Reviews

Cliff wants a BBQ at dinner. His father, Cockroach, and 2 professors join them. Professor Lawrence (Christopher Plummer) reads a play, written by Rudy. Dr. Foster (Roscoe Lee Browne), Russell, and Dr. Lawrence all demonstrate their Shakespeare experience reciting passages to Theo, and Cockroach, as they are not into Shakespeare; but, must read it as it is their homework.

While the movie is okay, and I watch it repeatedly. Some parts may be considered too violent. Tyler Perry lived with his mother, and a man who was supposed to be his father (DNA test proved this to to be incorrect). In an interview, Perry described the man as abusive, and that his mother lied to him about his paternity. On to the violence.... Sometimes, children think you are kidding them when you say, "I'm gonna whup you." They'll push you to, and over the limit, resulting in violence against them. In most households, this is carried out by the father, when dad is not around, or too drunk, the mother assumes this duty. As Madea pointed out, sometimes, you must get a little rough with them before they'll understand. The characters that stood out for me were the Aunts; May, played by Maya Angelou, and Myrtle, played by Cicely Tyson. Myrtle described my relationship with my first love to a tee, and May read part of the poem, "In And Out of Time," later. I loved Madea's term, the "Grit Ball." Lisa demonstrates this late in the movie. The grit ball is violent too, but against an adult who deserved it. Violence aside, the movie ends on a happy note.

I do enjoy a documentary on car reviews, but I didn't enjoy this one. While they pointed out a few bad to awful products from different manufacturers, they spent a lot of time praising some selected models. I would have liked to see them rank the bad cars from bad to worse - it didn't happen. Maybe it was the format that was had for me to understand: "This car is really bad, here's why. And then they move on to another." I agree with them on 2 of the designated "bombs," but their worst car, I can't believe. Shame on them for showing us how most anyone can steal a collector car at the end. Watching this ended up being a waste of time, and money - I did not get what I paid for.

Episodes usually begin with the daily gossip on the front stairs of 227. There was one episode featuring Sherman Hemsley; the character thought Mary was a maid and the two spar is if they were still on The Jeffersons together. Jackee Harry is wonderful as Sandra. The episode that caught my attention is on disc 2: "We The People." This story is about Lester's supposedly wealthy friend who becomes the building's maintenance man. He doesn't complete all jobs and wears the same shirt for many days. Pearl senses something fishy when the maintenance man's friends enter but don't leave the building. Pearl and Mary visit the man to figure out what is happening and the door is opened for Mary.