Deliver Us from Eva (2003)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Gary Hardwick

Writers:

James Iver Mattson (story), B.E. Brauner (story),

Stars:

LL Cool J, Gabrielle Union, Duane Martin

4 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
LL Cool J	...	Raymond 'Ray' Adams (as James Todd Smith aka LL Cool J)
Gabrielle Union	...	Evangeline 'Eva' Dandrige
Duane Martin	...	Michael 'Mike'
Essence Atkins	...	Kareenah Dandrige
Robinne Lee	...	Bethany Dandrige
Meagan Good	...	Jacqui Dandrige
Mel Jackson	...	Timothy 'Tim'
Dartanyan Edmonds	...	Darrell
Kym Whitley	...	Ormandy
Royale Watkins	...	Telly
Matt Winston	...	Oscar
Ruben Paul	...	Rashaun
Dorian Gregory	...	Lucius Johnson
Kenya Moore	...	Renee Johnson
Yuri Brown	...	Cynda

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

love | date | african american | sister sister relationship | falling in love | 

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Taglines:

Lead us into temptation, but...deliver us from Eva!!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sex-related dialogue

Details

Official Sites:

Focus Features

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 February 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Sógorok réme

Filming Locations:

Altadena, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$6,648,374 (USA) (7 February 2003)

Gross:

$17,334,912 (USA) (21 March 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Baltimore Spring Creek Productions, USA Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the film's end, as the two characters are riding off into the sunset, we see the Chicago skyscrapers (Sears Tower, etc.) looming above. The skyscrapers were superimposed over downtown Los Angeles.

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Goofs

In the fantasy scene where Eva is chopping off Tim's "parts", his flesh-toned boxers are visible

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Quotes

Eva: Did I hurt you?
Ray: Yeah... But I liked it.

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Crazy Credits

After the end credits, there's a scene where the male hairdresser Telly talks on the phone with his girlfriend. He's only pretending to be gay.

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Connections

Version of Ukroshchenie stroptivoy (1962)

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Soundtracks

"My Cherie Amor"
(1969)
(aka "My Cherie Amour" (1969))
Written by Stevie Wonder, Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy
Performed by Stevie Wonder
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Good execution, mostly...

The director, screenwriters, cinematographer and the two leads deserve the warmest praise for what they have done here. The primary defect in this film is in the performances of the six supporting "brothers" and sisters roles. Only in the scenes where they supported the main characters were these characters worth watching. This is probably partly due to weaknesses in the script and partly to the weaknesses of the actors. It was even obvious from some of the outtakes on the DVD, that the brothers were supposed to have had outright murder in mind, this was thankfully edited out of the print, so it's obvious that the script could not have been perfect as originally submitted.

The director/screenwriter Gary Hardwick has mentioned that he had to adapt the original script to African American culture and shows himself here to be very talented. What is obvious from the fine performances of LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union, is that he certainly could have paid more attention to the minor roles than he did.

Such an uneven movie! LL Cool J and Gabrielle Union deserve a 10. Cinematography, a 10. Script, an 8 - the story is basically good - as a romantic comedy, it works! Director gets an 7. The rest of the brothers and sisters get a 3, if not lower. I'm thinking if I could send Hardwick an email and ask why, he would answer, "The studio got what they paid for." What a shame. There are a lot of moments where this film hits the ball out of the park, and so it needs to be recommended.