"Think Like A Man Too" (2014)

Directed by Tim Story
Gabrielle Union, Regina Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Meagan Good, Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy,
Romany Malco, Jerry Ferrara, Terrance J, Gary Owen, Lala

There's a cottage industry in populist African American films these days, and I am happy to see it. Still, too many of the current spate are lightweight entertainments, some with the thinnest of plots or the most old-fashioned of sermons as themes. As showcases for African American talent, they can be heart-warming, affirming, side-splitting affairs. The current trend is to display a glossy world of middle- and upper-class mobility where most of the characters are employed, educated, well groomed and culturally aware. Gone are the once-stock black characters of gangsters, maids, victims and ho's, now replaced by morally conflicted players, workaholic entrepreneurs, newly minted minor celebrities, class clowns and insecure home wreckers. They need love and/or redemption -- as we all do.

In the case of this toothless second installment in the franchise -- born of a popular book by Steve Harvey -- the thin plot, the familiar characters, and the high gloss are all firmly in place. But I love seeing my girls Taraji P. Henson and Gabrielle Union do their thing, plus a chance to feast my eyes on Romany Malco (doesn't that sound like a Harry Potter villain?) and Michael Ealy is always welcome.

While 2012's original Think Like A Man focused on the use of a popular advice book to complicate the lives of four couples on their path to love, Think Like A Man Too has far less to say on how to scale hurdles once inside love's gates. We get tepid lessons on compromise, overcoming the past, and standing up to one's meddling in-laws. But most of the flick is focused on a bachelor/bachelorette party competition weekend in Vegas, with the wedding tacked on as an afterthought. Any discussion of what it actually means to be married is not explored. Viewers won't notice because of the bells and whistles of this fast-cut exercise; Think ... Too is a sparkly catalog of all that modern-day Las Vegas has to offer. What else are we to make of a film where supposedly strong, self-actualized women sing along to the ultimate '90s misogyny anthem "Poison" with hop-headed gusto? It's all good clean, dirty fun.

Beyond that, the flick is a singular vehicle for the hyperkinetic motor-mouthed antics of Kevin Hart. For most viewers, that is just fine. People love this pint-sized dynamo. No doubt: Hart is a funny, funny man. A lot of his comedy is built on being the loudest, most persistently clueless guy in the room. He carries Think ... Too on his back the way Atlas is shouldering the world in the realm of myth right now. His portrayal of best man Cedric had me laughing out loud. Yet, there were also points where I was compelled to shut my eyes just to grab a time-out from his double-barreled sensory assault. Not only does Hart talk fast, he moves so rapidly that at times he seems a blur on the screen.

I know many will disagree with me, but Kevin Hart -- who also narrates -- is Just Too Much here. Only the charismatic Malco (and occasionally salt-of-the-earth Regina Hall) has enough presence to bear up against Hart's cinematic onslaught. Everyone else in the cast is wiped off the screen. Ealy, perhaps still stinging from Hart's outperforming him in the recent About Last Night, seems positively comatose by comparison, and the cheery Mama's Boy Terrance J. doesn't fare much better. Gabrielle has a few silly moments with Jerry Ferrara, and the divine Jenifer Lewis gets in a few slow-burn zingers until her character is gentled down by the basso smoove-ness of Dennis Haysbert.

But the rest of the cast is just there to pick up a quick paycheck on a fun shoot in Sin City. And since they let all of us viewers in on the good times, who's complaining? Not me.