Love him or hate him, the fairly consistent box office earnings of Tyler Perry's films mean that he sure knows how to please his core audience. Whether or not the actual films are any good is debatable because box office earnings are NOT directly proportional to great film making. So is the latest film in the Madea series any good? See my full review after the jump.
Director: Tyler Perry. Screenplay: Tyler Perry. Producers: Roger M. Bobb, Reuben Cannon and Tyler Perry. Executive Producers: Ozzie Areu and Michael Paseornek. Cinematographer: Toyomichi Kurita. Editor: Maysie Hoy. Music: Aaron Zigman. Production Designer: Ina Mayhew. Costume Designer: Keith G. Lewis. Distributor: Lionsgate. Starring: Tyler Perry, Loretta Devine, Shad 'Bow Wow' Moss, David Mann, Cassi Davis, Tamela Mann, Lauren London, Isaiah Mustafa, Rodney Perry and Shannon Kane. Age Restriction: 10ML. Running Time: 106 Minutes.
Loretta Devine stars as Shirley, the mother of three children who really can't stand each other and the film focuses on her efforts to try and bring them together. Renee (Lauren London) is the oldest and easily the least likeable of the three. She's a mean-spirited and selfish individual who only cares about her career and her young son and pretty much nothing else in the world. This puts a strain on her marriage and her relationship with her family because she seemingly has no time for them. Most offended by Renee's snobby attitude is her younger sister Tammy (Natalie Desselle-Reid) who, above all else, takes issue with how Renee always has bitchy comments to make about what a poor job she is doing raising her two sons. In Renee's defence she is indeed correct in her assessment. Tammy's children are a rude, unruly and disrespectful bunch who, worst of all, are very poorly acted. Despite their constant quibbling, one thing that these two sisters have in common, in addition to not being particularly good mothers, is that they are not very good wives either. They both constantly bully and verbally abuse their husbands who somehow still stick with them through all their nonsense in the hopes that they might once again become the good women that they originally fell in love with. Finally there's the younger brother Byron (Shad 'Bow Wow' Moss) who, unsurprisingly, is an ex-convict struggling to stick to the straight and narrow. Far worse than his criminal record is the fact that he has a son by what is easily one of the most horrendous stereotypes of a black woman I have ever had the displeasure of seeing on the big screen. To top it all off there's Madea (Tyler Perry) herself who is not much better as far as stereotypes go.
Madea is the one given the unenviable task of bringing all of these sibling rivals together for a family dinner where Shirley has a major announcement to make. The problem is, by the time you get to that part of the film, whatever life that was in you is long dead and you simply don't care anymore. Apart from a brief 30 minute period around when the family reunion actually occurs with the expected fireworks and clashes of egos, this film is a complete abomination. Poorly directed and riddled with abysmal attempts at humour, as a bonus, Tyler Perry even throws in every conceivable negative black stereotype for good measure. Nevermind black people uplifting each other, this film achieves the exact opposite. His good friend Oprah must be so proud...
Verdict: Boring, unfunny and incredibly racist. The second half of the film is a marked improvement on the first but it's still not nearly good enough to make this mess of a film bearable. Only Tyler Perry groupies and members of the Klu Klux Klan can derive any pleasure from this.
Madea's Big Happy Family is out in cinemas now.
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