'Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys' review

Rockmond Dunbar and Cole Hauser in "Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys" (Credit: Alfeo Dixon/Lionsgate)

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Despite coming from different social classes, Charlotte (Kathy Bates) and Alice (Alfre Woodard) have been friends for years. Charlotte's son William (Cole Hauser) and Alice's daughter Andrea (Sanaa Lathan) are colleagues and friends of a more intimate nature, not that their respective spouses, Jillian (KaDee Strickland) and Chris (Rockmond Dunbar), have any idea. Meanwhile, Alice's other daughter Pam (Taraji P. Henson) and her husband Ben (Tyler Perry) are hoping for a better life.

Big question: Will Perry’s second release of the year (following March’s “Meet the Browns”) and first film with significant roles for white actors help him return to the box office highs of his first two movies?

Skip it: This tiresome disappointment unlikely to satisfy even Perry’s loyal fanbase features only one new twist in the filmmaker’s ongoing battle against respectability: he squanders his most impressive cast yet on one of his least compelling stories. Classy vets Bates and Woodard are a long way from Oscar contention, and feel like second bananas to the movie’s painfully protracted infidelity saga. Only Henson brings any energy or credibility to her role, and she’s never on screen long enough for it to matter.

Catch it: To see Perry rock a mini-fro and facial hair that manages to make him look even more cartoonish than he does in Madea drag,

Bottom line: Perry’s cranking out formula flicks faster than any indie maverick since Roger Corman (he’s got another, "Madea Goes to Jail," due in February) and the strain is evident. Overstuffed and interminable, “The Family That Preys” delivers Perry’s usual message of self-empowerment with such a low degree of entertainment value that it may finally empower Perry’s audience to seek out better product.

Bonus: Didn't expect to hear country music in a Tyler Perry movie? Well what if the country song is Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance"? Not so surprising now, is it?

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