Why Did I Get Married Too? | D

Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? is a sequel, but you don't need to have watched 2007's Why Did I Get Married? to understand what's going on. In fact, you barely need to watch this one to understand what's going on. In accordance with his usual style, Perry spells things out very clearly: All you have to do is picture about a month's worth of daytime soap opera episodes crammed into two hours.
The film is pretty much split into two halves. The first half is when Perry, the writer/director, tries his best to be slightly comedic during the four couple's annual vacation retreat, this time to the Bahamas. While Perry may be lauded for his stage work, his film writing is sloppy and confusing. Every gag or joke that happens seems to be a real reach for the audience to laugh at, sometimes even making comedic moments awkward.
The second half, when everyone's back in Atlanta, is when we get to the melodrama. This one thinks that one is cheating on him! This one is certain that one is cheating on her! These two are splitting up! This one is insecure about not being able to find a job, and irritated that his wife's ex-husband keeps hanging around! Here's some cancer! Here's some alcoholism! Would you care for a smattering of domestic violence? Don't mind if I do!
There's nothing inherently wrong with any of those story lines, of course. But Perry handles everything so amateurishly, with on-the-nose dialogue and a complete lack of subtlety or nuance. I marvel at the sheer lunacy of the scene where a drunk Malik Yoba harasses a weeping Janet Jackson in the midst of their messy divorce, pours vodka on her and then sets fire to the photo album containing the only remaining pictures of their dead child. In fact, someone should compile all of their scenes, because their entire story line is off-the-rails insane — and slightly disturbing — considering that Jackson was dealing with the death of her brother Michael during the time of filming.
Perry's direction of a scene also takes away from the film as a whole. During every argument or climatic scene for each of the four couples dealing with their own problems, there's always another character in the background or an extra standing in the back, completely not reacting the right way to the seriousness of the scene, causing the audience to laugh or just completely lose track of what is actually going on.
Most of the drama is so tame and derivative that Perry seems to be going through the motions on this one, repeating the platitudes and relationship angst that he's trotted out a half-dozen times already. How he built an empire off of sub-par films like this one is a mystery that Hollywood will continue to wonder about for years to come.