Deliver Us from Eva
Deliver Us from Eva
R | 07 February 2003 (USA)
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Eva Dandridge is a very uptight young woman who constantly meddles in the affairs of her sisters and their husbands. Her in-laws, who are tired of Eva interfering in their lives, decide to set her up with someone so she can leave them alone. They end up paying Ray, the local "playboy," $5,000 to date her. The plan goes by smoothly, but troubles comes when Ray actually falls in love with Eva.

Reviews
Colibel

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

CommentsXp

Best movie ever!

Doomtomylo

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

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Abbigail Bush

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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JoeytheBrit

Punning titles are rarely a promising sign in the world of movies. Too often it seems that the film has been fashioned around the title, and too often the title is the best thing about the film. Deliver Us From Eva isn't a badly-made movie, but it is a predictable and lazily-written one that eventually outstays its welcome despite some spirited performances from an attractive black cast.Gabrielle Union plays the eponymous Eva, an uptight twenty-something health inspector who has raised her three younger sisters single-handedly since the death of their parents when she was 18. Much to the chagrin of their male partners, Eva is still running her sister's lives, even though they are all now adults. To put an end to this situation, they hire master player and meat delivery man – make of that what you will – Ray (a miscast LL Cool J) to woo her into moving to another city where he can then dump her before returning home. Immediately it becomes evident to even the most casual viewer that this is a perfect plan. A plan without a flaw of any description. How can it possibly go wrong? Hmmm, we think, looks like the writers might have written themselves into a corner with this one… As you might have already gathered, Deliver Us From Eva's biggest problem is that it announces its divorce from reality within seconds of the opening credits. Even movies like this, which inhabit a self-contained urban never-never land in which the real world never intrudes, need to possess some degree of believability, but this one doesn't seem to care whether it makes sense on any level. Eva starts out as an overbearing monster with a hair-trigger temper, all tightly-buttoned business suits and severe hairstyle, but is swiftly transformed butterfly-like into a hip and sassy 'sister' by the attentions of a nondescript man who stands out from the crowd thanks only to his size. Funny how Hollywood comedy screenwriters so often seem to believe that all a stuffy woman needs to lose her repression is a good seeing to in the bedroom.Eva's sisters, each of them bright and beautiful, seem curiously content to allow their older sibling to dominate their lives, and begin every other sentence with the words 'Eva says…' like mindless dolls with a key and a piece of string in their back. Quite frankly, rather than wanting to get closer to these Stepford candidates you'd think the hapless trio of men would be seeking out ways of putting a little distance between them and their partners. Given that Ray's seduction methods possess the sophistication of an average nineteen year-old's, the ferocious Eva's defences crumble surprisingly quickly, and it isn't long before she's rolling around in his lap like a playful kitten. While this may have just about got by had someone with a little more charisma than LL Cool J taken on the role of Ray, the former rapper's performance is so understated that he manages to conjure no sexual chemistry whatsoever with the delectable Miss Union (and I write that with the fearlessness of someone who knows that a large body of water separates me and the rapper-dude). Mr. J is a curious choice for the role: it calls for a smooth seducer, an effortless ladies man with an air of confidence that LL (what the hell do you call him, anyway?) lacks. He was presumably selected to lure in the young black audience, but he's too big and clumsy for the part of Ray, and never looks comfortable. His character is all wrong for the feisty Eva, anyway, and that's another of the movie's weaknesses. The characters are either paper-thin or hopelessly stereotypical (eg: an outrageously camp homosexual hairdresser – I wonder how long it took them to dream up that one). While the minor characters are picked off-the-shelf from some kind of screenwriter's equivalent of Wal-Mart, the central characters' are never filled out, and their actions are designed solely to drive the action along with no consideration given to consistency or logic. Once the basic premise is established, the movie embarks on a slow journey toward farce, without any stops for development or insight, before taking an ill-advised left turn toward a conclusion as corny as it is contrived. And it arrives in such a rush that you can be forgiven for believing that director Gary Hardwick wants to get the journey over with as much as the viewer does.The only real positive to be taken from the film is Gabrielle Union on whose shoulders, thanks to Cool J's reserved performance, most of its weight falls. She shoulders the burden admirably, proving herself to be an adept and appealing light comedienne, and she deserves to be seen in more – and better – leading roles.To try to defend movies like this by declaring that they aren't supposed to be taken seriously is something of a cop-out. How much leeway do you give a flick simply because it's a light comedy with no artistic aspirations? Does this excuse its makers from striving to create believable scenarios and characters, and from making at least some attempt to add something new? I don't think so, somehow: comedy writers owe the audience as much as any other kind of writer.I can't remember laughing once during this film – and I'm a man: easily entertained, you know?

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musiking

This movie was unquestionably outstanding. How could anyone not enjoy this? Because they're simply just haters. The movie was a romantic comedy and easy for anyone to enjoy. Gabrielle was off the chain. She was a little uptight, but that was settled when she got her boyfriend. If the men would've been smart enough to embrace her instead of pushing away each time, she would've been that much easier to live with, although she was out of line most of the time. This was a great movie, preferably for the Black community. This was quite realistic to me. It's very cool when you get to see a strong black woman portrayed on television, as opposed to what we saw in Monster's Ball, a dependent woman who was a straight up freak. If you were looking for a movie for sex, get over it. God doesn't like us watching trash like that anyway. All in all, I watched this movie over and over again and never got tired of it. Go see it you haven't. You'll enjoy it.

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x1c0

When I start to watch this movie I wasn't expecting the movie of my life but it's a good romantic comedy. The 105 min of this movie seems 10min.Good cast, nice interpretation and a reasonable direction. If you already saw Breaking all the rules with Jamie Joxx don't waste your time because it is very similar. Gabrielle Union seems to like this kind of movies and she do it well but not perfect.It also had a good plot which kept my attention. In resume this is a film that you don't have to push your mind to the limits to understand him, it is a very light movie, watchable, I'm sure you gonna have lots of laughs and when the movie its finished you will have a large smile in your face.

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pkwfireteacher

I really enjoyed this movie. I was working out at the gym in one of those 24 hour places. Anyway, while riding the stationary bike I turned to a cable station and saw some scenes from a movie that I had never seen before -- DELIVER US FROM EVA. Needless to say, I was spellbound with the movie, and I couldn't stop riding the bike as I watched the excellent performance of Gabrielle Union. It was truly an excellent piece of art and I enjoyed it immensely. I would recommend this one for others to see. It illustrated a side of we Black people that is rarely shown in the media.Patrick Williams

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