Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Vivica A. Fox | ... | Shanté Smith | |
Morris Chestnut | ... | Keith Fenton | |
Anthony Anderson | ... | Tony | |
Gabrielle Union | ... | Conny Spalding | |
Wendy Raquel Robinson | ... | Karen | |
Tamala Jones | ... | Tracey Johnson | |
Mo'Nique | ... | Diedre (as Monique Jackson) | |
Ray Wise | ... | Bill Parker | |
Bobby Brown | ... | Michael | |
Dondré T. Whitfield | ... | Dwain | |
David Krumholtz | ... | Jason | |
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Colby Kane | ... | Calvin |
Amy Hunter | ... | Nita | |
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Lee Anthony | ... | Attorney in Elevator |
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Ian 'Blaze' Kelly | ... | Tyrone |
When it comes to matters of the heart, keeping her man happy and committed is all in a day's work for Shanté Smith. Shanté is so adept at navigating the waters of romance that her best girlfriends Diedre, Karen and Tracye depend on her for advice whenever "man trouble" clouds the horizon. But when Shanté's boyfriend Keith is caught red-handed stepping out with a co-worker, Shanté institutes her "Ten Day Plan" to get her man in line. Whether its sexy lingerie or good home cooking, Shanté has an arsenal of weapons designed to bring a man to his knees...and back to her. She's not above playing the damsel in distress or using the ever-reliable local grapevine to get Keith's attention. It's all good, because getting her man back - by any means necessary - is all that matters. Unfortunately the happy ending that Shanté expects goes sideways when Keith begins following the advice of his buddy Tony, who brings a player's perspective to the games girls play. In this comedic battle of the sexes... Written by Anonymous
There are just wayyy too many cliches to take this movie seriously, but if you're up for a few laughs, you could do worse than to watch this romp.
This film may perhaps be Anthony Anderson's coming-out movie, because he not just steals the show, he dominates! After playing the bumbling type in both Kingdom Come and Romeo Must Die, here in TCPTG he is the driving force. (Granted, I haven't seen every film he's done, so he might have had other parts that demonstrated his talent; but note that after this movie he did Barbershop and appears lined up to appear in no less than 4 movies in 2003).
And, a tip of the hat to Mo'Nique Imes-Jackson, she's a riot too.
I must admit, I think the significance of The Cosby Show, depicting upwardly-mobile urban black professionals, has played itself out so that we don't need to forcefeed images of rich black people (in this vein, the homey feel of Eddie Murphy's The Klumps as well as his unfortunately discontinued The PJs was ironically refreshing - I wish I could digress fully and explore this thought; if you want to follow up, email me).
Anyway, there are some golden moments in this movie. The first-person narrative was almost irritating at the beginning, but if you can endure the first 10 minutes of it, it is developed nicely into a decent tool to set up some of the coming laughs.
As a romantic comedy, I remember how much I enjoyed The Money Pit; my wife can't see what I see in that film. But, as an 80s comedy, it was both silly yet touching. And then there was the more mature Other People's Money, which had enough business tension that it was almost not a comedy, except for Danny DeVito. In other words, there are many ways in which to approach "the romantic comedy," and as such, there's plenty of room for TCPTG, if you are willing to give it the same slack you might give any other romantic comedy (Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, etc., etc.,).
You know, it sorta sounds like I'm apologizing for this film. In a way, I am, because the elements of it that the average person will notice and have difficult with are the same elements the average person is blind towards in other movies.
Bottom line, for light-hearted fun, you won't be wasting your money to rent it.