Madea (Tyler Perry) catches a sixteen year old named Jennifer, and her two younger brothers trying to steal from her home. She gives them something to eat, but threatens to call the cops on them if they don't come up with some money to pay for the damages. The woman that takes care of the kids has seemingly disappeared, so Madea takes them over to their estranged Aunt April (Henson). April is a selfish drunk who works as a singer at a night club, her boyfriend provides for her, and she wants nothing to do with the kids. An enigmatic Columbian named Sandino (Adam Rodriguez) moves into her home, and begins to change April's ways for the betterEvery Tyler Perry movie seems to have a low rating. Some deserve it, but not very many. Do you guys even watch some of his movies? They are nowhere near bad enough to be in the 3.5 range, like you guys have voted this one. I often wonder if voters simply vote low, because they hate Tyler Perry. This is a very good movie. It's a really good story about redemption. I've always felt Tyler Perry's heart has been arguably as big as Mount Everest. He just doesn't know when to stop with the melodramatics at times, and it becomes overkill. He creates a dandy of a film with this one, where everything is just right. The storyline itself is genuine and realistic. Kids at Jennifer's age are often left to fend for themselves, without much help. I really enjoyed watching Taraji P. Henson's character evolve from nothingness to a winning character change in the second half. If you manage to stick with her grumpy character, you'll be rewarded by a sensational show from Henson. Tyler Perry is amusing as Madea, as per usual. I've never really gotten into his Joe persona, but Madea is always fun. If I have any complaints, I wish that he would not belt on kids in his movies. It's not very funny, and I'm quite against it. I don't see the humor in it. Adam Rodriguez annoyed me at first with his corny style, but as the film went along, he won me over. I give all the credit to Rodriguez for that. I do wish Perry gave us more background on him. He felt like a drifter who came from out of nowhere, but Rodriguez did well. Brian White plays a scumbag extremely well. He plays the abusive boyfriend, and you'll hate him. Hope Olaide Wilson is good as the teen. I felt Perry did a really good job at building up her indifferent character, before having her open up as the film goes along. Mary J. Blige plays a bartender, and is adequate. Her singing is out of this world, obviouslyI can't comprehend why people hate this movie. It's got an excellent story, it's moving, it's heartfelt, well acted, and it has an excellent message behind it. What can you possibly dislike about all that? Perry is trying to tell you that it's okay to open up to other people, and ask for help. If you live a selfish life, you should strive to be better. You can't love others, if you don't love yourself first. The human spirit is a powerful thing. Life can wear us down, but we can always overcome it. It's a really thought provoking film. If you dislike Tyler Perry, that's fine. But don't go and purposely rate his movies low, just because you don't like him. Watch the movie, and give your honest opinion about it. This might be Perry's best film. If it isn't, it's definitely in his top three. I don't get watery eyes very often from anything, but this movie seriously moved me to the point of tears. Perry doesn't always nail what he's trying to get across, but he aces it here. I'm not a professional critic. I consider myself to be an average reviewer, but one thing i'm always proud of is my open mind. And this is a damn good film. Well done, Tyler. Well done!8/10

THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME!!! I mean it, it is fantastic! I don't understand how anyone could dislike this movie! It's excellent! The time this came out, it was Tyler Perry's best movie! Madea's house is broken into by three minors. She feeds them, but takes them to their aunt, April. Their guardian, their grandmother, April's mother, has been missing for 4 days, so they're forced to go to April. However, April is a selfish, rude nightclub singing who is sleeping with Randy, a married man, and doesn't want to be bothered by these kids. That's not the only thing that's interrupts her daily routine of sleeping all day and singing and drinking at night. On top of that, Pastor Brian of the church down the street brings over a man who now works for the church but needs a place to stay. This man, Sandino, stays in her basement.OK, my explanation may be a bit lame, but I don't want to give everything away for this fantastic movie! Tyler Perry tries so many things from a thematic standpoint that we haven't seen from him before. When April walks in the bathroom with the camera focused on the boombox in her hand, the theater roared! I like the kids. They get into trouble and can be wise-crackers, but they also show heart and concern. The church scene is fantastic! It's so very real, and it wasn't just made to look real. Not only was it written and shot very well, the congregation, choir, and Pastor Marin L. Winans himself really invested themselves into this moment! It's not an imitation of church, it IS church! I like Sandino. Whereas the good male characters in Tyler Perry's earlier movies were good, they were perfect; they didn't have any flaws. While that's nice, it's not at all realistic. Here, Sandino does have a past. He gets angry, he gets violent. He's a great character.Now I do have two problems with this movie. They're not big, they don't damage the movie, but they do stand out a little to me. The first is a nit-pick: Madea. Where was she in this movie?! Do you realize she was only in about 25% of the film? I guess that's OK because the movie's focus is on who it should be on, April. But, still, I wanted more of Madea. When the movie was over, I said, "Wait, what? Where about Madea's other appearances?" The other problem I have is Randy. There's a scene where April is talking to Sandino, and Sandino says to her, "You're not this selfish. Why are you like this? Is it because of Randy, is it because of your man?" By the way April reacts to this, you'd think that is the answer. But I don't know if I buy it. I accepted that April was just a selfish, cruel person. I wasn't asking why. I guess my problem is that if Randy is the reason why she's so mean, why don't you show him more? How about a couple of more scenes with just Randy and April so we can see how his cruelness rubs off on her? Again, it's not a big problem, but it's more than just a nit-pick to me.Despite that, though, this movie is just wonderful! It's funny, it's dramatic, it's suspenseful, it's emotional, it's musical! In fact, that's another thing to mention: the music is great! I love it, it's awesome! I have to say, though, my sister and I both said we thought Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" was playing when the "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" song began. But it's still good! Watch it! You won't be disappointed! BOOYIKA!

Tyler Perry whole motivation is family and faith many people attack Perry for his way of portraying, African-American families. I can do bad all by my self takes a look at how families and faith are intertwined, when April's life is turned upside down with the unwelcome knock on the door by Madea(Tyler Perry) with three children. As April(Taraji P. Henson) has to learn about the value of family. The Church plays a major role as well without the Church the faith of April would not have been as strong in overcoming her inter-conflicts that she was dealing with her selfish ways and wanting a married man, but with the help of Sandino(Adam Rodriguez) April not only finds her way in finding what true love is but learning how to love herself. Tyler is still learning how to direct a good film, but will every movie be a great one, those who feel that Perry is in above is head need to take notice of what his movies symbolize, faith, family, and love. Tyler's problem is all of his movies are based on the same thing African-American families with some type of issues. This may not be Tyler's best film; however $23,446,785 on an opening weekend is not bad. So say Perry is not a good director, but Perry keeps growing in the film industry, and his television shows. This is a must see movie that is great for family to see as a family.

This movie was definitely the poorest of the Tyler Perry movies that I have seen. If it were anyone else's movie, I would have given it a much lower rating. However, there are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments and the positive message is, as always, so great that those two things warrant the 5/10 rating.Ironically, I don't think that I would ever say that I was glad to watch a movie that I think is worthy of only 5/10. However, because Perry's message is so positive and because it does have some very funny moments, I think the movie is worth watching even if the movie itself is rather poor.