Sunday, February 22, 2009

Madea Goes To Jail!


At long last, Madea returns to the big screen in Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail. This time America's favorite irreverent, pistol-packin' grandmomma is raising hell behind bars and lobbying for her freedom...Hallelujer! To the dismay of many of my fellow bloggers, that find these films as disappointing, I disagree. Once again Tyler Perry brings to the screen unheralded talent, such as Viola Davis, whom on this Oscar evening is well desrving of a oscar nod, and win this evening for her performance in Doubt. And this is why I defend Tyler against some of his ardent critics in the blogsphere. Who else continues to recoginise and promote unherald black talent.


Tyler Perry is a master at making modern morality plays which address an array of concerns of the African-American community. What makes his films feel so authentic is that his characters invariably reflect black culture in a manner which is instantly recognizable and thus effortlessly resonates with the audience as real. Another plus is Perry's knowing how to mix-in plenty of comic relief without diluting the power of the sobering message he's trying to deliver.
Loosely-based on the stage production of the same name, Madea Goes to Jail just might be Tyler Perry's best endeavor to date. The film stars Tyler, back in drag, as the sassy, pistol-packing Mable "Madea" Simmons, heading a talented ensemble which includes Viola Davis, Derek Luke, Ion Overman, Keisha Knight Pulliam and David and Tamela J. Mann.

The cast also features an incredible number of celebrity cameos, most notably, Dr. Phil, and TV Judges Greg Mathis and Mablean Ephriam, not to mention Reverend Al Sharpton, comedian Steve Harvey, DJs Tom Joyner and Michael Baisden, CNN news anchor Tony Harris, and The View talk show hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Fortunately, balancing all the egos never gets in the way of making a hilarious flick, for the finished product is a rollicking roller coaster that ought to be fun for the whole family.
At the point of departure, we find Madea in front of Judge Mablean who lets the hell-raising granny off with a slap on the wrist and a stern warning for leading police on a high-speed freeway chase. Instead of landing behind bars, she is ordered to undergo treatment for anger management with Dr. Phil. While on the coach, she and the shrink engage in a hilarious exchange reminiscent of Abbott and Costello's classic "Who's on First?"
Needless to say, the therapy doesn't work, and Madea goes berserk again when a customer steals her parking spot at the mall. After wrecking the woman's car with a forklift, Madea is arrested again but ends up this time in front of a very incensed Judge Mathis who decides to teach her a lesson with a sentence of 5-10 years.
Meanwhile, there's a whole parallel plot unfolding involving Assistant District Attorney Joshua Hardaway (Luke) who is engaged to Linda (Overman), a bourgie colleague who doesn't understand why he might care about rehabilitating Candy (Pulliam), a former girlfriend who has turned to streetwalking. With the help of a prison minister (Davis), Josh does his best to get his ex the help she needs anyway, a decision which destabilizes his once solid relationship. Everything comes to a head when Madea and Candy cross paths in a correctional facility, leading to tidy resolution which not only ties loose ends but elicits a few tears.
Remember to stay for the closing credits, for some bonus badinage between Madea and Dr. Phil.
Lionsgate and TPS Present A Reuben Cannon/Lionsgate Production of Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail. Based on Perry's successful stage play, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail is produced, written and directed by Tyler Perry.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with your rent comments on another blog, on a recent episode of Burn Notice, it was directed by a long time Spike Lee collaborator Enerst Dickenson, of Juice Fame.

Spike has open doors for many folks!

Kellybelle said...

I forgot about all the cameos--The View really surprised me! Elizabeth? Must have been the Christian message.

lincolnperry said...

lol, Tyler is attracting a diverse audience!

Unknown said...

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (2009) is a well made entertaining movie so many people have seen it on free movies http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com and also lot of with the internet, I think because it was a comedy many have seen it, it was a different movie what I like about Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (2009) is that the enthusiasm in the movie to keep company with the viewers

Kim said...

I enjoy Tyler Perry movies and he will always have my support, yes he could use a little help with the writing but he has not dissapointed me yet.

Anonymous said...

You Tyler Perry supporters are sick. His writing is mediocre to terrible; the characters are simple, over the top, some have no redeaming value whatsoever, and in many cases they are just plain stupid. Why does a man in a dress seem to fascinate so many of us. As if black men haven't been emasculated enough. ANYWAY!

Black film has no creativity in it at all anymore - certainly has no message or morality. Do you all realize that we have no black films for OUR children at all? It's like Hip Hop - the level of craftsmanship in its popular form has digressed so much that we seem to enjoy only the purposefully obtuse! Come on people, surely we can raise our standards higher than "Madea"

Kim said...

But we are brave enough not to remin Anonymous.. Tyler Perry is just one film maker and the Madea brand is just one genre of film if that is all that you have exposed your children to then you are an idiot. May I suggest you get out more and or have your children READ A Book. It amazes me that when movies like The Great Debaters or Mirical at St. Anna come out they do very poorly at the box office-- people don't run their mouths nearly as much as they do when A Tyler Perry films opens. When those movies came to theatres how many blogs were you on running your mouth telling people to support those films.

lincolnperry said...

You are right Kelly, there are countless shows showing African Americans in postive roles, one of my favorites is Dennis Haysbert as leader of a elite unit of Delta Force, Angela Basset on Greys Anatomy, and Omar Epps on House, thats TV. You have a new indie film Medicine for Melancholy: Film about the African-American experience in San Francisco. So disagree with all the gripes about Tyler Perry, go out and support the other diverse offers on TV and in the theaters!

Anonymous said...

did you read my review?