A Madea Family Funeral

A Madea Family Funeral

Starring Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, Courtney Burrell

Directed by Tyler Perry

The Story:
While preparing the anniversary of Vianne (Jen Harper) and Anthony (Derek Morgan), Anthony suffers a fatal heart attack and dies.  As the family gathers to prepare for the funeral, deep dark family secrets threaten to tear them apart.  Thankfully Madea (Tyler Perry) and her ragtag crew is also there to provide the "fun" in funeral, and try to help put all the broken pieces together.

The Synopsis:
Tyler Perry created the character Madea for his stage plays back in 1999, and has since released a slew of films featuring the loud, boisterous, no-holds-barred, crass, and downright lovable woman.  With "A Madea Family Funeral," Perry plans on putting Madea on the retirement shelf, but time will tell if this is truly the last we'll see of her.  If it is, it's a darn shame because the film is definitely not his best, and actually proves why he should retire the character - the film came off as stale, overly long, filled with cliches, and felt like watching a long soap opera episode, with some crass and borderline-annoying humor thrown in for good measure.

Perry one again produces, directs, and stars in his signature character's film, and also provides several acting duties as well.  He not only plays Madea, but Brian (which is Perry as his normal self), Joe (the old sex hound whose one-note jokes grew stale after the first one), and introduces Heathrow, a man who lost his legs and talks through an apparatus due to losing his vocal chords due to smoking, which is pretty much the Joe persona doubled - and equally as annoying.  Still, there's respect for Perry having to portray so many different characters with all the makeup and prosthetics he has to endure, so there's that going for him.

The film centers around a family who looses their patriarch suddenly, and in a manner that's totally unseemly and uncouth, but not a lot of them know how it happened - except for Madea and her crew, along with the father's son AJ, who was also participating in uncouth behaviors of his own at the time.  As the family comes together for the funeral, old secrets threaten to come to light, and it's up to Madea to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible, especially with her in charge.

While the film makes fun of how it seemingly takes forever for black people to bury their dead, it manages to take forever in telling the story, which is a big problem in the movie.  There's several scenes that weren't necessary with repetitive dialogue (AJ kept saying his father died about fifteen times in ten minutes), and even though there's a prospect for a solid story, it all ends very anti-climatically, and leaves you wondering why they even bothered making the film in the first place.

The editing in the film felt very off for a film, and seemed more designed for a soap opera on television.  It went from scene to scene in a fade, and it felt totally off in the moment.  The acting in the film - except done by Perry and her alter-egos and crass older friends - was reminiscent of soap opera acting as well, and not very good at that.  The only time I really laughed was when they were at the hospital, and Madea was trying to keep her friends from telling the family what really happened to their father, as she kept slapping them when they tried to talk.  The other jokes fell incredibly flat, and became repetitive and annoying.

The film tries to balance comedy and drama, but doesn't really hit the mark on either end, and pretty much feels like a teeter totter that remains balanced since neither end is very strong, which leads to a very boring ride.  Apart from that one funny moment, the only dramatic moment came from Vianne's speech which was really moving, but again doesn't make the whole movie worth it for just those two moments.

The Summary:
If this is the swan song for Madea, then she's going out with a whimper than a roar, which would be a shame for such an iconic film and theater character, as the film itself could've been listed as DOA.

The Score: D+