“The Perfect Guy,” directed by David M. Rosenthal and starring Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy, takes a cool concept and produces a below-average movie.

This film should have been more — it could have been “Fear” meets a James Bond spy thriller.

Instead, “The Perfect Guy” comes off as a repurposed Tyler Perry movie, only missing a cameo from Madea to top it off.

The biggest problem comes from the tone of the film, which is mishandled by director Rosenthal and screenwriter Tyger Williams. 

Audience members should be disturbed through the film, but nothing ever hits. The movie is tame and there are no stakes. People die but yet it always seems like everything will be better by the end.

No one is terrible, but everyone plays a stereotype to a tee. Ealy’s Carter in particular seems like a villain of the week on a bad “Law and Order: SVU” episode.

Carter is a stalker with a specialty in espionage. This seems like a trait perfect for someone like Adam Wingard. Instead, the character is a base-level, psychotic killer and the simple version of what a calculating antagonist should be.

The concept is not exactly a win for “The Perfect Guy,” but it stands out as the best thing in an otherwise unnoticeable film. 

This movie is what happens when someone takes a cool angle on an old trick, and does the same, tired thing.

Stars: 2 out 5   

Jacob Pierce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacobPierce1_DE.