Right of the bat let me tell you that I didn’t care for this movie too much, and in actuality found watching it a bit tortuous as little bits of my soul were eaten away with each passing moment of its running time, but I also realize that for the most part this movie wasn’t made for me. It was made for my wife. My wife will watch just about anything with Black people featured in it as she has proven this by watching every single episode of ‘Girlfriends’ at least five times. I know for a fact when a repeat of ‘Girlfriends’ comes on, since it airs at least eight times a day on various channels, that she’s already seen this particular episode but she’s gonna watch it anyway. Or that show ‘Half and Half’ that she insist on watching, but quite honestly, I watch that one with her but only because of my secret unrequited romance with the bountiful Rachel True. So understanding that this movie was custom designed to be just the kind of movie she will watch with glazed over eyes, she hated it to.

A sequel to the far superior ‘Two can Play That Game’, which actually scares me since numbers are like infinite and we conceivably have a movie titled ‘8,642 can play that game’, we meet back up with Shante (the bountiful Vivica Fox) who has booted Morris Chestnut’s character from the last movie to the curb, moved to the ATL and has become a relationship expert of sorts teaching women how turn their men into complete and total bitches. I paraphrase there. As a case study, Shante presents to us the couple Byron (Jason Winston George) and Tiffany (the bountiful Jazsmin Lewis) who have run into a little trouble. Byron has just won ‘The Apprentice’ type game show and will be starting a brand new job working under his new boss Carla (the bountiful Kellita Smith), but at his celebration party Carla makes a bold move on Byron in the men’s bathroom just as Tiffany walks in which send the poor girl completely ape shit.

Well Tiffany’s good friend Linda (the bountiful Terri Vaughn) tells her about how she got her man in line through Shante’s service and shunts her buddy Shante’s way so she enact her brainwashing techniques on her man, and ultimately trick him into marrying her. Byron’s defense team consist of his best friend Gizzard (Tony Rock) who is on board to give his buddy terrible advice to counter Shante’s wickedness and provide comic relief. Shante’s a clever one though and she even has a plan to neutralize Gizzard by paying a woman named Candy (the bountiful Melyssa Ford) to blow Gizzard’s mind and keep him out of the way. I believe this would make Candy a prostitute and thus make Shante a pimp of sorts but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do when you need to bitchify your man. No, bitchify isn’t a real word. Eventually all this game playing, which gets quite intricate as the movie goes on, overwhelms our handsome young couple who just decide to call it off until one of them, and I’ll leave you to guess which one it is, decides they were all wrong and it’s time to submit, admit the errors of your ways, beg forgiveness and sign you life away. Outstanding.

If you noticed the excessive use of the word ‘bountiful’ in the article it’s only because for the love of GOD there were some fine women in this awful movie. I’m talking women who make a pair of jeans and a halter top beg for mercy. I might not have liked the movie too much but I still would have given a left pinky just be on wardrobe during the filming of this thing. Anyway, so here’s the problem. You catch your man in a compromising position, he apologizes over and over and over again and assures you that nothing happened, and he’s actually telling the truth. He continues to apologize and buy you stuff but instead of either accepting the apology or cutting him loose you put him through a torture chamber of tests, mainly because your girlfriend is dating some guy who cleans the dirt between her toes and you want that guy too. As opposed to the guy I’m guessing you fell in love with in the first place. Worse yet, as the man in question, you actually put up with this endless stream bullshit instead of giving girlfriend her walking papers, no matter how good she might look in a pair of jeans. This is Atlanta. I’m thinking a dude that looks like Jason Winston George isn’t going to have that hard of a time finding a suitable replacement. I’m just thinking. And this is the problem as the movie asks you to believe in a series of events that I’m thinking couldn’t possibly happen on the planet Earth. The acting is fine, some dude calling himself Mody Mod directs competently, the women are hot, Tony Rock and Rashan Ali, who played another one Tiffany’s friends, were funny, and my wife tells me that Jason Winston George is handsome, but the narrative that surrounds these decent elements completely kill this movie to death.

Note that is my wife talking, not me… with the notable exception of the observations of the bountifulness of the female cast members and the use of the word bitchify. This is a woman whose seen ‘Love and Basketball’ eighteen times and counting, and she didn’t like this. That’s saying something.