WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Passed up for a well-deserved promotion, sports agent Ali Davis wonders what else she needs to do to succeed in a man’s world. Hoping to find answers from a psychic, Ali drinks a weird concoction that suddenly allows her to hear what men are thinking. Using her newfound ability, Ali starts to turn the tables on her obnoxious male colleagues while racing to sign the next basketball superstar.
MOVIESinMO Review
She was boring in Proud Mary. Then she was over-the-top crazy in Acrimony. Now, Taraji P. Henson is reading men’s minds and it’s the best things she’s done in a long time. Ms. Henson is not an actress that appeals to the average White audience, therefore, her movies are normally rated very low on most websites. But this is not most websites and we are not White. Has she made some bad movies? Of course, but this ain’t one of them. What Men Want is a funny, raunchy, Black female version of Mel Gibson’s movie, What Women Want AND it’s better. I purposely posted this review a few days late so I could read what the other (White) critics had to say and post their ratings.
IMDB – 5.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes – 42% Metacritic – 49%
Hollywood is starting to producing more and more remakes with an African American lead WITH a well-written dialog that’s relatable to today’s issues. What Men Want is one of those types of movies. An excellent film with a predominantly Black cast and Taraji P. Henson is perfect in it. This movie starts funny within the first ten minutes and stays there with the pace of a steroid-induced action movie. Along the way, it develops heart and meaning underneath the stereotype and predictable foul-mouthed script. Ali Davis (Henson) is a hard-working, multi-tasking sports agent with aspirations of partner in her sights. Her personal life suffers from being too busy to truly connect with people, and she is out of touch with most people around her when it comes to their ideas and/or emotions. You want to hate her for being so out of touch until you see where Ali works and what she has to deal with daily. She’s the only woman at the table in a board room of about fifty locker-room talking men. It’s a bit over the top, but the writer’s really want to make sure you understand how uneven it is in the workplace. You know from the trailer, she didn’t make partner. That fuels her to work harder at her job while her personal life still struggles. Ali’s friends try and help, which leads to her ability to read the minds of men. The next ninety minutes of What Men Want explores what men want, need, and how they actually feel about whatever. During this time, the film turns into a romantic comedy helping Ali love life and all-around people skills. It gets a bit silly for a rom-com, but this movie is a comedy first, making sure you don’t forget it. The film’s co-stars are good but could be better, although this is Henson’s film, and she carries it almost by herself, without any real issues. Overall, a few things could have been done differently, and they could have toned down the language to appeal to a broader audience, but I’m sure the target audience, being Black women, wouldn’t change a thing.
OUR RATING – A CONTRADICTING 7.5
MEDIA
- Genre – Comedy
- Street date
- Digital – April 23rd 2019
- DVD/Blu-Ray – May 7th 2019
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 2.40:1
- Sound – English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles – English SDH, Spanish, French
Extras
- Feature film in high definition
- Commentary with director Adam Shankman
- Deleted & Extended Scenes with introduction by director Adam Shankman
- Gag Reel with introduction by director Adam Shankman
- The Dream Team – Meet the wildly funny cast and crew as they take you behind-the-scenes of their comedic hijinks.
- Flipping the Narrative – Discover how What Men Want flips the script on what women must do to succeed in a man’s world.
- What DO Men Want? – Laugh along with the cast and crew as they get one step closer to understanding what’s on men’s minds.
- Poker Night – Pull up a chair for one of the most epic poker nights imaginable.
- Ali + Athletes – Ali Davis (Taraji P. Henson) pulls out all the stops for her clients. Check out some hilarious cameos from superstar athletes.
- Sister Spills the Tea infomercial – You have questions, Sister has the answers! Watch music icon Erykah Badu play the hysterically eccentric psychic as she spills the tea on her mystical powers