*** This review may contain spoilers ***Like many,I expected to see an ongoing,fat joke filled movie ,when I watched this. That certainly isn't the case here. This film actually has a heart,a mind and gets deep into the soul of what these two women (as well as larger women everywhere) go through everyday.Despite the fact that Mo'Niques character puts up a tough front and gives the fist to anyone who calls her a fat "B" (you know the rest)she really is hurting very deeply inside like any other person would and should be. As seen by the amount of products in her room,she's fighting a losing battle with her size. Which makes her more depressed.Her best friend is down on herself as well and has unfortunately grown up with the impression that,not only is she fat,she's homely too and lacking in personality. Mo'Niques skinny cousin in the movie was no help to her growing up or now.Then,as in most movies ,fate takes over.The two friends and the cousin win a stay at a luxury resort where there's nothing but skinny women around making them feel uncomfortable (except for the cousin of course). Into their lives come three men who hail from Africa. These men,unlike the practically brain-washed men in the world,walk up and basically want to meet Mo'Nique & her friend. The third man thinks the cousin must be sick,being so skinny. The best looking of these men is completely into Mo'Nique but she's not allowing herself to accept it 100% because she's so used to men not giving her the time of day. Her friend gets an admirer too and soon he's gotten her out of her shell (as well as her clothes & his,no nudity though!)This movie,unlike some films that paint unflattering portraits of women or overweight people and African Americans,this film has great intelligence to it! I especially liked the real African dancing in the movie and how they demonstrate it's okay to be yourself in your skin.Yes,there's the typical "your mama" jokes between Mo'Nique and some guy who works at a fast food place but the boy has it coming for being insulting. It's a very funny scene to watch! Best of all though,this movie doesn't offer up an easy answer for Mo'Nique's character. It isn't...just lose the weight,just get a man or just get rich and everything will be perfect. After her admirer tells her she should accept that she'll never be a size five,she runs from him and hides away in her room and into a deep depression.She eats for days & watches TV but then,something just snaps in her and she goes on a tear through her room. Throwing all the diet products,clothes that don't fit and the TV out the window. From that point she re-invents herself and starts up her own clothing line for large women,leading to a fashion show and financial world -wide success. Which she shares with her friend and cousin.With her new attitude and outlook & success,she still is missing that one piece though. She flies down to Africa and is reunited with the man who loves her just the way she is. For all these reasons,I give this movie 10 stars!I can only guess that the over-abundance of negative ratings are from those who may not have taken the time to "really" watch this movie. I may not be African-Amercian,but I know it should be on a list of the best 100 films starring & made by African Americans. I urge any & all to give this a second look! "Phat" is in the eyes of the beholder! (END)

The last twenty minutes or so of this film made me incredibly angry. Sure, it was bad, I knew that from the start, what really drove me up the wall during those twenty minutes was the numerous false endings. It felt like the film was mocking me by going on when I wanted it to end so badly.So, what was it that made me wish for Phat Girlz to be at least twenty minutes shorter? The first two acts of this movie are incredibly boring, it feels like nothing ever happens, mostly because they keep discussing one single issue, that of being fat. Furthermore, the protagonist is constantly angsty about her body size, it's really quite depressing. Not to mention the stupidity, the filmmakers have a view of the world that seems very naive, like the film was made by children. As far as I can tell the main conflict (a lack of fashion for big women) is fabricated, but don't take my word for that, I know nothing of fashion.However, it is in the third act that Phat Girls becomes really annoying. They crank up the stupidity until it outweighs everything else, even the boredom, the result of which is a horrendously contrived resolution of the non-conflict. Simply put, the protagonist starts a big women fashion "revolution" and gets her happily ever after for no apparent reason. It might have worked if this was a fairy tale, but it's not. Combine that with frequent false endings and the result is pure anger.

According to the IMDb "Phat Girlz" was directed by an adult human. Okay, let's go with that.Imagine hitting your child over the head with a cinder block and handing them the digital camera. This is the movie they'd make if they survived the cerebral hemorrhaging. Ostensibly "Phat Girlz" was made to celebrate Big Beautiful Black Women, but this movie does them no justice. It's a one-dimensional fantasy without a single link to reality... it's part cartoon, part comedy sketch, part morality play. It's a naive, one-note, knee-jerk reaction to a problem that is never clearly established or resolved. And it's bad.Mo'Nique is the only good thing here, a natural, likable actress with enough personality to keep this from being an utter humiliation. Sadly, this is filmmaking at its most inept and incompetent. The movie is shot on shabby digital video with sloppy cuts and lazy dissolves, and the basic rules of direction are ignored: actors don't speak into the camera or look at their co-stars- there is barely any interaction between the actors at all. Most of Mo'Nique's "punchlines" aren't spoken- they occur in her head as voice-overs. For some reason whenever she is sexually aroused we hear the sound effects of jungle drums and screeching monkeys. Interesting choice.The plot is heinous: three women go on vacation, the two fat women are worshipped as goddesses while the skinny one is taunted and scorned. Perhaps it's because they're vacationing on a magical island populated by Nigerian doctors who love fat black women. If this is the case why did the docs leave Nigeria in the first place? The skinny gal is assumed to be sick/dying because she weighs less than 300 pounds. Switcheroo most likely. The hunky Nigerian M.D.'s don't just appreciate Mo'Nique's ample body- they can talk of nothing else! Their idea of foreplay is over-buttering a biscuit and jamming it down her throat. This guarantees the lard will keep happening. If you consider stretch marks and fat rolls a turn-on you will love this picture.Mo'Nique eats and dates until she catches her boyfriend eating dinner with a woman who is unfat and therefore evil. She suspects her man of cheating but he assures her he would never even consider intercourse with a woman weighing less than a quarter-ton. Reassured, Mo'Nique destroys the mannequin in her hotel room and tosses her television box out the window. Perhaps this is symbolic of something. When she re-gains consciousness she is back at work where her boss Eric Roberts- in a role that counts towards his Community Service- decides to make her rich and famous for no reason whatsoever. Her clothing line- Thick Madame- sweeps the galaxy and after becoming a multi-jillionaire she goes back to Nigeria to see if her magical fat-loving gorgeous doctor boyfriend is still available.He is.The end credits come on after that, but the film was so powerful I had lost the ability to read them. Maybe it's for the best that the names of the perpetrators aren't dragged through the mud. If you're thinking of seeing "Phat Girlz," don't.GRADE: D-

This movie was great, so it might not be an intellectual masterpiece, who cares!! It was very entertaining and got a very positive message across: that we should all learn to love ourselves. It is a very feel good movie and having just watched it I feel great!!! I read a comment about how Monique's character only likes handsome men and so the movie is hypocritical and I suppose I can see the point. However, the point of the movie was to show that you shouldn't judge people by there weight and if they simply had overweight people with overweight people then this point wouldn't come across as strong. It would be like saying only overweight people will find overweight people attractive. When what it was trying to say was that we are all beautiful and its about time we all realised it!!! The movie got across a very relative self-esteem issue in today's society and it did it in a very entertaining and "phat" way. I found myself wishing I was a Thick Madame like the character Mia at the end!!!