Say what you will about Tyler Perry’s output, and plenty have based on the constant criticisms that are being pointed in the direction of his work on a regular basis (most of which revolves around Madea), but you don’t become a billionaire from being bad at your job – even if titles like Good Deeds show that expanding one’s filmmaking horizons isn’t always a surefire way of winning over the doubters.
Dovetailing away from comedy, the 2012 romantic drama finds the writer, producer, and star playing Wesley Deeds, a well-to-do businessman that’s ticked off all of the boxes required to enjoy a financially comfortable life of domestic bliss. However, once he meets Thandiwe Newton’s single mother and offers to assist in her impending eviction, the facade of the already-engaged protagonist’s idyllic life begins to show an increasing number of cracks.
Being a Tyler Perry movie, Good Deeds was a decent-sized commercial success that recouped its modest $14 million budget two and a half times over from theaters. However, being a Tyler Perry movie, it was also largely shunned by critics – and even ended up securing an unwanted pair of Razzie nominations for Worst Director and Worst Actor.
Of course, the multi-hyphenate media mogul has always boasted an enthusiastic fanbase, and they’ve been back out in force again over the weekend to propel Good Deeds to the upper echelons of Prime Video’s worldwide most-watched list, per FlixPatrol.
It was also the subject of a lawsuit and injunction, with an author suing Perry after alleging she sent him a copy of her book prior to publication, one that she claimed served as the inspiration for the screenplay and subsequent feature. Eventually, the suit was thrown out by a judge, leaving the exceedingly average tale of love, life, and perceptions of destiny to exist as another forgettable entry in Perry’s back catalogue.
Published: Oct 10, 2022 03:19 am