It took until September for the prolific Tyler Perry to release his second movie of the year. Is it worth the wait?
"I Can Do Bad All By Myself, based on Perry's play of the same name, is all that, with a booster shot: It's probably the impresario's best-made movie yet, his most joyful, and his most moving."
— Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"Perry plugs into the primal power of gospel, blues, soul, and the black church in ways that make Bad far more affecting than it has any right to be. His oeuvre has always been shameless and over the top, but Bad might just be the first of Perry's films to border on operatic."
— Nathan Rabin, Onion AV Club
"Mr. Perry, who also wrote and directed the film, becomes mired in clichés when the movie turns to its capital-L subjects, Love and Loss. And — no surprise here — he goes on two or three tear-jerks too long and passes up an opportunity for a nice, understated ending in favor of a gaudy, obvious one. Restraint, though, is hardly what fans of the Madea franchise are after."
— Neil Genzlinger, New York Times
"...Perry's latest emotional roller coaster starts with considerable promise and a high-wattage cast, including Taraji P. Henson and singers Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige, before giving way to melodramatic predictability."
— Peter DeBruge, Variety
"Alternately stupefying and entertaining...."
— Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter