Deliver Us from Eva (2003)

I'll tell you why so serious

A Masterpiece!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

There's a lot to enjoy here, but ultimately one serious error prevents me from giving a rating of "7".Although he's not a particularly great actor, it's hard not to enjoy LL Cool J, who here plays 'Ray', a blue collar worker who thinks of himself as a playa, but then actually falls in love.I have long thought that not only is Gabrielle Union a really good actress, but also one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. Her acting is fine, although there are issues with character continuity...but that's the fault of the writers and director.Duane Martin is very good as the boyfriend of one of Union's sisters. I enjoyed him here; not sure why he has not been more successful.The ladies who play the sisters of Union did not particularly impress me, although they did their jobs. Essence Atkins, Robinne Lee, and Meagan Good. Mel Jackson is good as one of the husbands, while Dartanyan Edmonds had a rather short career which pretty much ended after this film...and rightfully so. Royale Watkins is interesting as a gay hair dresser. The problems here come with the script. Overall, its' a good premise -- Union is the pitchy oldest sister who is somewhat controlling of her sisters' lives...and of their husbands and boyfriends. And so, the husbands/boyfriend plot to get Union out of their hair by hiring the suave LL to romance her off her feet and out of their lives. Okay, that's good. One problem is that pitchy people don't suddenly become nice just because they're in love. So there's a continuity problem with Union's character. But the big letdown for me was the scene where the husbands/bf kidnap LL and stage a fake funeral. Before that the film had a problem deciding whether or not it was really a comedy, but then this just got ridiculous. So while I liked the film, I also thought it had some major problems.

A sassy, sharp-tongued, independent business woman being tamed by a bad-boyish womanizer is nothing new to the world of romantic comedies. Deliver Us From Eva (2003) not only clearly falls in this category of movies but is also a new version of Shakespeare's play The Taming of a Shrew. As a loose adaption of this play, one is introduced to the life of the popular and beautiful Dandridge sisters who have a really close relationship since their parents died. The main character Eva, played by Gabrielle Union, constantly gets into her sisters' relationships through criticizing her in-laws and indirectly manipulating their relationships. Because of that, they are hiring the local womanizer, Ray, to seduce her "sister in law from hell" to stop her from interfering their lives. As Ray, portrayed by rapper LL Cool J, first refuses to get into this business, changes his mind after seeing Eva doing her job as an inspector for the Los Angeles Health Department. Because he sees her wittily criticizing the standards of a restaurant, he takes the challenge to tame the bossiness of Eva. Accepting the $5000 he gets offered, he starts wooing Eva and starts to develop real feelings for her. Throughout the story their relationship intensifies and Eva gets literally "tamed". As the men discover that Eva declines a job offer in another town because of Ray, the story starts getting really out of hand and illogical. Instead of telling the truth, they are coming up with a whole other idea that just seems unrealistic. But the film not only has negative aspects, as it starts off with a scene from the end and an introducing narration of Ray himself. This flash-forward sequence gives an interesting kind of twist as you want to know what happened to lead our characters to this situation. Sadly, the interesting start of the film gets lost and the ending of the film is pretty obvious – happy ending, what a surprise. One of the more interesting things is the construction of the two main characters. On the one hand, Union convincingly plays the part of the first cold and emotionally distant woman that then lets down her emotional guard. On the other hand, LL Cool J handles his easy going flirty role as the womanizer pretty well. But still their chemistry is mostly destroyed through the flat secondary characters. As we have the husbands who only want to realize their dreams without listening to their wives' wishes, the constantly thirsty hairdresser with her leather wearing best friend and an asshole ex-boyfriend. In addition, during opening credits we experience a little musical number of "You're All I Need to Get By" which itself is entertaining but is rather confusing for the introduction to the story – seriously, what is the intention of this musical number at the beginning? As it is kind of charming that the cast itself sings it, one could expect some kind of Kiss Me Kate atmosphere, another Taming of a Shrew adaption. The rest of the film soundtrack consists mostly of sensual R 'n' B tracks and Hip Hop music to set the urban mood. Often used in the film are short sequences of dramatic music to stress certain situation, e.g.: As we are first introduced to Eva, dramatic orchestra music is played that would make Darth Vader himself jealous. All in all, the film is not able to transfer convincingly authentic feelings, real romance or an interesting plot line. Obviously, the main problem is the bad written screenplay, as it seems to be that the writers had no real thoughtful ideas for the ending. It only makes one wish to get delivered from this film.

This film was disgusting, in the most amazing of ways. It sucked more than a 5 dollar hooker, and was as entertaining as Carson Daly... yeah, that bad. I couldn't believe that my friend lent me this. I almost stopped being her friend. I saw this free and still feel I was robbed. I would only recommend this to my arch nemesis, Ben Affleck. I feel the name couldn't have been less cheesy and Gabrielle Union is a TERRIBLE, AWFUL, PITIFUL, but f*ckable actress. Unless if you're a nimph who likes masturbating to Ms. Union, I wouldn't watch it, and even then, there's no nudity scenes, sorry for the disappointment. If your local library is open, take your time to read a book and don't see this cheap movie. I feel bad for LL Cool J.

I love this movie. It has a great cast and it is absolutely hilirious. Sure it's no "Soul Food" or "Waiting To Exhale" but its still a very good movie. This is definiatly Gabrielle Unions best role yet. She should have more starring roles, other than her usual supporting roles. I would have cast some one other than LL Cool J to play the role of Ray {no offense he did a great job} I just would have cast some one like Morris Chesnut in that role. The supporting cast was really good. Very good acting by Duane Martin. I really cannot think of one negative thing about this film. It really is a good movie.Grade- A+