predicament he sees in Jennifer and her brothers, triggers his own trauma. In anger, Sandino diverges his connection from April.

April and Jennifer begans to connect, after April speaks to Jennifer on her own prior experiences. Jennifer tells April, that she should recognize Sandino as a man who is needed. Sandino returns, with April apologizing to him and admitting to him that she loves him like a friend. Sandino expresses his reluctance and skepticalism towards April. When Sandino subsequently chooses to be sympathetic, he tells her that she cannot love anyone until she learns to love herself. He is in love with April, but wants her to love him back the same way he loves her. He then kisses her.

Eventually, April and Sandino get married, and had their block party for their reception.

Cast

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  • Taraji P. Henson as April, an alcoholic nightclub singer at Club Indigo
  • Adam Rodriguez as Sandino Ramirez, a Colombian immigrant that moves in with April
  • Brian White as Randy, April's boyfriend
  • Mary J. Blige as Tanya, a bartender at Club Indigo
  • Gladys Knight as Wilma, a member of the church in April's neighborhood
  • Marvin L. Winans as Pastor Brian, the pastor of a church in April's neighborhood
  • Tyler Perry as:
  • Hope Olaidé Wilson as Jennifer, the niece of April
  • Freddy Siglar as Byron, the nephew of April
  • Kwesi Boakye as Manny, the nephew of April who has a medical condition that requires him to take insulin
  • Eric Mendenhall as Man #1
  • David Paulus as Miller
  • Randall Taylor as Mr. Bradley
  • Tess Malis Kincaid as Ms. Sullivan
  • Joseph Taylor as Announcer
  • Cheryl B. Pratt as 911 Dispatcher

Soundtrack

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The film features 13 songs,[5] including two new songs by Blige. Perry was not able to produce a soundtrack album for the film due to the various record companies involved.

Reception

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Critical response

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I Can Do Bad All by Myself received mixed reviews from critics, becoming his most acclaimed film, until 2021's A Jazzman's Blues.[6] Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 62% approval rating based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Though somewhat formulaic and predictable, Perry succeeds in mixing broad humor with sincere sentimentality to palatable effect."[7] Metacritic reported that the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the movie an "A−" grade, saying, "After a summer of phony, pasty rom-coms, do this: See a movie where old-fashioned notions of love, faith, strength, and the possibility of redemption are taken seriously."[9] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe called the film "overlong but well-shaped and involving", praising Perry for finding a balanced mix of "earnest soap opera moralism with [his] comic instincts", calling it his "most confident and competent mixture of uplifting black middle-class melodrama and low-down comedy."[10] Cliff Doerksen of the Chicago Reader said about the film: "Contrived, sentimental, tonally bipolar, and as predictable as clockwork, this latest from chitlin' circuit impresario Tyler Perry is just a fat slab of ecstatic entertainment."[11]

Rob Humanick of Slant Magazine felt the film was a great gateway for people not familiar with the "scabrous antics and homegrown moralizing" delivered by the Madea character, saying that Perry lends his creation a more "greater level[s] of tonal consistency" than his previously contradictory Madea Goes to Jail, writing that "I Can Do Bad acknowledges Madea's flaws with loving scrutiny, and doesn't require approval of her more selfish attributes."[12]

Randy Cordova of The Arizona Republic was critical of Perry's filmmaking for delivering lengthy musical numbers and overlooked story elements but gave praise to the performances of Henson and Wilson for showcasing his ability to "create meaty roles for women."[13] The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin gave the film a "B−" grade, praising Henson's performance and the "riveting musical numbers" by Knight and Blige for emitting more "feverish emotions" to the film than Perry's "characteristically ham-fisted screenplay", concluding that "His oeuvre has always been shameless and over the top, but Bad might just be the first of Perry’s films to border on operatic."[14] Kimberley Jones of The Austin Chronicle criticized Perry for prolonging the film's conclusion but gave him credit for bringing "increasingly mature moviemaking" to his production, highlighting the Madea scenes as being "pretty damn funny" and the performances of Wilson and Henson for being "nuanced and quite moving" and having a "likable screen presence" respectively.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009) - Summary". The Numbers. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  2. ^ "I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
  3. ^ "I Can Do Bad All By Myself". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Archived from the original on October 18, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  4. ^ Perry, Tyler. "Meet the Browns starts March 21st". Archived from the original on March 4, 2011. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
  5. ^ Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385912/soundtrack
  6. ^ a b "I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  7. ^ "I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved June 23, 2025.
  8. ^ Young, John (September 13, 2009). "Box Office Report: Tyler Perry's 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself' is No. 1 with $24 mil". Entertainment Weekly. Dotdash Meredith. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
  9. ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (September 15, 2009). "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  10. ^ Burr, Ty (September 12, 2009). "'Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself'". The Boston Globe. Boston.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2019. StarStarStar
  11. ^ Doerksen, Cliff (October 2, 2009). "I Can Do Bad All by Myself". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  12. ^ Humanick, Rob (September 12, 2009). "Review: I Can Do Bad All by Myself". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019. StarStarHalf star
  13. ^ Cordova, Randy (September 15, 2009). "I Can Do Bad All by Myself". The Arizona Republic. Gannett. Retrieved December 3, 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) StarStarStarHalf star
  14. ^ Rabin, Nathan (September 11, 2009). "I Can Do Bad All By Myself". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  15. ^ Jones, Kimberley (September 18, 2009). "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2019. StarStarHalf star
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