Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

MADEA'S FAMILY REUNION (PG-13)

MOVIE BIASES: Anything I say can't stop the Tyler Perry juggernaut.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Blair Underwood (G), Boris Kodjoe (The Gospel), Rochelle Aytes (White Chicks), and actor/writer/producer/director Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman)

You can't stop Tyler Perry, you can only hope to contain him. LA Times. Entertainment Weekly. Essence. Oprah. The man's coming outta your toaster oven. And his legions of "urban theater"-trained fans are fierce. Despite my surprising (to myself) @@ rating of the first of his Madea stageplays to make it to the big screen, they still took me to the woodshed with all the typically erroneous groupthink propaganda (get off the "REEL DEAL don't like black movies" dog - it's a dog that
won't hunt). I hate to inform you Tyler Perry Legionnaires that in his film directorial debut, the self-proclaimed mogul-in-the-making has got some 'splainin' to do.

"Hell-ohr!" Madea's (Perry) back at it again, this time saddled with the court-ordered custody of wild child runaway Nikki (Keke Palmer). As a one-woman community center, the tough lovin' Madea prepares for her family reunion while her nieces Lisa (Rochelle Aytes) and Vanessa (Lisa Arrindell Anderson) endure domestic abuse and self-esteem issues, respectively. And when things boil to a head around the
reunion, Madea's ready to lay a verbal and physical smackdown on anyone in her way.

Buckle up people, because I'm going to go to work on this one. This movie is out of control. I can't knock Tyler Perry's hustle, but he sure ain't a writer or a director. Nary a shred of nuance to the dialogue, every line is explained matter-of-factly, without any touch of allusion, metaphor, imagery, or mystery. NOBODY TALKS LIKE THIS (When was the last time you said exactly what you mean/think to people for an entire day? Didn't think so.). Not even the trite, Biblical underpinnings that leaden his work can support the entertainment interests of his moviegoing constituency. Such a lazy, uncomplicated screenplay stoops to incorporate aggressively bad conversation, wholly unnecessary flatulence, and a treacly earnestness that would make an Afterschool Special blush. I know high school seniors who can write a better screenplay. Seriously.

But wait - there's more. Even for a first time movie director, Tyler Perry's "Madea" is a full-fledged train wreck. Sure to lure his base and then some this opening weekend, the "Madea" trailer is better directed than the film, most likely because he didn't direct it. Not only does this movie out-melodrama melodrama, Perry has the
directorial touch of a stonemason; "Madea" is the anti-"Syriana." The illogical, over-the-rooftop outbursts are back. The unchecked, over-emoting, middle school class play style of acting is back. I pity the poor actors stuck in a movie this out of control, like the Royal Family trapped on a Paris Hilton-Tara Reid-sponsored booze cruise. Besides the (visual) charms of the alluring Rochelle Aytes, there is nothing particularly memorable about any stitch of acting in this piece. Well, save an exhumed Cicely Tyson, who gives the single most preposterous, cringe-inducing monologue this side of "Battlefield Earth." This is bad theater on film.

Similarly unbearable is Madea. How in the world does anyone go to this woman for any kind of counsel? Her advice is neither profound nor legal - her answer to every and any situation is violence. She's clumsy and obvious and, in only brief intervals, occasionally funny. Whereas her act was a novelty in the first movie, now Madea squanders whatever goodwill her occasional one-liners earn her with frequent
malapropisms that fall flatter than Selma Blair in a sauna, and a lesson in maiming by hot grits (yes, you read that correctly). If there were a license for moviemaking, Tyler Perry's would be revoked.

As this ship wandered aimlessly around the harbor of bad ideas, I began to zone out, while the normally polite screening crowd of Industry professionals laughed inappropriately at all the earnestly dramatic moments. Would anyone notice if I played poker on my cell phone? That "Exit" sign is really, really green. Has anyone ever actually died from boredom? Is there life on Mars? And so forth. After this mind-numbing chore of cinematic underachievement, I will need a colonic for my brain.

Stumbling to the bitter end with a laughably preposterous ending that is so shockingly bad and tacky that I couldn't find it in me to laugh with the others, "Madea's Family Reunion" is even worse than I'd thought I'm embarrassed in advance that there will be people in my community (probably those same miscreants who think "THE REEL DEAL don't like black movies!") who will dare call this Code Black of a flick "entertainment." Having snookered in the masses with an
attractive trailer shrewdly crafted by Lionsgate Marketing, "Madea" will, unfortunately, make some money. But what can be said about a movie, no, a philosophy of filmmaking so simplistic that it ascribes to the Church of Rub a Little God on It and It'll Be Alright in the End and not to, oh, say, a complex, faith-based yet realistic solution for these modern times? "Pray only just a little while longer. And everything will be all right." Can we pray that there's never another Madea movie?

I love the unabashed dynamism of Perry's multimedia outreach to become a success in the entertainment world. I'm just appalled that the value of our entertainment dollar is so low that he can ride this schlock to said success. Like I said, I can't knock his hustle. But I sure can knock the hell out of his movie.

0 REELS
(ZERO REELS)
There's nothing I'd rather watch more. This is as bad as it gets.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare MADEA'S FAMILY REUNION (PG-13) MOVIE BIASES: Anything I say can't stop the Tyler Perry juggernaut. MAJOR PLAYERS: Blair Underwood (G), Boris Kodjoe (The Gospel), Rochelle Aytes (White Chicks), and actor/writer/producer/director Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) You can't stop Tyler Perry, you can only hope to contain him. LA Times. Entertainment Weekly. Essence. Oprah. The man's coming outta your toaster oven. And his legions of "urban theater"-trained fans are fierce. Despite my surprising (to myself) @@ rating of the first of his Madea stageplays to make it to the big screen, they still took me to the woodshed with all the typically erroneous groupthink propaganda (get off the "REEL DEAL don't like black movies" dog - it's a dog that won't hunt). I hate to inform you Tyler Perry Legionnaires that in his film directorial debut, the self-proclaimed mogul-in-the-making has got some 'splainin' to do. "Hell-ohr!" Madea's (Perry) back at it again, this time saddled with the court-ordered custody of wild child runaway Nikki (Keke Palmer). As a one-woman community center, the tough lovin' Madea prepares for her family reunion while her nieces Lisa (Rochelle Aytes) and Vanessa (Lisa Arrindell Anderson) endure domestic abuse and self-esteem issues, respectively. And when things boil to a head around the reunion, Madea's ready to lay a verbal and physical smackdown on anyone in her way. Buckle up people, because I'm going to go to work on this one. This movie is out of control. I can't knock Tyler Perry's hustle, but he sure ain't a writer or a director. Nary a shred of nuance to the dialogue, every line is explained matter-of-factly, without any touch of allusion, metaphor, imagery, or mystery. NOBODY TALKS LIKE THIS (When was the last time you said exactly what you mean/think to people for an entire day? Didn't think so.). Not even the trite, Biblical underpinnings that leaden his work can support the entertainment interests of his moviegoing constituency. Such a lazy, uncomplicated screenplay stoops to incorporate aggressively bad conversation, wholly unnecessary flatulence, and a treacly earnestness that would make an Afterschool Special blush. I know high school seniors who can write a better screenplay. Seriously. But wait - there's more. Even for a first time movie director, Tyler Perry's "Madea" is a full-fledged train wreck. Sure to lure his base and then some this opening weekend, the "Madea" trailer is better directed than the film, most likely because he didn't direct it. Not only does this movie out-melodrama melodrama, Perry has the directorial touch of a stonemason; "Madea" is the anti-"Syriana." The illogical, over-the-rooftop outbursts are back. The unchecked, over-emoting, middle school class play style of acting is back. I pity the poor actors stuck in a movie this out of control, like the Royal Family trapped on a Paris Hilton-Tara Reid-sponsored booze cruise. Besides the (visual) charms of the alluring Rochelle Aytes, there is nothing particularly memorable about any stitch of acting in this piece. Well, save an exhumed Cicely Tyson, who gives the single most preposterous, cringe-inducing monologue this side of "Battlefield Earth." This is bad theater on film. Similarly unbearable is Madea. How in the world does anyone go to this woman for any kind of counsel? Her advice is neither profound nor legal - her answer to every and any situation is violence. She's clumsy and obvious and, in only brief intervals, occasionally funny. Whereas her act was a novelty in the first movie, now Madea squanders whatever goodwill her occasional one-liners earn her with frequent malapropisms that fall flatter than Selma Blair in a sauna, and a lesson in maiming by hot grits (yes, you read that correctly). If there were a license for moviemaking, Tyler Perry's would be revoked. As this ship wandered aimlessly around the harbor of bad ideas, I began to zone out, while the normally polite screening crowd of Industry professionals laughed inappropriately at all the earnestly dramatic moments. Would anyone notice if I played poker on my cell phone? That "Exit" sign is really, really green. Has anyone ever actually died from boredom? Is there life on Mars? And so forth. After this mind-numbing chore of cinematic underachievement, I will need a colonic for my brain. Stumbling to the bitter end with a laughably preposterous ending that is so shockingly bad and tacky that I couldn't find it in me to laugh with the others, "Madea's Family Reunion" is even worse than I'd thought I'm embarrassed in advance that there will be people in my community (probably those same miscreants who think "THE REEL DEAL don't like black movies!") who will dare call this Code Black of a flick "entertainment." Having snookered in the masses with an attractive trailer shrewdly crafted by Lionsgate Marketing, "Madea" will, unfortunately, make some money. But what can be said about a movie, no, a philosophy of filmmaking so simplistic that it ascribes to the Church of Rub a Little God on It and It'll Be Alright in the End and not to, oh, say, a complex, faith-based yet realistic solution for these modern times? "Pray only just a little while longer. And everything will be all right." Can we pray that there's never another Madea movie? I love the unabashed dynamism of Perry's multimedia outreach to become a success in the entertainment world. I'm just appalled that the value of our entertainment dollar is so low that he can ride this schlock to said success. Like I said, I can't knock his hustle. But I sure can knock the hell out of his movie. 0 REELS (ZERO REELS) There's nothing I'd rather watch more. This is as bad as it gets. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com Â© 2004, Edwardo Jackson