Hot Take: It’s a predictable drama/romantic comedy that feels more suitable for a TV movie if it weren’t for some hot, provocative sex scenes thrown in the mix. It’s a Lifetime movie, if Lifetime’s target audience were African American thirtysomethings.

When you refer to a film as competent, is that a good thing? It feels like it should be complimentary but typically, if the best thing you can say about a film is that it’s competent, we’re probably not talking about anything great. Yet the perfect word to describe The Perfect Match is competent. There’s not a lot of emotion and it’s hard to get too blown away by the mostly predictable plot twists (or lack thereof) but it’s not a bad movie to watch.

The Perfect Match features an ensemble cast centered around Charlie (Terrence J.) and his two best friends – Rick and Victor (Donald Faison and Robert C. Riley). Charlie is a man whore, Rick is his married friend trying to have a baby and Victor is his engaged friend trying to give the love of his life the wedding of his dreams. They make a bet that if Charlie stays with one woman for the month leading up to the wedding, he’ll get hooked. Charlie meets the mysterious Eva (Cassie). Insert standard rom com happenings. Add sage advice from a supporting character (this time it is Charlie’s sister played by Paula Patton) and a B-list cameo (welcome French Montana) and you have The Perfect Match.

“Spoiler Free” Pros

  • French Montana
    Okay, so the French Montana cameo is pretty humorous. Not sure why they cut down the screen time of French’s monkey/manager Julius though. See, now you’re thinking this isn’t as standard as made out to be. Well, it is but that might be because of the limited screen time the monkey gets.
  • Cassie
    As Charlie’s love interest Eva, Cassie sizzles every time she is on the screen.

“Spoiler Free” Cons

  • Predictable
    Although there is one twist that might catch you off-guard, there’s nothing groundbreaking in this standard, competent drama/rom com.
  • Show Me the Funny
    There is a humorous element to the film and it definitely has the potential to be funnier. However, some of the supporting cast is underutilized and the film has the fatal flaw of doing too much. If there was a focus on the humor, it might have been better but the funny scenes feel like an afterthought even though they do make you laugh.
  • The Look of a B-Movie
    While the film will easily cover it’s modest $5 million budget, it sacrificed a lot in the shooting. There was a lot of money thrown into making Charlie’s posh bachelor pad lavish so I guess there wasn’t much left over for film or sound quality.