User Reviews

I pressed play for Black History Month, however, there were no characters to root for. The last part of the movie was the worst a messy rush that didn't land. It was pretty decently shot but the script needs assistance...happy to see Kelly Rowland rocking her Fabletics work out wear in the movie (product promotion) The script was clearly written using a checklist, Crime - Act 1, Act 2 -Romance/Erotica (missing the urgency of the murder case), and the worst part Act 3-Thriller (suddenly, the movie remembers it hasn't been a thriller, only giving the viewers horrendous hints at it). As someone who has anxiety, I wasn't nervous about any of the so called thrills.

This is yet another thriller with extremely stupid characters doing extremely stupid things. It is impossible for me to empathize with complete idiots who get involved in a dangerous and immoral sexual relationship with their client, without any proof of his innocence. The plot is just too forced, just not plausible. The film has no rhythm, no surprises, no emotion. The actors are soulless and have no chemistry, and the dialogues are banal, nearly comical. The ending is illogical. Did't appreciate it at all, I found a direction that was unable to involve me in the story that the screenplay wanted to tell.

I am truly beginning to believe that Tyler Perry understands that his achievements and ability to employ so many black actors/actresses and workers has struck such a cord of respect from Black America, that he knows that he'll never be cut off from us and continues to shovel out this crap. I am disheartened for Miss Kelly Rowland who deserved better than this and I am saddened to have to be so negative.

This movie is full of the typical TP (Tyler Perry) tropes and overly written caricatures. He is such a poor writer and it continues to be seen in the poor quality of repugnant caricatures he creates. He doesn't know how to allow characters to be victimized without having to overly exaggerate the scenarios and people surrounding them for it to be possible.

Mea (Kelly Rowland) is supposed to be high profile lawyer who is very good at what she does, yet we get nothing to build her as such. She spends most of her screen time being a skulking, moody shell of a woman who, for a lawyer, seems to leave her brain at home every time she crosses the doorway. We get no peek at her being a great lawyer, a wife or a friend. Everything just begins happening and her reactions to the unfolding of her life are always confusing and just plain DUMB!

The cast of caricatures around her are as flat as a dollar bill. Zyair (Trevante Rhodes) is literally just in the movie to look sexy and talk slow. His character has no substance. Mea's husband (Sean Sagar) is flat and as usual, written to be so extremely uninvolved and weak that you can't like or dislike anything about him. The brother in law and Mother in law are extremely exaggerated as being insufferable (in order to make Mea look like a complete victim), but you get no reference as to why their relationship is like this or why they do what they do.

This movie was supposed to be an erotic thriller and this seems to be the area where TP really put all of his energy (go figure). The interactions between Mea and Zyair are supposed to be sexy and seductive however, no seductive or alluring nature is given from Zyair that would make any married woman want to compromise her entire marriage for. Instead both individuals come off as dumb and just looking for excuses to have unwarranted and immoral sex. And the "excuses" (because that's what they are) that are mapped out via the plot are weak and watery at best. I also don't feel Mea's character showed enough interest to suddenly shift gears so suddenly the way she did. TP tried to make her this strong, unflinching woman who wasn't going to give in, so we never really saw her interested. (This is a miss both in the writing and the acting... Sorry Kelly.)

For Background, the set design and environments are getting better than his movies of the past. But again, we are introduced to the TP prototypes: every actor/actress is stunning and in great shape. The homes they live in, cars they drive and clothes they wear are a stretch compared to their work or the financial situations they are supposed to be in and this all takes away from being able to take the movie seriously rather than seeing it as another TP stage play.

Overall, the plot is predictable and full of tropes and holes. The writing is terribly poor and underwhelming. The characters are flat and snooze worthy. The acting is sub-par at best (a step above daytime soap operas) With the exception of Ronreaco Lee who plays Jimmy the PI. Ronreaco was a save in this film. You can tell he's a seasoned actor and he brought what little light to this film there was to be had. The ending offered nothing new or intriguing and TP needs to be stopped. But hey, at least we didn't get bad wigs eh?

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Right off the bat, the dialogue is ridiculous. Like, comically ridiculous. Within the first 15 minutes, I had to double check that this wasn't supposed to be a parody of thrillers. Like, how could someone write this and not intend it to be satirical? There's an evil mother in law that's so over the top, I'm convinced the writers just went to ChatGPT and asked it to write stereotypes. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this entire script was AI-generated.

The movie is worsened by unnecessary sex scenes and bad acting. Is it supposed to be an erotic thriller or a murder mystery? Pick one and do it well, don't try to do both and fail. The romantic male lead is such a bad actor, I was laughing at some of his line deliveries. Honestly the best thing about this movie was the mystery element, which was painfully predictable and trite. I gave it a two cause I guess it could be worse?

The fact that Netflix and others make his beyond parody awful movies like MEA CULPA and a filmmaker/actor as artless, hack, and all-around awful as Tyler Perry can be as incredibly rich and successful as he is is proof that America is the land of opportunity...money is just lying on the floor waiting to be picked up if that's what you want to do with your life. While other vastly more talented filmmakers and performers languish forever in obscurity and waiting tables, Perry lives like a feudal lord in his manor while pumping out garbage like this. MEA CULPA is like a bad parody of a paperback legal thriller you'd buy at the airport before a long flight, hoping it will bore you to sleep. Terrible shooting, the usual TP stilted melodramatic emotional tone, nonsensical plots, and wooden acting (from talented actors mind you) it's almost like he's trolling his audience (and financiers) now: look, I deliver product THIS TERRIBLE yet you continue to make me ever richer and more famous. But I give him all the credit in the world as a businessman: he's relentlessly turned his creative lemons into wealth creating lemonade, sort of like, keeping with the Atlanta spirit, Coke making billions selling sugar water. It's all in the branding and promotion, and Perry is nothing if not a brilliant self promoter. These other reviewers wondering why he doesn't use his resources to try to make something 'good' make me laugh as the miss the point so badly. His net worth is VERY good, and that's clearly the only metric he cares about. And no Mea Culpa is needed for that.

I mean it's not groundbreaking, but does every movie have to be? It was entertaining to watch on a Friday night.

Both the leads look amazing (which comes as a surprise to no one). And I was actually surprised by the twist. Although the reveal did seem a bit rushed. I wanted to know more about the motive of the twist, more details on how "it" was done sort of thing.

My only knock on the movie is the casting of the in laws. The brothers seemed like they were of two different races from each other.

Besides that, if you're looking for something entertaining to watch and two beautiful people to marvel at, I say give this movie a shot.

Well what do you know another weak script written in 2 weeks by Mr Tyler Perry. Please sir give it up already. Please hire some real writers. This peace of crap looks like it was written in 2 weeks and shot in a week. Another mediocre attempt. Don't understand why he's just happy settling for crap. This man thinks very little of his fan base. He only gives them mediocre and feels that it is good enough. My question to Mr Perry what's wrong with being great? You don't think your fans deserve better....and you wonder why your work is never rewarded. Maybe come up with.the concept and hire professional writers to execute.

The narcissistic vibes all up and through here! Hunny...punches would be flying! I know Kelly wanted to get street in some of those convos 😂 😂 😂

The paint sex scene though 👀 Mr. Perry 👀 🤔 🤔 😂 😂 😂

There's always going to be "haters" on Perry's productions! The only question I have for them...Can you do better?

Can we not just enjoy and uplift each other for once? Damn!!!!

The movie was good, I didn't miss a second! I love Kelly in anything 😁 😍 😍 😍 The outfits were fire!!!!

I enjoyed the movie and loved the familiar faces!

Great movie Tyler! Keep it coming...

I want and need more movies, of all kinds, from that cranuim of yours Mr. Perry!!!

I will be watching it AGAIN AND AGAIN!

Thank you kind Sir!

First of all, it's a TP movie, nothing groundbreaking or thought provoking. I pay for Netflix but barely watch it. Friday night is our date night (30 years of marriage), interrupted by grandsons basketball game, so we just decided to Netflix & chill after watching the game. She started the movie , I heated up leftovers. This movie is highly unbelievable, but a couple of twist and decent acting made it cool. Maybe I rate it higher because I didn't have to leave the house or pay $20 for popcorn & sodas. But a good date night movie with a good bottle of Merlot goes a long way. Definitely nothing special, but very , very few movies actually are.

This movie is dull and put on. It has the feel of a Lifetime movie but less interesting. Kelly Rowland plays a supposed tough Chicago lawyer but her character doesn't translate the grit or depth that a tough lawyer character should have. She has only one note and an expressionless face. The only expression that helps her is when she smiles which she should play more roles that would allow that. And the lead actor.... Ug! He's terrible! He can't deliver a line to save his life! He doesn't come off like an artist at all, he comes off like a professional athlete attempting to deliver a line like a cheesy commercial. I lost interest way early on. The characters are all dimensionless, vapid and predictable. The story could have been better with the right actors and director but this one is awful. I'm going to try and finish it but I'm not interested enough to do so.

I've never searched so hard to leave a review for a movie as I did for MEA CULPA.

It's not Kelly's nor the actors' fault that this movie was visually horrible and predictable. The acting was overly dramatic in some scenes.

Why did he paint Kaylee to be such a feeble, naïve woman? I don't relate to Kelly's character. She was a weak, stepped-on, gullible yet (intelligent) woman and had to be a closed-lipped breadwinner. It doesn't even seem plausible.

I couldn't even watch the ending because everything leading up to her leaving her resort annoyed me. Hopefully, the ending is better for Mea. I will never know!!!

This movie was incredibly insulting and poorly executed. It literally made me feel sick. The character's development was lacking, with no believable progression or motivation for their actions. As a result, the storyline felt forced and underdeveloped. I had hoped for improvement in this aspect, but unfortunately, this film provided strong evidence to the contrary. Regarding TP's accomplishments, I am proud of what he has built so far, now it's time to focus on the details. This is especially true since he is a writer, producer, and director of his works. It is PAINFULLY obvious there is no one challenging his storylines to help improve his craft.

Tyler Perry I have a bone to pick with you, not that you'd ever read this. Once again you created stereotyped women - either they're pure psychopathic with no other layers or they're weak and allow people to stomp all over them yet their hair is always perfect isn't it, It's like you've never actually spent time in reality. In past films the women you wrote who have premarital sex (not a crime) or have an affair (immoral but also not a crime) by giving them HIV or having them die from an overdose or accident as punishment. In this movie you have a well educated woman allow all those around her to treat her terribly and a woman like this would have already left her husband and his crazy mother (the mother you cast as only a villain, she's all bad, for no realistic reasons except the BS premise I won't spoil but it's sooo lazy). The end of the film is so over the top and drowning in "yeah right" vibes... are you even trying? So what is the point of this junk? The world sucks right now and you have all this money to make a great story or a fantastic thriller with strong characters who can both be good/bad or a mix. But you bring this to the table. It is a waste. I watched this in its entirety only so I could fairly review and my only regret is the time I lost. But if I can save one person from wasting their time on it with this review then... good.

This movie isn't as bad as some say. Yes, it starts off very slow, but the end was a true twist.

Kelly Rowland did a great job, let's give her that. Travante also did good, for what his character was worth. The mom and the brother in law were mediocre at best.

Once you make it through the movie and get to the end you will see the bigger picture. I should have seen it coming! The family didn't sit right with me from the beginning, that I will say.

Tyler Perry has been in the industry for some time now. It's weird how some people say he is still evolving. You either get him or you don't. He did some really good movies and some not so great. This movie is somewhat in between, just give it a shot.

I don't know what netflix were thinking with getting the rights to this. Waste of money for them and for Tyler Perry to. This movie has no substance really and for most of it's two hour running time it's boring. Kelly Roland is a singer that's joint the acting clan and she shouldn't have. She plays mea here, a defense attorney that's hired by a guy that was accused of killing his girlfriend. As you can guess they fall for one another and yada yada yada. I think the acting was pretty bad and the script might have been written by someone that can't. Overall the made for TV thrillers are better than this movie it was sad really because it could have had potential and the sex scenes were just awkward to watch.

One of the major issues with the film is the lack of chemistry between the leads. Although Rowland and Rhodes deliver good performances, the connection between their characters feels forced at times, which hampers the viewer's immersion in the story. Additionally, the plot, while well-executed, is often predictable for those familiar with the genre.

However, "Mea Culpa" still has its merits. Perry's direction is firm and assured, maintaining the pace and tension of the story from start to finish. The soundtrack also deserves mention, contributing to the suspense and sensuality demanded by the plot. And, of course, the film's visual aesthetic, with its 1980s setting, is a delight for fans of retro style.

In summary, "Mea Culpa" may not be the most innovative or surprising erotic thriller ever made, but it offers a fun and engaging experience for genre fans. For a night of uncomplicated entertainment, the film certainly fulfills its role.