I received a few emails over the last week from readers asking me for a review of Jumping The Broom; obviously I haven’t posted one; actually we (S&A) haven’t properly reviewed the film yet, which I suppose some find odd given that it IS essentially THE black film of 2011, right? I guess. We’ve certainly written about it quite a bit on this site (both the old and new versions of S&A), as the marketing campaign, which I talked about in a previous post, has been something of a blitzkrieg!
And as Sergio’s box office post showed yesterday, the film took in a decent $13.7 million, on a budget of about $6 million (though I’m not sure if that figure includes marketing costs).
The critics are mixed; according to RottenTomatoes.com, “Fresh” and “Rotten” reviews are split almost down the middle, so it isn’t overwhelmingly praised nor panned. Although, maybe showing, once again, the disconnect between critics and audiences, R.T. gives the audience average rating, thus far, at about 76%. So, almost 8 out of 10 of you liked it!
I haven’t reviewed it yet because, well, I didn’t like it! Sorry… But maybe that shouldn’t be much of a surprise, right? đ
I figured I could have written some scathing critique of it, and posted it here, but decided not to; it didn’t seem necessary. So I passed. Also, Sergio saw it before I did, saying that he enjoyed it, calling “charming;” so, I figured he’d eventually write something up about it.
But really for me… in short… the movie definitely is well-intended, for sure! But it’s not very-well written; the two leads were poorly cast (although Paula Patton has more screen presence than Laz Alonzo’s attempt at being a leading man; the sequences between Gary Dourdan and Meagan Good were actually more appealing to me, and they were secondary characters); Paula Patton seems to be channeling Jennifer Garner in 13 Going On 30 (oddly enough, I think they actually kind of look alike); it’s cliche-filled; Angela Bassett is pretty much playing the same woman she’s played in almost every other film she’s been in, as does Loretta Devine (neither is given much to work with here however); there were a few too many subplots that I felt were unnecessary and only distracted from the core narrative which was thinly written, and really needed some meat; its “through faith in God everything will work out just fine in the end” overtones felt trite, and simplified the work; it’s wrapped up far too quickly and neatly to be at all believable, even in Hollywood’s suspension of disbelief world; there are some bright spots scattered about, but just not enough for me to say that I recommend the movie. It’s really just another so-so romcom, that’s no better, nor worse than any of those we’ve seen with Kate Hudson or Jennifer Aniston starring.
So… my quickie thoughts on the movie… there ya have it.
I didn’t hate it as much as she did, but Gina MCcauley at What About Our Daughters? absolutely loathed it, and posted a thorough, humorous response to it, which you can read HERE.
However, S&A’s fave critic Armond White gave the film a thumbs up, mostly praising it for its “class consciousness.” You can read Armond’s review HERE.
But, now that the film is available widely, I know a lot of you have seen it, so what did YOU think of it? Chime in below…