Tyler Perry's Madea Family Funeral

Tyler Perry's Madea Family Funeral (2019) 

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Tyler Perry, Ciera Payton, Courtney Burrell

Release Date March 1st, 2019 

Published March 3rd, 2019

Tyler Perry’s Madea Family Funeral is yet another example of Tyler Perry’s bizarre approach to making movies. Evidence suggests that Tyler Perry acquires a script for a simple, dramatic movie and then, for reasons that only make sense to him, he inserts himself dressed as a woman and that woman’s brethren doing incredibly unfunny schtick that undermines the drama of the actual story taking place. 

With that in mind, I am going to review this movie in two pieces. I am going to review the movie that Family Funeral would be without Madea and the movie that Perry is making with Madea and her cast of wacky characters. This will demonstrate to you the tonal whiplash of attempting to follow a Tyler Perry movie. It’s honestly, exhausting for someone who watches movies for a living to watch what is essentially two movies playing at the same time. 

Family Funeral features an ensemble cast that includes Ciera Payton, Rome Flynn and Courtney Burrell, as siblings, Silivia, Jesse and AJ, who have returned home to Georgia to throw their parents, Viane and Anthony (Jen Harper and Derek Morgan) an anniversary party. Along with them are their spouses including David Otunga as Silvia’s husband, Will, Gia (Aeriel Miranda), Jesse’s fiancee, and Carol (KJ Davis), AJ’s wife. 

AJ however is sleeping with Gia behind his brother’s back and this is how AJ happens to be on hand when his dad is found dead in a hotel room having suffered a massive heart attack while cheating on Viane with a family friend, Renee (Quin Walters). Now, what was planned as a happy occasion is now going to a funeral at which family secrets will be exposed and lives will be altered forever. 

In the other movie inside Madea’s Family Funeral, Madea (Tyler Perry) has been invited to the Anniversary party for Viane and Anthony. What relationship does Madea have to this family? Who knows, but her brother Heathrow (Tyler Perry) has invited her and her other brother Joe (Tyler Perry) and Madea’s pals Hattie (Patrice Lovely) and Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis) to come to this party and they’ve tapped Joe’s son Brian (Tyler Perry) to drive them to Atlanta. 

It’s anyone’s guess how Madea is connected to this family in Atlanta. This family has not been mentioned before in previous movies, specifically Madea’s Family Reunion, but that only matters if you are likely me and demand that a movie proceed with some sort of internal logic. Tyler Perry is not like me. Tyler Perry has no need of internal logic, plot, even characters are really only a suggestion of a series of broad traits. 

The entirety of the Madea portion of Madea’s Family Reunion could be removed from this film and it would not affect the plot whatsoever. Sure, Madea and her gang are also on hand when Anthony’s body is found, in S & M gear, in a hotel. We assume he’s in S & M gear, based on what we see, that was likely an on-set improv that Perry liked and left in the movie despite the lack of visual evidence at hand. 

The discovery of the fact that a father and, allegedly, a family friend has been found to be cheating on his wife and has been found dead by his eldest son in a hotel room with a family friend, in S & M gear, is so jarring that neither the comedy nor the extremes of dramatic emotions are allowed to land in any way. A man has just died but that doesn’t mean that wacky characters can’t do awkward, unfunny schtick like attempt to perform oral sex on the corpse in place of CPR. That’s a pleasant gag that exists in this movie. 

Tyler Perry, by the way, does not care for CPR. CPR makes Tyler Perry profoundly uncomfortable as he equates blowing air into a dying person’s chest with kissing and when the dying person is a man then it becomes a gay panic situation. Yes, CPR on a man is an occasion for gay panic jokes because being gay needs just a little more unnecessary stigma attached. Performing CPR means your sexuality is questionable somehow. Are we sure that this movie was made in this century? 

I get that Madea’s ‘political incorrectness’ is supposedly part of her charm but that charm is lost on me. Once, this character was a bizarre moral center of a movie universe. Then, Perry decided to change her backstory from a scolding southern grandma/avenging angel to that of a former gangster, prostitute, drug addict stripper who is also a wise old sage dispensing moral judgments from an unearned high horse. 

Whiplash is the lasting effect of a Tyler Perry movie. On one side is a serious family drama about lies and infidelity and the other side is a broad burlesque of elderly former criminals and drug addicts doing unfunny schtick. I thought it was bad when Madea wielded a chainsaw in the midst of the super tense drama about spousal abuse in Diary of a Mad Black Woman but at least at that point Madea was just a weird side note. 

Now that Madea is the center of the universe in Perry’s movies she’s become a monster lording her unfunny references to gang life, pimps and ho’s over the top of otherwise half baked but serious dramas. It’s the worst kind of mash up, as if an elderly version of rapper Lil Kim were dropped into the middle of a reboot of Parenthood. These two things don’t go together. The drama is half baked at best and the comedy is so broad and schticky it’s like the worst episode of Def Comedy Jam in history. 

I can see where the Madea character worked on a stage where the improv might feel organic and the setting might encourage such broad swings of tone but in a movie where editing and camera work and acting are necessary to the medium, this brand is ill-fitting. Perry’s style doesn’t mesh with the movies the way it, I assume, meshed with live audiences in the early 2000s when Perry developed the character of Madea on stages in church basements. 

Tyler Perry has allegedly stated that this will be the final movie in the Madea franchise and if that is the case, good riddance. I genuinely have nothing nice to say about the character or the movies. I don't understand the appeal and I never will. That said, I don't buy that he's done with this character. Perry has proven to be a mercenary filmmaker throughout his career and while he has plenty of money, I will need some convincing to believe he is walking away from his cash cow. 

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's Madea's Happy Family

Tyler Perry's Madea's Happy Family (2011) 

Directed Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tyler Perry, Loretta Devine, Bow Wow, Tamala Mann, Isaiah Mustafa, Natalie Desselle 

Release Date April 22nd, 2011

Published April 23rd, 2011

Tyler Perry is the singularly most puzzling filmmaker on the planet. In the same film he can deliver a searing message about social ills and dress as a woman who carries a gun, talks like a gangsta and doesn't mind a little weed smoke. That jarring combination made Perry's debut feature, "Diary of A Mad Black Woman," arguably the most schizophrenic moviegoing experience of my life.

In 'Diary' Kimberly Elise delivers a powerhouse performance as an abused wife who finally takes control of her life. The film takes a disturbingly up close view of this abuse and Elise humanizes the suffering in an Oscar worthy performance. And then Perry, dressed in drag as Madea, enters the scene with a chainsaw and like some meta demon begins to almost literally cut the movie to pieces.

Like a Circus interrupting a funeral procession

The same other-worldly shifts in tone plagued Perry's well-meaning "Madea's Family Reunion," "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" and "Madea Goes to Jail." Each film features moments of raw, honest social commentary and each are then blown apart by Perry's insistence on donning a dress and providing clown-like comic relief. Madea enters each of these movies like a circus interrupting a funeral procession.

The Madea issue is slightly less pronounced in Perry's latest feature, "Madea's Big Happy Family." Madea and fellow clown-like, broad stroke characters Uncle Joe (Also played by Perry) and Mr. Brown (David Mann), who even dresses the part of a clown, enter the fray early and often in "Big Happy Family" and never allow the drama of the A story, that of a family falling apart as the matriarch prepares to pass away, to take hold.

Strength in faith

Loretta Devine is Shirley, a long suffering niece of Perry's Madea Simmons, who has just been informed that her cancer has recurred and their is little that can be done. Finding strength in her faith; Shirley has just one wish left before she's ready to join Jesus. Shirley wants one last dinner with her family so that she can tell them all at once that she doesn't have much time left.

This wish is much more complicated than it sounds as each member of the family is consumed with their own baggage. Shirley's youngest, Byron (Rapper Bow Wow) is struggling with a past arrest and an unplanned pregnancy with a nightmare baby mama (Lauren London) and a new girlfriend (Teyana Taylor) who is pushing him to get back into drug dealing.

Henpecked husbands

Shirley's daughter Kimberly (Shannon Kane) has nearly cut all ties with her family in order to establish a suburban, buppy (Black Urban Professional) lifestyle with her henpecked husband Calvin (Isaiah Mustafa) and their son. Kimberly and Calvin have the best dramatic arc of any of the characters in "Big Happy Family" but like all drama in the film, the arc gets truncated by Perry's big top act of Madea, Brown and their daughter Cora (Tamela J. Mann).

Madea's not all bad

Natalie Desselle and comedian Rodney Perry round out the cast of "Big Happy Family" as Shirley's oldest daughter and her henpecked hubby. One must wonder what Shirley had done to the girls' father in order for both women to turn out so horrible to their husbands but that is a subject for a more thorough and thoughtful movie than "Big Happy Family" which is more at home with Madea kicking butt than it is with Shirley's harrowing family life.

There is no denying that Madea can be funny and even, on rare occasions, insightful. There are moments in "Big Happy Family" when Madea's force of nature feels necessary to the plot and even helpful as she/he provides comic relief and a needed swat on the backside of these often troubling characters.

Special guest Maury Povich

Those moments, sadly, are all too rare as the film is padded out to feature length with fat jokes, choke-a-ho jokes and an odd extended public service announcement about the plague of diabetes in African Americans and the need for colonoscopies. There is also an entirely unnecessary arch comic cameo by Maury Povich and his dark comic DNA testing episodes.

In the end, despite honest moments of moving drama from Loretta Devine, Shannon Kane and Isaiah Mustafa, "Madea's Big Happy Family" is mostly a bad movie. It's not funny enough to be a good comedy and their is too much (literal) clowning around going on to allow the drama to resonate. Perry's direction is stilted and, as with each of his previous films, lacks style. In essence, "Madea's Big Happy Family" is typical Tyler Perry.

Movie Review Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009) 

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Brian White, Adam Rodriguez, Tyler Perry, Gladys Knight, Mary J. Blige

Release Date September 11th, 2009

Published September 12th, 2009

There are two Tyler Perry's. One is an amateurish boor of a director who interrupts his storytelling so he can cavort about in drag. Tyler Perry is a socially conscious filmmaker who uses this milieu to make valuable points about love, family and community that no other director has dealt with so openly, earnestly and sincerely.

The battle between these two sides of Mr. Perry has delivered mixed results with his poor direction and bad choices as a writer undercut the important social issues he wishes to shine a light upon. Perry's latest film, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, is a perfect example of the two Tyler Perry's.

Taraji P. Henson stars in I Can Do Bad All By Myself as April, a self absorbed wannabe chanteuse singing for indifferent bar patrons. Nights spent on stage are followed by drunken later nights with her married, emotionally abusive boyfriend (Brian White). Alone in her home, just down the street from her church, April seems sadly content.

April's life is upended one morning when she finds Madea (Tyler Perry) angry on her doorstep with April's niece Jennifer (Hope Olaide Wilson) and her two young nephews. The kids had broken into Madea's home the night before and because their mother, a crackhead, has died and their grandmother has gone missing, Madea has brought them to April.

Immediately after taking in the kids, April 's life is interrupted again as her pastor (Marvin Winans) shows up asking her to take in a missionary from South America, Sandino (Adam Rodriguez). In exchange for room and board he will repair her decrepit townhouse. All of this further inflames her boyfriend who will become the villain of the piece when needed.

Part of Tyler Perry's many issues are characters like that played by Brian White. The character is all malevolence with zero nuance. He is a contrivance of a plot that will need a villain to give focus and context to a movie that meanders through one explanatory piece of dialogue after another.

Then there is Madea who continues to exist in this uncanny valley of oddity and humor. Is the character funny? Yes. However, funny doesn't justify the continued shoehorning of this bizarre drag character into what are ostensibly serious social dramas. I understand Perry's wanting to lighten the mood, he's dealing with heavy issues. Unfortunately, he undermines those issues by whirling about in a dress.

It's difficult to take Perry seriously when he keeps interrupting his drama so he can run around in drag. It's a real shame because the issues he deals with are so very important and deeply meaningful. Even with his lack of directorial skill. Even with his limitations as a filmic storyteller, Perry's care in dealing with deep issues comes through and is communicated well enough to touch the audience.

I was moved by the things that the children and April dealt with. Physical, sexual and emotional abuse are the norm for these characters. The healing they find in each other and in their church is moving and unexpectedly powerful, even for an agnostic such as myself.

Sadly, Perry cannot get out of his own way. Even as his characters are going through stunning emotional crises Perry can't help but interrupt with Madea or maybe some unrelated musical moment. Don't get me wrong Gladys Knight and Mary J. Blige are national treasures who I would pay good money to see under any circumstance however the songs they perform in the movie hobble the pace and being that they are sort of Greek chorus songs, they contribute to Perry's tendency for overstating a point.

What the good Tyler Perry does is so valuable. He addresses major issues with care, sensitivity and sincerity that few other filmmakers can muster. The bad Tyler Perry just keeps getting in the way. Whether it's Madea or his tendency for obvious dialogue, Perry lacks polish and self control and his films, his important issues, are hamstrung as a result.

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls

Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson

Release Date November 5th, 2010

Published November 5th, 2010

For all of his faults as a filmmaker, Tyler Perry has guts. Perry is a principled artist who delivers stories his way on his terms and has made a mint doing it. Critics be damned, Tyler Perry is one of the most successful filmmakers of the decade and he’s never had to compromise his vision to get there, whether you enjoy his vision or not.

Perry’s latest daring bit of storytelling is easily his biggest gamble, even bigger than dressing in drag to play Madea. “For Colored Girls'' is an attempt to corral a 20 piece stage poem into a single dramatic narrative. Nearly a dozen different actresses, often breaking out in poetic verse, going through some of the ugliest trials ever brought to screen for dramatic entertainment. It’s bold, it’s daring and it's a massive failure but it’s Tyler Perry’s unquestioned vision onscreen.

There are seven lead performances in “For Colored Girls.” They include Janet Jackson as a tyrant magazine editor dealing with a distant, possibly gay husband. Jackson’s assistant played by Kimberly Elise is an under-employed woman carrying a jobless, abusive husband and two kids. Her neighbor played by Thandie Newton is bartender who deals with childhood trauma with an endless line of sex partners.

Newton’s sister is played by Tessa Thompson and is an aspiring dancer with an accidental pregnancy. Their mother played by Whoopi Goldberg is a damaged woman whose own childhood drama sent her spiraling toward lunacy in some cultish religion. Thompson’s dance teacher, Anika Noni Rose, is a loving trusting soul who finds herself on the wrong side of the wrong man. Finally, Phylicia Rashad stars as an apartment manager slash den mother.

There are other roles as well for Kerry Washington as a social worker struggling to conceive and singer Macy Gray as a back alley abortionist as frightening as such a figure likely should be. Wrestling all of these characters into one narrative is a Herculean task. Add to that some spontaneous poetry and crushing dramatic turns involving murder, rape, abortion, Aids and spousal abuse and you have movie incapable of withstanding its own weight.

“For Colored Girls” is what you might call emotion porn. Tyler Perry crams every possible trauma into “For Colored Girls” and pummels the audience with poetic glimpses of women in the darkest depths of despair until even the most remote audience member can’t help but shed a tear. It’s the false emotion of manipulation but even if each tear is surgically extracted, they are there.

The cast of “For Colored Girls” is phenomenal with veteran Rashad as the stand out. Rashad’s character is Perry’s own invention, a narrative convenience used to tie otherwise disparate characters together. Her apartment is located right between those of Elise and Newton’s characters and she hears everything. Still, Rashad gives this character a rich emotional life. She is the beating, broken heart of “For Colored Girls.”

The rest of the cast is too busy being decimated by the Jovian burdens each is asked to carry. The despair visited upon these characters is an anchor that cannot be raised. Each actress at the very least is given a moment to shine but because that moment comes in poetic verse it resonates more as a stand alone monologue than as part of a narrative.

This is the bridge that Tyler Perry cannot cross in “For Colored Girls;” trying to make actresses breaking out into spontaneous poetic monologue feel like a natural dialogue in a typical narrative drama. He would have been better off breaking convention; take the poetic moments to a stage and break the fourth wall. Instead, Perry chooses to try to make it just like any other film drama and the effect is disjointed and unsatisfying.

Undoubtedly moving, “For Colored Girls” finds moments of great emotional force. All is undone however by a conventional approach to highly unconventional drama. “For Colored Girls” is bold and daring but fails because it was not bold and daring enough. Attempting to force all of this emotion into a singular narrative, especially one as conventionally staged as this, is a fool’s errand and it sinks an otherwise powerful idea.

Tyler Perry wildly misses his target in “For Colored Girls” but you have to respect the attempt. Few filmmakers would have the guts to even attempt to bring a complex, Female led, stage poem to the big screen. It’s fair to wonder if other filmmakers recognized how un-filmable this material is but it took a lot of guts to try and Perry’s effort has to be praised. Perry fails in “For Colored Girls” but he failed fearlessly and spectacularly.

Movie Review: Why Did I Get Married Too

Why Did I Get Married Too (2010) 

Directed by Tyler Perry 

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba, Sharon Leal, Tyler Perry, Jill Scott 

Release Date April 2nd, 2010 

I was very surprised when I saw Tyler Perry's “Why Did I Get Married?” It was nothing like Perry's overwrought Madea comedies with their wild shifts of plot and Perry's disturbing drag character. Married was warm and erudite with a simple set up, characters that connected in real ways and a real honesty to the way each marriage and friendship was portrayed. Returning to these terrific characters Perry finds new truths and insights but unfortunately succumbs to some of his worst crowd pleasing instincts.

“Why Did I Get Married Too?” reintroduces us to 4 couples who get together every year to renew their friendships, get away from their kids and remind themselves why they got married. There is Patricia (Janet Jackson) and Gavin (Malik Yoba), the unofficial ringleaders because, it's assumed, they have the best marriage.

There is Terry (Tyler Perry, minus the dress and wig) and Diane (Sharon Leal) seemingly passed their issues with raising kids. Angela (Tasha Smith) and Marcus (Michael Jai White) still dealing with their infidelity and trust issues and even Marcus getting a job hasn't eased their tensions.

Finally there is the continuing drama of Sheila and her new husband Troy (Lamman Tucker). They met when the couples were in Colorado last get together and have married and moved to Atlanta. Unfortunately, Troy is having a hard time finding a job, adding a bit of stress to paying for the yearly jaunt with friends, this time in the Bahamas.

Making matters worse for Sheila and Troy is the unexpected arrival of her ex Mike (Richard T. Jones) who finds out about Troy's troubles and makes things worse by needling him about it. Mike also claims to still be harboring feelings for Sheila and longs to get her alone for a moment. When he does get Sheila alone? Wow, a big scene for Jill Scott that may leave some dabbing away tears.

The trip to the Bahamas encompasses about the first hour or so of “Why Did I Get Married Too?” and does well to remind us of these characters we care about while setting the stakes for new discoveries about each of them and the new conflicts that will drive the plot.

Sadly, once the story returns to the mainland in Atlanta things go from warm yet tense to overwrought and soapy. Tyler Perry's Madea movies have always been about delivering obvious social commentary wrapped in wild, over the top comedy. He eluded those instincts in the first film allowing the film to flow naturally even through scenes that audiences were not going to be comfortable with, including scenes of extended dialogue uninterrupted by forced humor or Madea schtick. Given Perry's history these scenes were downright daring.

The second half of “Why Did I Get Married Too?” doesn't make us suffer Madea eruptions but it does indulge Perry's taste for forced dramatics, forced humor and generally overdone theatrics that take the place of the drama the screenplay fails to create. Credit this exemplary cast for managing to keep us involved even as they are forced to overplay scene after scene.

“Why Did I Get Married Too?” fails to capture the heart, humor and smarts of “Why Did I Get Married?” Writer and director Tyler Perry cannot resist the pull of simple minded over-dramatics that easily manipulate an audience toward the wanted to response. It's the same forced crowd pleasing style that has wounded each of his Madea movies. With each forced moment the promise Perry showed with the original Married slips away.

What a shame, “Why Did Get Married?” seemed like a revelation and a promise. “Why Did I Get Married Too?” squanders that promise and reveals Perry as an artist driven by the fear of not pleasing his audience rather than serving what is best for his story and trusting that the audience will follow along.

Movie Review: Why Did I Get Married?

Why Did I Get Married? (2007)

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba, Tasha Smith, Michael Jai White, Richard T. Jones, Jill Scott

Release Date October 12th, 2007

Published October 13th, 2007

Filmmaker Tyler Perry had a number of interesting ideas sprinkled within his over the top dramas Diary of A Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion. Those ideas unfortunately, were overshadowed by Perry's bizarre need to dress in drag and play the matronly Madea character. This larger than life character could be entertaining but he/she was also a hurricane that destroyed the reality surrounding her/him.

One moment would be deeply dramatic, the next minute Madea storms through and we are taken out of the moment. Perry smartly leaves Madea behind in Why Did I Get Married and his interesting ideas now have a functioning reality to work within. Smart, funny and with a great big heart, Why Did I Get Married is the most mature and professional work of Tyler Perry's career.

Four couples get together year after year for a joint vacation and therapy session. For one week these couples talk about everything in their relationships and ask the honest and forthright question, why did I get married? That is also the title of the book written by Patricia (Janet Jackson) who is happily married to Gavin (Malik Yoba) and acts as unofficial counselor of the group.

Joining Patricia and Gavin for the weekend are the seemingly stable Terry and Diane, the erratic and bickering Angela (Tasha Smith) and Marcus (Michael Jai White) and the completely failing Sheila (Jill Scott) and Mike (Richard T. Jones) who show up separately though Mike does not come alone. For one week in a Colorado cabin secrets will be revealed, fights will be had and each of the couples will face crises that threaten their stability.

Tyler Perry has one of the most loyal followings in all of film, almost a cult. I never understood before but after Why Did I Get Married, I'm beginning to understand. Perry makes movies that no one else is making. I'm not just talking about films aimed at African American audiences, though that's true. Rather, I'm talking about the stories he tells, the issues he confronts. Few filmmakers have the patience or interest in these subjects.

Why Did I Get Married isn't just about marriage, fidelity, family or faith but it uses these characters, these couples to explore each of these issues with depth and understanding. Some points are simplified but the film rarely devolves to overarching melodrama. Perry's storytelling is calm and assured and never goes out it's way to be dramatic.

Perry's naturalism, the easy rapport he has with his actors, each contribute to the good natured, familiar vibe of Why Did I Get Married. This is a movie of great humor and great heart with characters you quickly come to care about. The material is naturally dramatic and Perry deftly handles the drama by establishing what is at stake in each of these relationships and resolving them in ways that are suitably dramatic but also realistic. 

Tyler Perry made a mistake in his first two films putting himself in drag as the character Madea and distracting from the many interesting and important themes he was tackling. The drag conceit was far too jokey and amateurish and, especially in the otherwise quite serious Diary of Mad Black Woman, made it impossible to take the films seriously despite their deeply meaningful intentions.

Abandoning the Madea character does wonders for Perry's dramatic intentions. Without the drag queen distraction, Perry is free to make strong points about love, marriage, family and faith in easier to swallow bites. Without Madea, Perry seems smarter and higher minded. We can now take seriously what was once seen as foolishness.

Few filmmakers deal with the issues that Perry brings to the fore and he is to be commended for that. More often filmmakers examine these issues sub textually, within genre conceits. Perry takes on marital and family issues head on and has some very interesting things to say.

It seems blasphemous to compare Tyler Perry to Woody Allen or Ingmar Bergman but in dealing so directly and honestly with relationship material, Perry is in their tradition. Less angsty and much more of a softy and a romantic, Perry bravely tackles the kind of issues that most filmmakers deal with indirectly or with snide humor.

Perry has a long way to go in terms of directorial craftsmanship. But, in terms of straight ahead honesty, he's well ahead of the game. 

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (2008)

Directed by Tyler Perry 

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Angela Bassett, Rick Fox, Lance Gross

Release Date March 21st, 2008

Published March 22nd, 2008 

In Diary of A Mad Black Woman a brave dramatic performance by actress Kimberly Elise. as an abused wife of privelege forced to start over from scratch was undermined by writer-director Tyler Perry and his indulgent alter-ego Madea character who literally takes a chainsaw to the movie and destroys everything in his/her path. In Madea’s Family Reunion Perry’s call for social change and understanding amongst African Americans is once again undermined by broad comic moments between Madea and Perry’s other alter-ego old Joe.

It seemed that Perry simply couldn’t get out of his own way. Then came Why Did I Get Married? A complete departure from Perry’s first two movies and I had hoped it was a sign that Perry had matured enough to bring his honest messages of love, community, social change and humor with style and filmmaking substance. Meet The Browns squashes that maturity in the first act.

Oscar nominee Angela Bassett stars in Meet The Brown’s as Brenda, a single mom of three kids, by three different fathers, living in inner city Chicago. Things are tough and getting tougher when she loses her job. With the lights turned out and her baby daddies nowhere to be found, Brenda finds that her own father has passed away. His name was Pop Brown and he lived in a small town in Georgia where he may have left Brenda something in his will that might help her out. Traveling to the small southern town Brenda is immediately greeted by her new family.

LeRoy Brown (David Mann) is a polyester wearing, bald headed clown with a heart of gold. Though he says inappropriate things and is prone to wild, inhuman swings of mood, from wild laughter to tears, no real anger, LeRoy is a big loving teddy bear as he takes these strangers right to the Brown family home. There Brenda and the kids meet LB (Frankie Faison), his loving wife Mildred (Irma P. Hall) and Vera (Jennifer Lewis) a drunk witch whose claws come out when it comes to protecting what might be in her daddy’s will. Ultimately, Vera is harmless but she is a terrible bother throughout, functioning as the agitating force of the last third of the film.

Brenda’s son Michael (Lance Gross) is a basketball prodigy and down south he catches the eye of a scout/coach and former NBA star named Harry (Rick Fox). Actually, it’s the lovely Brenda that caught Harry’s eye but helping Michael develop his talent and deal with agents and NBA scouts that begin snooping around is a good excuse to be around Brenda. Her experience with men causes her to keep him at a distance but the romance is inevitable.

It is as if there are two movies happening in Meet The Brown’s. In one Angela Bassett is giving a pro level dramatic performance as a loving, struggling mother who discovers she can still find a good man in Rick Fox’s Harry. In the other movie are the broad, over the top and often terribly unfunny Brown family who act as ludicrous filler material distracting from the earnest, socially relevant drama happening in the other movie. Where Bassett does yeoman's work to dramatize Brenda’s struggles, the Brown’s blow into the movie, screaming and yelling, splitting their pants and ranting about pimps, ho’s and money.

Perry has a filmmakers version of multiple personality disorder. On the one hand you have an eloquent social activist with a genuine talent for telling relevant truths with great heart and humor. Then you have the A.D.D comedian Tyler Perry who nervously inserts broadly written comic moments into the drama because he doesn’t trust to stay with him when things get serious. Somehow, he overcame that nervousness in Why Did I Get Married but the jittery comic is back, to his great detriment in Meet The Brown’s.

Movie Review Madea Goes to Jail

Madea Goes to Jail (2009) 

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tyler Perry, Tamela Mann, David Mann

Release Date February 20th, 2009

Published February 21st, 2009

I am one of the few critics in the country who has willfully gone out of my way to be fair to Tyler Perry. While others could not stand his Madea character, not an unfair judgment really, I stuck it out with Perry and have come to terms with his dress wearing alter-ego. My patience was rewarded with Perry's exceptionally thoughtful, funny and well considered drama Why Did I Get Married. The film was a Woody Allen moment for Perry, an adroit, adult oriented movie of honesty and emotional truth. Best of all, no Madea to blow things sky high with her over the top comic persona.

I had hoped Why Did I Get Married would be a watershed moment for Perry. A moment where he finally corralled his tremendous social conscience and channeled it through characters people could connect with. Instead, Madea was soon back on screen and blowing up everything around her. Madea re-takes the main stage in Madea Goes To Jail and Perry has regressed right back to his sad, unfortunate, Diary of A Mad Black Woman days. That film is one of the more bizarre movies of the last decade, a serious drama about a serious topic and serious characters that gets blown sky high by Perry's insistence on putting on a dress and being funny. 

Diary Of A Mad Black Woman was about a troubled marriage, an abused woman and how she was able to get out from under all the sadness in her life and come into her own. Kimberly Elise delivers a powerhouse performance as the abused woman and Steve Harris is menacing as the cheating abusive husband. The drama of the relationship is stunningly effective in some scenes, despite the awkward direction of Perry in his first time behind the camera. And then came Madea. Perry's broad comic drag character brought the movie to a dead stop every time she came on screen and despite her often insightful dialogue, the sight of Perry in the dress was distracting and his flights of broad comic fancy were just too much for the movie to take.

It was like putting a kitchen sink drama and a Jerry Lewis movie in a blender. Ugh. For Madea Goes To Jail Perry has unfortunately pulled the blender out of storage. Madea Goes To Jail tells the disparate stories of Madea getting into ever more increasing lunacy before ending up in prison and tells the story of Josh and Candace (Derek Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam), college friends whose lives took very different paths after an incident at school. Josh went on to a law degree and a job with the District Attorney's office in Atlanta. Candace ended up on the streets as a prostitute and drug addict. The wounds of their shared trauma are ripped open when Candace is brought before a judge and Josh is the prosecutor.

After passing off the case, Josh pays Candace's bail and offers to help her in any way he can. This upends his relationship with a fellow D.A, Linda played by Ion Overman. Linda has an important secret that pays off the whole plot and ties everything together but by the time it is revealed you won't care. This is Perry's clumsiest scripting yet as he bounces between the comedy and drama in discomfiting fashion before a wrap up that you can predict as if there were an onscreen map attached. Once again the drama is well played. Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam, yes, Cosby kid Rudi, deliver scenes of real honesty and pain. Unfortunately, they are trampled offscreen by Madea, her daughter Cora (Tamela Mann) and the ever annoying Mr. Brown (David Mann) from Perry's last unfortunate turn Meet The Browns.

As much as I am down on Madea in this review, I must say that I found the character to be funnier than ever before. Perry has found his comfort in the dress onscreen for the first time. He has her down and knows which way to twist his words to get a laugh. The long off-color backstory of Madea is an unfortunate aside but the wit is quick and the broad jokes and physical humor can't help but make you smile as I did. That said, it is not Madea that doesn't work, it's shoehorning her into this dark, urban drama with Luke and Pulliam that is the problem. It is that comedy/drama blender that is the problem. Even a great filmmaker could not pull off the mixture that Perry attempts here, the best filmmakers would have the good sense not to try.

I can't believe I have come this far and not mentioned that Oscar nominee Viola Davis is also in Madea Goes To Jail. The wonderful Ms. Davis plays a Church Minister who walks the street handing out free condoms and clean needles to prostitutes and addicts. She's no liberal sap or a saint, Davis plays the kind of character that Perry is exceptional at creating but incapable of exploiting. Her deep social conscience and unending well of caring is remarkably real. She doesn't so much preach as instruct with the help of Jesus as a backup. Perry should make an entire movie with this character and Ms. Davis and no Madea. That would be something. Something far more than the ugly sum of Madea Goes To Jail.

Movie Review Nobody's Fool

Nobody's Fool (2018) 

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Tika Sumpter, Tiffany Haddish, Whoopi Goldberg

Release Date November 2nd, 2018

Published November 3rd, 2018

Nobody’s Fool is marketed as a platform for the brilliant Tiffany Haddish, one of the breakout stars of the last two years. The trailer for Nobody's Fool would have you believe that Haddish is being set loose in the kind of the leading role that plays to her strengths as a force of nature style performer who dominates the scene by being more alive than everyone around her. Finally, after the promise of Girls Trip and all of the buzz about how much Haddish is the next big thing we were supposed to see Tiffany Haddish step forward into the spotlight.

Nope! Tiffany Haddish is not actually the lead actress in Nobody’s Fool. Tika Sumpter, a nice actress in her own right, is actually in the traditional romantic lead of Nobody’s Fool. Haddish is, instead, a proxy for writer-director-executive producer Tyler Perry who employs Haddish as an avatar for his Madea character. Little of what Haddish does in Nobody’s Fool is anything Perry hasn’t done with Madea in other movies and as you can imagine, that’s a pretty big waste of Tiffany Haddish.

Nobody’s Fool is the story of Danica (Sumpter), a successful, sexy, young woman who we meet when she rolls out of bed and dances to Janet Jackson’s Miss You Much, a song appropriate for the fact that she misses her boyfriend Charlie (Mehcad Brooks), who she’s never actually met in person but is in love with. Danica may not see her boyfriend but thankfully she’s not short on male attention as Frank (Omari Hardwick) from the coffee shop next to her office romances her everyday with free coffee and a rose.

Danica’s happy, well-ordered life of privilege is thrown for a loop when her sister Tanya (Haddish) is released from prison and their mother, Lola, played by Whoopi Goldberg, forces Danica to take Tanya in. Tanya then immediately gets a job at Frank's coffee shop and sets about screwing up every aspect of her little sister’s life. First she figures out that Danica is getting Catfished by Charlie by literally getting the guys from MTV’s Catfish to investigate Charlie.

Then she manipulates Frank and Danica into bed together where they begin falling in love only to have a major monkey wrench thrown into the story that I won’t spoil if you still want to see this despite my not recommending that you skip it. It’s an unpredictable twist to be sure but it is also incomprehensibly stupid. I can’t fully go into how dimwitted this twist is without spoilers, all I can say is that an utterly embarrassing cameo by Chris Rock is the rotten cherry on top of all the bad decisions that culminate in this twist.

Where to begin with the misguided mistakes of Nobody’s Fool. The most egregious from my perspective comes in how Tyler Perry uses his supposed star, Tiffany Haddish. Haddish’s foul-mouthed, supernova charisma made her a star in Girls Trip but here, that same nasty charm is used to make Tanya an avatar for the awfulness of Tyler Perry’s usual Madea schtick. Every line out of Tanya’s mouth could be lifted from past Perry movies where his drag character Madea is little more than a series of unfunny, dirty, non-sequiturs that go on for seemingly hour after pointless hour.

Haddish still manages to shine through the box that Perry is shoving her into because she’s far more talented than the hacky character she’s being forced into. The charisma monster of her Girls Trip persona cannot be contained and occasionally in Nobody’s Fool we get a little of that character such as a scene where she is offered a job at the coffee shop and can’t resist offering the owner some sex as a thank you. It’s horribly inappropriate but it’s delivered with a devilish energy that is irresistible.

Sadly, that type of scene is limited in Nobody’s Fool. Surprisingly, Haddish is kept offscreen for a great deal of more time than you expect also. I mentioned before that we were suckered into thinking she was the lead character in Nobody’s Perfect, and we were. She’s unquestionably in a supporting role here despite being multiple times more interesting than the sweet but otherwise bland Tika Sumpter.

That’s not Sumpter’s fault really, Tiffany Haddish is simply not a performer who melts into the background of an ensemble. It would be like having Bugs Bunny in a scene and having him just stand there and listen while someone earnestly explains the plot of the story. That simply doesn’t work, not for Haddish whose character lacks the patience to be in the background and not for the movie which casts her and asks us to accept when she’s not out front. All we can think is, when is Tiffany going to do something wild?

That’s a perception problem created by us and by the movie. It’s our fault for expecting Tiffany Haddish to be a particular way as an actress but it is also the fault of the marketing team that put her front and center and made promises that the film does not keep. We were promised a Tiffany Haddish movie and we got a Madea movie minus Madea. Tiffany Haddish is way better than Madea boo. A Madea movie is still no prize, even without the sight of Tyler Perry in drag.

If you do decide to see Nobody’s Fool despite my warning just remember that I told you so. Tiffany Haddish is not the star of this movie. She tries, and occasionally, she overcomes Tyler Perry to find a joke that works, but mostly she’s stuck playing out tired Madea gags with an energy and life that are commendable on her part as a professional but misguided because this movie doesn’t deserve Tiffany Haddish.

Movie Review Madea's Family Reunion

Madea's Family Reunion (2006) 

Directed by Tyler Perry 

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood, Lynn Whitfield, Boris Kodjoe 

Release Date February 24th, 2006

Published February 25th, 2006 

One of the most memorable moments of my critical career was a conversation with a colleague about how I got sucked in by Tyler Perry's drag queen melodrama Diary Of A Mad Black Woman. While my fellow critic stared through me as if I did not have a head, I recounted that I was taken with Perry's broad comedy and earnest social concerns. 

My colleague was, to say the least, not of the same mind regarding Diary of a Mad Black Woman. She could not get past Perry's bizarre drag-queen grandma, who she felt was even less convincing than Martin Lawrence's big momma. I would compare Madea more realistically to basketball star Larry Johnson's Grandmama commercial character in terms of believability, but I was willing to look past the bizarre drag queen escapade and allowed myself to be sucked in by the film's good intentions and big heart.

A similar feeling overtook me a few times during Perry's new film, Madea's Family Reunion. Unfortunately, those good feelings were less frequent as Family Reunion breaks down too often into pure melodrama and forgets to mix in the broad comic persona of Madea who, despite her appearance, was a reliable comic foil in Diary of A Mad Black Woman. In Family Reunion Madea is too often on the sidelines and in the scenes she's not in, she is missed.

Though Tyler Perry's Madea character is the star in title, the film's two lead performers are Madea's troubled nieces Lisa (Rochelle Aytes) and Vanessa (Lisa Arindell Anderson). Lisa is engaged to an abusive lawyer, Carlos (Blair Underwood), who made her his object of obsession at the behest of her own social-climbing mother Victoria (Lynn Whitfield), who sees the marriage as a boon to her flagging social standing.

Poor Vanessa is estranged from Victoria and has moved with her two children into Madea's welcoming home. She has a tentative romance with a bus driver, Frankie (Boris Kodjoe), who has a child of his own and a strict faith in God. He's also an elegant artist who values Vanessa's talent as a poet. It's a romance almost too good to be true that is nearly undone by dark family secrets that keep Vanessa from getting too close to the earnest and loving Frankie.

The film is not content, however, with these two highly melodramatic storylines. Perry, who wrote and directed the picture, cannot help tossing in snippets of his Christian values and an uplifting pair of monologues from the majestic Maya Angelou and the legendary Cicely Tyson. In a pair of speeches bemoaning the lack of manners, good taste and pride in the modern african-american community, these two elegant voices of reason address the family reunion on the virtues of faith, love and self respect.

These are admirable moments, but they are out of place. They are tacked on and distract from the main storylines. The speeches, no matter how well delivered, suck the air out of the room and leave the once boisterous, occasionally cheesy, and over-the-top film gasping. Most egregiously these scenes do not involve Madea, whose homespun politically-incorrect wisdom might have avoided the burdensome weightiness of the speeches.

In fact most of the film longs for more Madea. The main storyline involving Lisa, Vanessa and Victoria flies off the handle and into Dynasty-style kitsch melodrama. Whitfield especially vamps like Joan Collins and bullies her way through scenes like a Joan Crawford impersonator screaming for wire hangers. The plot twists are wildly dramatic with each of the sisters suffering in Jovian proportions their harridan mother's abusive past and present.

These scenes cry out for Madea to take the edge off with her sharp insults and 'get over it or I'll slap it out of you' style. Madea is outsized and unbelievable, but Perry makes her the funniest and by far most compelling character in the film. This is not vanity either. Perry gives his actors ample room to establish themselves apart from Madea but no one, aside from Whitfield's camp villainess, is able to take the reins and make the picture their own.

It is bizarre to think that Madea's Family Reunion needed more of Perry's drag queen grandmother but the fact is that the film's one true virtue is Madea's broad comic presence. Every scene that Madea is not the center of, you search for her. During the ponderous speechifying she is spotted in the crowd but does not speak. As each of the sisters' stories unfold Madea is consulted, but unlike Diary which brought Madea into the action as the heroine's violent protector, Family Reunion only allows Madea the occasional consultation.

You wait to see Madea open up a can of sassy whoopass on either Underwood's pompous abuser or Whitfield's witchy mother, but it never happens. Instead, Perry tries to rely on his young actresses to carry the day and neither Aytes or Anderson steps into the limelight.

The film's most entertaining moments are, like it or not, Madea's. A storyline that is sadly discarded, quite early in the film, has Madea assigned as the foster mother to a troubled runaway played by Keke Parker. As the rebellious child attempts to show Madea who's boss, the matronly Madea turns things around quickly with a swift backhand and, later, her belt. This sounds more controversial than it is. Madea is a caring foster mother who turns the child's life around with her old-school brand of tough love.

The scenes with Madea and the child are too few but they crackle with vitality, humor, warmth and justice. Madea is hardcore, but that is what we love about her. She is the parent as raging id, indulging the kind of freewheeling discipline that many parents grew up with in their own homes, but had drilled out of them in the age of Dr. Spock and, now, Dr. Phil. In Madea's world a spank and a hug are not too far apart in showing a child you care. Her approach is refreshing.

Madea's Family Reunion lacks the spark and originality of Diary Of A Mad Black Woman but ,most of all, it lacks Madea. I am almost embarrassed to admit it, but once again Tyler Perry managed to charm me with his good-hearted drag performance. Campy, kitschy, borderline ludicrous--I cannot help but enjoy Madea's outsize personality and heart.

If the film was more Madea and less the road show of Dynasty, I could give this film a hearty recommendation. As it is, Madea's Family Reunion is a good-natured but highly flawed melodrama, sprinkled with big laughs, but lacking a true center.