Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

OK, here's one big spoiler about the movie (and maybe life, in general) ALL skinny women are "bitches" who will try to steal your man, and the best way a large woman has to cope with it is to hate the living hell out of those women. Because they're skinny. And they surely starve themselves, because there's NO SUCH THING as trying to be healthy and really love your body by feeding it properly and not sitting on your butt all day. This is just another movie that deals with overweight the only way possible: by hating people who don't suffer from it. Sorry, by hating women, because, let's face it, the male character is hot. Really hot. It's just another horrible example about how large woman HAVE TO HATE skinny women instead of doing something positive for themselves. I wouldn't let a young girl watch this movie, honestly.

According to the IMDb "Phat Girlz" was directed by an adult human. Okay, let's go with that.Imagine hitting your child over the head with a cinder block and handing them the digital camera. This is the movie they'd make if they survived the cerebral hemorrhaging. Ostensibly "Phat Girlz" was made to celebrate Big Beautiful Black Women, but this movie does them no justice. It's a one-dimensional fantasy without a single link to reality... it's part cartoon, part comedy sketch, part morality play. It's a naive, one-note, knee-jerk reaction to a problem that is never clearly established or resolved. And it's bad.Mo'Nique is the only good thing here, a natural, likable actress with enough personality to keep this from being an utter humiliation. Sadly, this is filmmaking at its most inept and incompetent. The movie is shot on shabby digital video with sloppy cuts and lazy dissolves, and the basic rules of direction are ignored: actors don't speak into the camera or look at their co-stars- there is barely any interaction between the actors at all. Most of Mo'Nique's "punchlines" aren't spoken- they occur in her head as voice-overs. For some reason whenever she is sexually aroused we hear the sound effects of jungle drums and screeching monkeys. Interesting choice.The plot is heinous: three women go on vacation, the two fat women are worshipped as goddesses while the skinny one is taunted and scorned. Perhaps it's because they're vacationing on a magical island populated by Nigerian doctors who love fat black women. If this is the case why did the docs leave Nigeria in the first place? The skinny gal is assumed to be sick/dying because she weighs less than 300 pounds. Switcheroo most likely. The hunky Nigerian M.D.'s don't just appreciate Mo'Nique's ample body- they can talk of nothing else! Their idea of foreplay is over-buttering a biscuit and jamming it down her throat. This guarantees the lard will keep happening. If you consider stretch marks and fat rolls a turn-on you will love this picture.Mo'Nique eats and dates until she catches her boyfriend eating dinner with a woman who is unfat and therefore evil. She suspects her man of cheating but he assures her he would never even consider intercourse with a woman weighing less than a quarter-ton. Reassured, Mo'Nique destroys the mannequin in her hotel room and tosses her television box out the window. Perhaps this is symbolic of something. When she re-gains consciousness she is back at work where her boss Eric Roberts- in a role that counts towards his Community Service- decides to make her rich and famous for no reason whatsoever. Her clothing line- Thick Madame- sweeps the galaxy and after becoming a multi-jillionaire she goes back to Nigeria to see if her magical fat-loving gorgeous doctor boyfriend is still available.He is.The end credits come on after that, but the film was so powerful I had lost the ability to read them. Maybe it's for the best that the names of the perpetrators aren't dragged through the mud. If you're thinking of seeing "Phat Girlz," don't.GRADE: D-

The movie overall was great! It shows how over weight people feel about being overweight in a society that has Brittany Spear's and Paris Hilton's figures being role models for kids and adults alike in the world and that being "Skinny" is in and that you should achieve it at all costs! It also shows how overweight people are treated in todays' society. Just like what Pretty Woman showed, if you wander in from off the street dressed in simple jeans, flip-flops and a jacket into a 'real classy clothing department store' (or for young adults and teenagers, walk into the store looking goth-like or punk-rock - Amber Crombie and Fitch, Gap, Old Navy, etc.) - you will definitely get treated differently or even turned away.And no, it's showing that even hot sexy men - regardless of race or nationality find women with a little bit more meat on them to be attractive. And Monique's character just happened to travel there for vacation, where she met a man who liked her for her.And doctors never know what they are saying. They will tell you what they are paid to tell you. Basically so you can buy whatever they recommend and that so they will look good. Most of them want more money out of you. We are all going to die someday. Why worry about how we are going to die - when supposedly there are all these thing out there that are supposed to treat this and that. If only one product could really "cure" or "treat" what someone might have - there would only be one product and not all these brand name items.Now, while there is a cut off to when being fat could be hazardous to your health, such as; if you need help to go to the bathroom and can't wipe your own but - then you are too overweight or you need help moving from one place to the next and can't walk without someone/something helping/pushing/driving you.All of you who have commented on this movie need to grow up! It was good movie, with great characters - and good acting. It was not meant to be funny, if it was meant to be funny - it would have been labeled as a 'comedy'.

I thought the movie was delightful and refreshing. Big girls need love too and for a change the big girls get the man and we probably won't see that again for a very long time. For the writer/director's first time out I think she did a great job! This was a love story and a good one at that. I think it is noble of the movie maker to have the storyline surround 2 big girls, we live in a society where skinny is in and big is, well it isn't. I also like the fact that Monique's character was a fashion designer for full figured women and just not women in general, that was great! Overall, I would say that this movie was very entertaining and I wish I would've seen it when it hit the big screen.