TYLER PERRY'S THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT - Movie Review

Those things don't go away. Those flaws that we're, at least what we see. But I think if, I don't know, you might not change your mind, but for me watching the movie, they do diminish a lot as they go along. Is it because the action kicks in? Well, there's a couple of things that happen. Oh, it's always a good day. We talk about T-Peasy, a T-Peasy motion picture. That'd be for Tyler Perry. For those who haven't been, when it's too long right here, people are like, oh, I'm ready, I'm ready. Tyler Perry's done a lot of things, a lot of things, a lot of things. He's done a lot of things, some people would say kind of wrong. It all depends on taste. Tell you what, it's always interesting when Tyler Perry decides to take on a genre. He's done comedies. Recently, he's expanded. He's done dramas. He's done erotic thrillers. He's done horror. Martin's like, all his movies are horror. They're all comedies too, even the dramas, especially the dramas. Oh, this guy, his mashups are incredible. This guy could put 10 different genres in one movie. You're going to laugh it all off. In one scene. I still think about that lady laughing. She was like, remember in Mia Culpa, she's having that revelation. She's walking away. Now, he's doing a World War II, a period piece, a World War II film, man. This time, he's going to kill Hitler with black foolishness. Maybe that's what would have gotten him. If only Tyler Perry was around at the time, he could have been our Captain America. I know, he could have ended the war in two years. The movie that we're talking about right now is the 6888. People are like, oh man, I can't wait to see what he does with wacky World War II over here. This is actually based on a true story. It's based on an article, I believe, an article called World War II. It's from World War II History Magazine. It's called Fighting Two Front Wars by Kevin M. Heimel. Really, what this is about, though, is about this battalion of all black female soldiers, as you can see in this scene right here. Some very light-skinned ones. No, here they are right here, a battalion of all female black soldiers. Everybody was trying to figure out, okay, what do we do with these black people here? What do we do with these? I don't know. They're black. They're women. I mean, we got them. We got to do something with them. They finally figured out. They thought that they were going to put them in some place where they were just going to give them busy work to do, work that they were going to actually fail at. That was sorting out lost mail and trying to get it to the people, the loved ones, that never received them because if they can do that, then it's going to boost morale, which morale was getting very low because no one was hearing from families. Letters weren't getting in there and they weren't getting out. They brought these women in. It turns out they were able, and I have the numbers right here. They were able to do, what was it? 17 million. They were able to sort out 17 million pieces of mail and they did it in 90 days. True story right there. What Tyler Perry does with the rest of it, that's up for you to decide how you feel about it. But this is based on that true story right there. A lot of people, all joking aside, a lot of people say, you know what? I ain't going to mess with him right here. My man is taking a true story, part of history that a lot of us haven't heard about, period, peace, and let's quit fooling around now. My man, I think he's serious. Let's go ahead and give this one a chance right here. How does he do? The last serious movie that he did, nobody saw. That one, they said, was great. How about this one right here? We're going to tell you exactly how this is, at least I am and this man right here. I don't think you saw it. You didn't get to see it, did you? I didn't get to see all of it. Didn't get to see all of it. All right, well, we'll tell you. We'll fill in the blanks for you. Yeah, I figured you could. I was going to try to finish it today, but I was just not feeling good. I hear you. Let's go ahead and take a look at this trailer for the 6888, now on Netflix. And as I said, we're no strangers to Tyler Perry over here. No, not at all. We're usually laughing. Are we laughing at this serious piece of history right here? What did Tyler Perry do with it? Let's take a look and we'll be back with our review. People tried the Women's Army Corps. You mean the White Women's Army Corps. Exactly. 6888 Battalion. This is, some of y'all are going to be disappointed. Because this is not dramatic in that black foolish sense. No. For all y'all expecting this to be Temptation. All y'all expecting this to be Mia Culp. All y'all expecting this to be The Voice in the Black. For all y'all expecting, for y'all who thought that this was Madea. Or was expecting her to show up. You're going to be disappointed. It ain't one of those movies that we can sit back and just tear apart and laugh at and have fun with. I mean, believe me, I wanted to. I wanted to. And I couldn't. I would say there's glimmers of stuff that you expect from the movie. But it doesn't go that extra nine miles. Yeah, it ain't crazy. No. It don't turn to science fiction. It doesn't get crazy where parts of it turn into hell. There's no dramatic twist at the end. No, no. Dramatic or stupid. Or melodramatic twist at the end. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. It is very, very, very, very mellow dramatic. In fact, ain't nothing mellow about this. Yeah, when it's not being painfully predictable. Yeah, you know. And it's just like it came out of a kit. Yeah, music is always swelling in this. Like, we don't know how to emotionally react to it. You know, they're like, damn, man, just, you know, I know how to feel here. I don't need the music telling me what's going on. This lady's crying, but I don't know how to feel. You know, it feels too manipulative. The dialogue is corny, very theatrical. Some of this feels like an amateur stage play. And it's very, I'll show you right here. It is very predictable. Let me just give you a little snippet. I mean, it's very corny. I promise that you will wait for me to return. Wow, I wonder if he's going to make it. That's the scene with one of the girls. We start out with her before we start getting the other characters. Because, you know, one of the things that that that kicks us off is her relationship with this guy, him going off to the war. And, you know, and her signing up because, you know, well, let's just say that they don't ever get married. Don't you sit up and say, man, spoiler, y'all know that boy gonna die. Y'all know that boy gonna die. Listen, if you watch a movie about the war and somebody has a girl back home, they ain't coming back. Yeah, she she enlists because she actually does get a letter. It is the worst letter you can get because it says he did. So she that's what kind of kicks the movie off with her following that character to World War Two. And then we meet all the other people there. You know, the thing is, this feels like a TV movie in a lot of parts. Production, when it doesn't feel like a play. Yeah, you know, there's a, you know, except for some some moments of, you know, enhanced CG, like you see right here, planes going by and crash, you know, except for moments like that. The cinematography feels very TV quality. And there are moments where you could tell this is Perrytown. Like, expect us to think this is the real White House, right? I mean, it's impressive that he able that he was able to replicate the White House. But that ain't that we can tell. Is that not a model? It might as well be. It looks like that cake from Wild Wild West. I'm expecting a damn mouse to crawl out of it. Yeah, you get to me. That's that's how fake it looks. He built the White House to scale and he built interiors, but it still looks so fake that you think that foot can come down and step on this. Like it's a miniature. I don't think I know he created the White House, and I think he like the front of it, at least, is something that he built pretty big. But I mean, you can still tell you have some great actors in here, but a lot of them come off ridiculous. Laughable. Yeah. Look, Dean Norris is. Oh, my God. Dean Norris is one of the he's a great actor. He's been in the game for a long time. Everybody knows this man from Breaking Bad and what an excellent job he did as Walter White's brother-in-law. Hank. But here he sounds like a damn cartoon. General Holt here can speak to the magnitude of the issue. General. Yes, sir. Mr. President, helping our soldiers win the war is our priority. Well, when they decide to make that Fargo and Laymore live action movie. I say, I say, boy. Yeah, just put him in a chicken suit. Yeah, put a rubber glove on his head. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, sir. If they want to make a damn Colonel Sanders movie. Man, these women got more nerve than a bum, too. I'll tell you, I'll tell you, boy. Tell you about the history of fried chicken now. I don't know what you're going to do with these Negro women up in here, but I. I'm pretty sure that's a line in the movie. I feel like messing with that dog today, though. I had hope for this scene because they got Susan Sarandon. Oh, it's Elinor Roosevelt. But the makeup on her, I was like, oh, she really does look like Elinor Roosevelt. That's really how she looked. I know how she looked, but still it looked crazy. I know that's how she looked, but I'll just let you see for yourself. The male had to take a lesser rank of. She like, God damn, dial it back. Now, you know, you know, you put that on too thick. I understand that this is the only way they can communicate. That's a little too much. Outside of the battle. But the oldest hand, the most important one. Man, the old hand, see. This is so ridiculous. So are you saying to me that there is no way to get the mail? He's like, shit, who am I to go? She looks like a pigeon lady from Home Alone 2. You're like, I heard they were still shooting Walking Dead on the lot. But God damn, I don't know they let him in this movie. But I mean, that scene has, I guess, the collection of your veteran actors. And it's pretty bad. But it's far from the worst. Yeah, it's bad. I mean, I would say the makeup wouldn't bother me, but even she's not very good. Yeah, yeah. Like nobody's bringing it. And the staging is all so stiff and amateur. Let me tell you, I got you on something else. Now, to his credit, anyway, ain't not not not a classic Tyler Perry wig in here. Like that makeup actually looks pretty good. It's just, man, I don't know. She turns into a damn cartoon after a while. Them buck teeth sticking out and everything. However, if you want to talk about production as far as editing scenes or even writing scenes. So there's a particular scene right here, and Tyler Perry does not know how to do. It's not for everything. I'm not going to pick on the whole movie. But man, there's a couple of painful points. It was like, you do not know how to write the end of a scene. You just rush through this. I want y'all to. Man, you can feel almost the actors feeling awkward the way this scene ends. To get this mail delivered. OK. I'm like, all right, somebody going to say cut. Is it my line? They feel awkward as hell. Tyler. Oh, oh, yeah. Cut, cut, cut. Sorry. I was I was just so into it on his phone. Oh, yeah. Cut, cut. I'll just write another script. Speaking of writing those scripts, and it's because the dialogue is sloppy in this. It's all over the place and basic, super surface level. And it's not engaging for the audience. Well, at least I didn't find basic. No, it's just bad. Yeah. Honestly, I had trouble even watching so much of it because with the lead actress. Kerry Washington? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Young girl. We start with the one who had the boyfriend. Like when she's sitting around with her mom and grandma, the Jasmine guy. And that scene where they're talking, I was like, I had looked down and I kind of spaced out and my brain was going like, this is some of the worst acting and dialogue. What the hell am I watching? Oh, it's this. And the way it's framed. It was like one of his plays. And I just like what he wrote for them to say. I was like, this isn't simply basic. This is really, really bad. And I thought it's a good thing in this trailer. They show Kerry Washington the whole time because that girl and all the rest of her crew. I was like, man, none of y'all are good. Yeah, this is like acting school. Well, they all overact. A lot of it is over dramatic black theater. Oh, yeah. Some of his old dramatic black theater, like the scene with Jasmine guy and everything. I can't show you everything, but you should see that kitchen scene. Girl, who that boy out there you talking to? One of my favorite lines. That boy Jewish. Girl, you need to go find yourself a good boy and concentrate on getting to school or whatever. That kind of thing. I was like, oh, shit. Yeah. This might be a weird question for me to ask. But because you saw the whole thing, how did you feel about the use of the N word in this movie? Like, I got that it was trying to be accurate, but it felt like it was a little bit heavy handed with it. Listen, there's a lot of things very, very heavy handed besides what he dropped that way, at least with me. Because I want to listen. These things we're talking about, these critiques, things that we consider to be not very good. Those elements never really go away because you didn't see the rest of it. Yeah, that was the point where I was like, I can't do this. I'm having I was having secondhand embarrassment. Yeah, well, they never really go away, especially when they get into the army tropes, you know, with mainly the new recruits going in and everybody has the clashing personalities until they become a team and become buddies. Yeah, I saw a lot of that. Yeah, it's cool to see it with a women dynamic. But anyway, those things don't go away. Those flaws that we're at least what we see. But I think if I don't know, you might not change your mind. For me, watching the movie, they do diminish a lot as they go along. And because the action kicks in. Well, there's a couple of things that happen. First of all, Kerry Washington comes in and she's a little heavy handed with her character too. But Kerry Washington is actually very she's good compared to like a lot of the things that are going on in the movie. I mean, what I'm going to show you right here, it doesn't really reflect some of the other scenes that are stronger here where she has to confront people, fight for a battalion, have moments where she has to be strong. But when she's outside of that, she's being broken down and vulnerable. But I also thought as the dialogue is not very good, but at least she's a good enough actress to where she can do that dialogue with some convincing authority. What that means is when I say do it, you get it done. And if you do not know how to use a tampon, we will teach you. I will not be there that day though. Now, you know, I thought Kerry Washington, that's an introduction. It's a typical drill sergeant. You know, so she's not the dialogue is not too crazy for what you would see with something else. In fact, you see some people even, you know, poured on a lot heavier than she is. But I think I think she's good in the movie. And when she steps in, it becomes more her film instead of some of the other bad things. That's what I was hoping for, because I I was initially thought like the girl we start with. I had that feeling of like, OK, she's in high school. I can't wait for her to grow up and become Kerry Washington. And that was like, oh, that's how it was happening. No, no, she's not going away. No, no, no, no. I mean, yeah, her character's been in her scenes. I'm not that well. I mean, the only thing that's interesting with her is that she is in love with a Jewish boy and they don't really explore that that much because, for one, he dies. And two, you know, that it was going nowhere anyway. Right, right, right, right. She feels like just kind of added on like they could have completely cut this character out of the movie, and it probably would have made for a better story because her being in the movie delays them getting to the real meat and potatoes and the point of the film, which is the male. I believe that's Ebony Obsidian that plays. Wow, Ebony Obsidian. Yes. But yeah, her whole crew, the one girl who kept going language, language. I was like, could we stop with that, please? And then you got the sassy girl. Because she's big. Girl, I'm here for the man. And that reminds me, that part made me feel like maybe at some point when he was writing this crazy script that it might have been a musical. And I know that's that's my sensibilities. But that scene, I thought I was like, she about to break out into song. It does feel like there's so many movies where that scene does lead to a song. I get how you feel that way. And there's also a like 10 minute scene where they're just dancing, like the movie stops to have these guys dance. All right, they're good dancers. Why? Well, I saw why. Again, it's a cultural thing to show the culture at the time. You know, these people were, for one, it's to show that they can have a good time, just to humanize them. Also to show like, you know, swing dancing. Yeah, we did that shit too when y'all weren't here. Yeah, y'all took that shit. When they were doing that shit back in World War II, they just didn't have a chance to put it out there. They did put it out there and then y'all just snatched that shit. That's a fair point. I still don't think that the scene was effective. Yeah, obviously, and I get it. I think the movie, I didn't love it, but I think you surely didn't like it as much as I did as it went along. Because as it goes along, the production value never really rises above like extremely high TV production or streaming TV production. You know, this is definitely one of Netflix's big epic movies. You know, this is a lower budget, and Tyler Perry likes to shoot in the lower budget. But also that made it kind of impressive when he went to Europe to actually shoot. Because now it doesn't look like Perryville. You know, it looks like an actual location. It looks like they actually shot in Europe, which they did, a place called Little Germany in New Yorkshire, England. So that raises the production value a little bit. And as the story went on, I actually watched for the story, which I thought held its own. Because, you know, you were talking about they finally got to the parts where they are talking about how they had to sort the mail, which was something that they were being set up for failure on, and they persevered. And it's a part of history I didn't know. The story's good enough to kind of carry its own. It's good enough to where it's definitely a studio script. But the adversity that the women meet, the racism being set up for failure, it's hard really not to root for them. And again, very much, as you say, it came in a kit. It's very much a studio movie. And it's OK. You know, it's all right. It doesn't make it great, but it doesn't mean that you can't get wrapped up in it. It's very predictable. You know, the only time it didn't really work for me, and I know you probably like this part, was when they ran into a major problem, something that almost seemed impossible. And they solved that shit on the spot. They were like, because all the girls came up with special skills of their own. You know, I know cities. If I read the mail, I can tell you how people talk to what region that's in. Oh, are you serious? I worked at a perfume store. If I just smell them, I can tell you where it came from, you know. And I'm good at crossword puzzles. So I could fill in the blanks with those letters, you know, words missing. It's like, OK, no, hell no. No, no. God damn it. No, no. All of a sudden, goddamn Sherlock Holmes and shit. No, no, no. All of a sudden, they're all smoking pipes and shit. No, no. Hell no. You haven't brought it up. What about the special effects in this movie? Well, again, I thought that they were really bad. And the editing really emphasizes it. And it made me think, you know what this is? This is Tyler Perry's Dunkirk, where he's like, oh, I got all these shots of these people. And sometimes it doesn't line up. You can see a wall 30 people, 30 feet behind people. And then when they cut it in a different angle, it's an ocean of people. Yeah. I mean, like I said, it's a TV movie production. Yeah, it looked cheap. But again, I wasn't expecting anything more. Maybe when I first learned about it and saw the trailer, I thought, oh, shit, Tyler Perry got a real budget right here. But knowing that he likes to work with a sensible budget, a low budget, and Netflix ain't spending no more money on big budget things, and then really look at the trailer and be like, oh, yeah, they ain't got a whole lot of money behind this. I expected what I got. I still thought there was some pretty cool shots for what he did. It's strength is that it gets better as it goes along. So it ends on a high instead of getting worse. Now, it ain't like it got incredible near the end. It's still a rental for me. But it's a positive rental. Listen, it ends on a high, and it was a very moving high for me. Like I said, the story is strong itself. And at least you had some actors who were able to carry it through. By the end of it, I was kind of engrossed in learning about what I was being shown here. So, yeah, it was a positive rental for me. You know what? I can actually agree with you that the very ending, I thought that there was something there when they were showing the historical footage and having the real people be there. It's like, wow, that's cool that you got that there because this is an incredible story. This movie about this story is not incredible. In fact, I found it disrespectful to these women and their story, which is amazing. And I have to give this a bullshit as much as I don't want to. I think that this is a total waste of time because they could have made something amazing out of this, and they don't. This movie is really boring, and there's a lot of bad acting in it. I do not recommend. All right. Well, you and I slightly disagree on that, but I respect that. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't hate it as much, but I see where you're coming from. And she found a doll at the end of the day. Oh, you mad as hell. He wants to say N-word right now. No, I'm kidding. I'm shitting my mouth. I'm kidding. Yeah, of course you don't. Come on. Yeah, they don't know that, though. Oops. And another thing. Well, you made it to the end of the video. That must mean you really like what we do. So if you do, check out these other videos just like this one. Check out our other YouTube channels and subscribe to join our wonderful Toasty community. And as always, stay Toasty.