NORMAN — I hate romantic comedies. Everything from ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ to anything with Kate Hudson in it, I have wanted to walk out of the theater halfway through. Some I have.
However, I may have found one of the few exceptions to the rule in “Think Like a Man,” which is out in theaters today. Even though it was the same formula of smart, beautiful women try to get commitment shy men to fall in line, director Tim Story found a way to make it funny and updated.
Based off comedian Steve Harvey’s best-selling book, “Think Like a Man, Act Like a Woman,” the movie follows four friends who are comfortable with the lives they are leading and are not looking to settle down. But after the women in their lives start taking dating advice from Harvey’s book, they find themselves slowly being changed from playboys to serious boyfriends.
When the men find out where the women are getting help from, they decide to turn the tables on them and teach the women a lesson of their own.
The story directs an ensemble cast of diverse and talented actors in the PG-13 flick. They include Taraji P. Henson (“Baby Boy”), Michael Ealy (“Barbershop, Takers”), Meagan Good (”Jumping The Broom”), Terrence J (“106 & Park”), Romany Malco (“The 40 Year Old Virgin”), Regina Hall (“Scary Movie”), Gabrielle Union (“Bad Boys II”) and Jerry Ferrara (“Entourage”).
Despite a filmography that includes a variety of cameo appearances, Hart had yet to carry a movie as the headliner. Even though he was a scene stealer in such projects as “40 Year old Virgin”, “Death at a Funeral” and “Little Fockers,” he wasn’t a main character in a main stream movie.
But In “Think Like a Man,” Hart changed all of that. He stole the entire film with his comedy stylings and outrageous behavior. I left the theater with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. He plays Cedric, who is recently divorced and heading back onto the dating scene without a clue on how to survive. Besides making daily trips to the strip clubs, he dispenses advice to his friends that some times get them in trouble.
Harvey also appears in the film as a sort of narrator, who gives advice the women in the film and to the women watching it in the audience. That includes such pearls of wisdom like “Men are like dogs. You pet us, we will be loyal forever.”
Harvey dispenses advice to each of the women who are having trouble taming their men. And the friends do everything possible to keep their single lives just the way they are.
One of the shorelines involves ‘The 90 Day Rule’ in which Harvey’s book encourages women to wait 90 days before they have sex with a potential boyfriend. The fun ensues as Good and Falco attempt to break the other’s will and see who gives in first to the other.
While the movie is filled with hilarious moments, it also teaches a lesson about relationships and the different ways men and women approach them. It’s not a new story, but told with a cast that brings out the funny side of men and women just trying to figure out how to live with one another.
Even though the film does throw men under the bus in making us look like all we want is one thing from women, both males and females will each find the film hilarious and at times insightful.
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