Tiffany Haddish has gotten a major career surge since her time back in Girl's Trip. Her wild, loud, and aggressive personality has brought laughs on a variety of stages and it looks like there is no end in sight for the young woman's success given the number of things she has produced. And this weekend, the young woman tries again in a comedy that hopefully will bring some more magic to the mix. Robbie K with another review in the works, hoping to help guide your decision making process for the films. Let's get started as my focus today is on:
Movie: Nobody's Fool (2018)
Director:
Tyler Perry
Writer:
Tyler Perry
Stars:
Tiffany Haddish, Courtney Henggeler, Missi Pyle
LIKES:
Tiffany Haddish The star character needs to be mentioned, for Haddish is back in full swing with little to no filter. For most of this, I enjoyed her antics, her shouting bringing some solid dialog to life as she acts out every vengeful, hateful thought you've felt for someone who betrays you. It comes natural to her, and her energy runs through much of the movie keeping you not only into the movie, but awake as you laugh yourself silly enough to cry tears. The simplistic fun will be the bait for this movie and the heart of the entertainment.
Fast Pace: Given some of my dislikes to the movie, the pace of the movie helps curb those the factors by getting through the movie as fast as possible. Yes, you won't have to worry about prolonged, drawn out character development, or story design because this movie is all about the entertainment value and shoving it in your face. While normally rapid fire doesn't work for me, but this time, getting through the movie faster was a good thing.
Breaks From the Comedy: It's important to find some device to slow down and allow things to reset. Many don't like to do this, choosing to maximize the laughs to the point of making you either want to vomit, or laughing too hard your sides split. Surprisingly, Nobody's Fool utilizes the technique to allow a reprieve from the in your face comedy, giving the story some growing room to flourish and proceed, and build up for more future laughs. This kept me laughing through much of the movie, and for the most part at least brought some small balance to this extreme film.
The Lessons: Nobody's Fool is certainly about the laughs and drama, but the movie surprisingly has a crown jewel embedded in the raunchy mines of sex appeal and crude humor. The moral building, life lesson is a strong one, and the scene is very well-designed to bring the emotional heat with it. It utilizes all the techniques to bring it to full swing, it's just too bad that moment was then lost in more comedic craziness. Still kudos for trying.
Boyz II Men Song: Okay, small deterrent, but when a movie can use a song well and sort of revive the nostalgia you get bonus points with me. Nobody's Fool hits one of the best songs from the R&B group and while a little cheesy, utilizes it as a device to help the story and maximize the emotion. This might have been my favorite scene of the bunch, mostly because I like the song.
DISLIKES:
Filter Removed: Filters are tricky, but upon removal they can lead to the balance shifting way too much towards the aggressive, crude, and uncreative writing that many shows seem to go with. Nobody's Fool falls into this category, and while Haddish's delivery is top notch, I get tired of the over use of certain words. Probably won't bother many, but to this reviewer the stale writing is a little too much.
The Story: Linear, predictable, and quite boring, Nobody's Fool's story is like a Tyler Perry Drama trying to be funny without Madea. Rather than strong, character guided drama that leaves both main character and audience a little stronger and better. In this film though, the drama is mostly just excitement and gossip starting, trashy, sex driven antics that don't add much to the story. The silver lining of this, it adds fodder for Haddish and Whoopi Goldberg to bring some fantastic comedy work.
Danica: When you have a main character you expect mistakes and flaws at the beginning, but by the end can give them more respect. Not the case with this movie. Danica is not a character I jumped on board with, awful core characteristics, strong flaws, grandiose dialog, and a lack of intelligence that is surprisingly present. While there is some tapering, development and growth of Danica was rather shallow and quite honestly disappointing to see. Danica was not my cup of tea and I strongly wanted classic Tyler Perry to come back in and work his drama story magic.
Editing/Rush: Movies these days seems to have difficulty finding the art of knowing when enough is enough, and this movie continues to prove the theory. While still short enough, nobody's fool's editing is rather spotty at times, with extra scenes sort of piece into the film in an odd, awkward attempt to bridge to the next sequence. Some of these scenes were semi worth the inclusion, but many I felt were needless exclusion meant to be included on the deleted scenes section of the movie, including the final scene. Sorry if they are some of your favorite moments (which weren't ruined by the trailer), but editing needed to let these moments go.
The VERDICT:
Nobody's Fool is the predictable, fun, laugh riot that you are expecting when it comes to the trailer and the actress. And while it is funny at part, the movie's main thing is a lack of balance between drama and comedy. This film is designed to just be the aggressive, in your face smack fest that Haddish's energy is and if that's what you want, you've got to check this film out. Yet, if you are looking for a little more story, character development, and drama that is a little higher than a high school relationship gone wrong, this film is not meant for the theater visit.
Overall my scores are:
Comedy/Drama: 6.5-7.0
Movie Overall: 4.5-5.0
