Tyler Perry's Latest Box Office Hit Gets a B- For Effort

By Khandyce Menard

After over a two-year hiatus from a lead role, Tyler Perry has finally brought our favorite trash-talking and pistol-packing grandma back to the big screen. The Black dramedy drew huge numbers at the box office opening weekend making $41 million.

In Madea Goes to Jail, Mabel Simmons, better known as Madea, continues her out-of-control antics. The movie begins a funny montage of Madea mug shots, chronicling the short-tempered senior’s numerous brushes with the law for prostitution, drugs, and violence. Despite her history of violations, Madea continually managed to get off until the law finally caught up with her. Judge Mathis plays the role of the no-nonsense judge that finally sentences her to prison.

The movie seemed to go downhill from there. Perry stuck to the formula he is known for, which includes his over-the-top situations and jumble of plots and subplots. While Madea is the title character, much of the movie follows the love triangle between Assistant DA Josh (Derek Luke), his fiancée Linda (Ion Overman), and Josh’s childhood friend Candy (Keisha Knight Pulliam). When Josh discovers Candy had become a prostitute, he jumps through hoops to try to help her stay out of trouble and get her life together. For most of the movie it’s clear that there is something more than just friendship between the two, which creates a strain between Josh and his fiancée, but the extent of their relationship isn’t explained until later in the movie.

Up to this point, even through Perry is able to elicit some laughs at different points in the movie, most of them come from his references to Madea’s swearing, gun toting, or beating someone down. When she isn’t doing that, the laughs are fewer and farther between.

Final Grade: I hate to say it but Madea seemed like a long drawn out soap opera. It was predictable, and the humor borderline juvenile, yet ironically still entertaining. In a time when we all have much greater worries on out minds, who wants to be drained by a heavy drama? It managed to keep me awake, didn’t make me cry, and was mildly funny. Madea Goes to Jail gets a B- for effort.