A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL: Hallelujah! The Series is Over

Tyler Perry is insane. If I do recall, the definition of insanity goes something like: doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. And yet the cross-dressing auteur, now on his 11th feature in the Madea Cinematic Universe, is still monotonously telling the same joke with the same prosaic result.

It’s been 14 years – yes, 14 years! – since we first saw the deliciously malicious grandma take center stage. Back then it was baffling to see a 6’5″ Perry squeeze his way into that floral dress. Along with the pasty makeup, over-sized glasses, a weaponized purse to match Margaret Thatcher, and most notably, a knack for crude vocabulary. But now these traits hardly seem shocking. In fact, the buffoonery here seems rather tame.

Still, audiences are bound to rush to theaters in order to see this cultural touchstone do her thing. The film has already raked in 27 million opening weekend. Why? It seems the general public is more interested in witless crotch jokes than a movie with actual balls. There’s a fundamental dissonance between what’s good and what the box-office numbers show. Made all the more apparent by America’s fascination with this relentlessly unfunny series.

Another Depressing Funeral

That being said, we can at least be thankful for Perry‘s announcement that this will be Madea’s final picture. Though she isn’t the one to die, unfortunately. He leaves that to the family patriarch named Anthony (Derek Morgan), who goes out with a bang in the middle of some kinky S&M with a younger woman – not his wife. It just so happens that Anthony’s older son, A.J. (Courtney Burrell), is in the hotel room next door when the heart attack happens.

He’s there with Gia (Aeriel Miranda), his brother Jessie’s (Rome Flynn) wife, and for reasons undisclosed to us, Madea and her geriatric posse stop by and see all of it. The scandal, the smile on Anthony’s now dead face, and the reason for said smile just below his waist.

Without wasting any of your time, I will tell you that all of this makes for a hard watch. Following the tragic death, the rest of the film centers the family sitting in circles, as the quartet of elderly pals “humorously” comments on the action. It’s like Mystery Science Theater 3000 if the commentators were old and unfunny. There’s Madea, of course, with a church choir’s soul and a 14-year-old boy’s sense of humor. She’s joined by Bam (Cassie Davis), Hattie (Patrice Lovely), the legless Heathrow (Perry), and the miraculously funny Joe (also Perry), an old timer who is utterly convinced that he’s still got it. He does, but the movie seems to be missing that same IT factor.

Everything and nothing happens in the latest Madea adventure. The frame is brimming with discord as characters are constantly shouting sassy remarks at each other. And yet, there’s no energy. What’s missing is what helped make Barbershop a beloved comedy: the communal warmth, moralistic heart, and the ability to cut the unneeded bits off the edges.

“Unneeded bits” might as well be the motto for A Madea Family Funeral. Most notably the melodramatic undercurrents (more on that in a little). If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you can’t blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. The same can be said for letting Madea and her posse in on a secret. “The hotel? These hoes don’t tell,” she exclaims in response to her confused family. Ironically, the majority of the laughs come from watching these four unveil these secrets at every turn.

A Madea Family Funeral: Conclusion

The laughs are few and far between. However, I did find myself laughing throughout the funeral service itself. As Madea shoes off those at the podium after two minutes like it was the Oscars. Or the ceremonial bits in which Joe and Heathrow yawn and complain about the running time.

For the rest of the running time, odds are you will be impatiently yawning along with them. The idea of watching senior citizens try to be hip, and throw out their hips in the process, wears as thin as you would think. In the first two acts all you have to sit through is a jumbled script and erratic continuity. In one scene the characters leave at night for the hospital, and by the time they get there it’s daytime? But it becomes even more irrational in its soap-opera finale, when all the secrets are disclosed and the cheating men pay for their actions.

It’s a message we need to hear, but the Hallelujah’s don’t come until the credits.

Did you see A Madea Family Funeral? What were your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

A Madea Family Funeral was released in the US on March 8, 2019. For all international release dates, see here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id61hcbdMZA