Snobbery Be Damned: The Madea Films
On The Film Yap, I’m usually the critic talking about documentaries or foreign films or films that nobody has heard of or why “The Tree of Life” is masterful while “Just Go With It” isn’t. One can easily say that I am a bit snobby. It’s not a farfetched notion; it has been suggested before.
To switch it up a little bit, I’m starting this new series of articles called Snobbery Be Damned. About once a month, I will watch a set of really popular films I haven’t seen before, get a few friends together, enjoy certain beverages and find out what I think.
In case you couldn’t tell from every article I’ve ever written, I’m white. Extremely so, many would say. As a white person, I have seen a ton of movies and shows about the black experience. Why wouldn’t I? Yet for some reason white people don’t watch Tyler Perry movies. We watch “The Wire," "Roots" and every Spike Lee movie without hesitation, but there’s something about Tyler Perry that makes people turn away.
Why?
The common reaction I hear is because “They don’t look good.” That has never stopped anybody ever. Adam Sandler movies make millions of dollars and those never look good. So for this edition of Snobbery Be Damned, I decided to watch the five theatrical Madea films to see what they were like.
Each of these is adapted from a play that Tyler Perry wrote starring this larger-than-life Madea — a loud, crass woman who will not hesitate to smack you if you’re acting up or break the law. She is played by Perry, which is unfortunate because drag is rarely funny and fortunately because this is where Perry shines the most as an actor.
The biggest misconceptions is that these movies aren’t really comedies. These are parables trying to teach a lesson. All of the films remind me of those awkward Sunday school videos teachers showed us when they were too tired to come up with another variation of the story of Noah or Moses.
All of the lessons are so blunt that it becomes clear what Perry is trying to accomplish. He baits in an audience with the broad comedy of Madea and her family and then focuses on these humanity lessons. This cannot be stressed enough: These are not subtle lessons. Not only does Madea give a speech at the end, but every single character in the movie will try to teach the main character this lesson.
The problem is that to most people, these will also seem like obvious lessons, yet Perry is trying to reach out towards a specific uneducated audience — the ones who are committing these problems. Throughout five films, Perry has taught that you shouldn’t beat your wife, you should pay child support, you should get a colonoscopy when you’re the right age, poor people are people too, you shouldn’t beat your wife, don’t sell drugs, take care of your family and seriously, do not beat your wife.
When dealing with these issues, Perry refuses to allow any gray area. Each movie has one villain that is so evil even Cruella de Vil would say, "Calm down." They are almost always men and usually they beat their wives. (Don’t beat your wife.) They are not allowed any positive aspects because Perry doesn’t want there to be any doubt whatsoever that it is ever OK for this to happen. This is OK from a moral standpoint, but for storytelling, the films suffer.
Perry is trying to play upon the morality tales usually seen in theater and very, very, very early cinema. The problem is that he can never get the balance right. Madea is what gets people into the theater to accidentally learn a lesson, but she also thematically ruins everything. In “Diary of a Mad Black Woman," there is a sequence where it shows the negative consequences of guns but Madea always uses a gun for a punchline. All of the films really don’t want you to physically abuse anyone except when Madea does it for comedic effect. Drugs are bad except for when old people smoke pot.
The comedy is what brings down all these movies. Since Perry directed them all except the first one, there is no one holding him back. I’m a big fan of comedy and I love going to and listening to improv shows. It’s a difficult art that is very separate from stand-up or writing comedy. No one in Perry’s troupe is skilled with this craft, especially Perry himself. In every Madea ramble, there is usually a good insult followed by a minute of Perry just repeating himself. Same with Mr. Brown, who apparently has his own sitcom now that I will never watch
Comedy is only a third of these movies. The rest is spent on the melodrama. (Don’t beat your wife.) This is where most of the actors get to shine. Actors like Kimberly Elise, Blair Underwood, Derek Luke, Taraji P. Henson and, surprisingly, Bow Wow all get to play characters they usually don’t get to: normal people with problems.
I respect Tyler Perry for so much of what he does even though his execution is a bit questionable. He’s not that great of a writer, but at least he’s getting better as a director. He’s very sincere about all the morals in his movies, especially after hearing the horrors of his own childhood. Perry was molested and abused several times as a kid, often by his father. From that, he’s trying to reach out and make a difference in the lives of others. Unlike my last entry, I’m OK that these are popular. They remain very flawed movies, but I think that Perry is too big to want to change them. I don’t really see him as a filmmaker but a spiritual leader. That’s where he is trying to better himself with each film/play.
To return to my original thought: Why don’t white people watch these movies? I honestly don’t know. Aside from “Madea Goes to Jail,” they aren’t terrible. There are so many good actors in these movies and often quite a few laughs and smiles throughout. These are perfect movies to catch on TV during a lazy afternoon. I think these are just improperly advertised as “comedies just for black people” and that really doesn’t work.
Grades
"Diary of a Mad Black Woman": 3.5 Yaps
"Madea’s Family Reunion": 3.5 Yaps
"Madea Goes to Jail": 1.5 Yaps
Sofia Vergara in "Madea Goes to Jail": 4 Yaps
"I Can Do Bad All By Myself": 4 Yaps
The title of "I Can Do Bad All By Myself": 5 Yaps
"Madea’s Big Family Reunion": 3 Yaps
What’s up next? I’m always looking for more suggestions. This one may take me even longer to cover because I’m working on a lot of other projects, but I’m going to cover all 13 "Land Before Time" movies. Get excited.