I’m left unconvinced Tyler Perry knows what the word “happy” means. I suppose it’s possible he uses the word ironically to describe this mishmash of three failing marriages and a woman dying from cancer, but given Tyler’s track record it is inconceivable the man knows what irony is, let alone its appropriate usage.
Every time I go to a Tyler Perry film, I try to imagine the motivations of his core followers. I picture myself as one of them – African American, church-going, family-oriented, probably Southern. Then I ask “what would impel me to attend this blessed event?” Do I want to see Loretta Devine die of cancer? Do I want to see three different couples bicker? Do I want to see a large black man dressed as a woman bully people for two hours? Even were I the epitome of Tyler-mania, would I find any of that remotely entertaining? I remain baffled as to the Tyler Perry appeal. Baffled.
This time around, we meet Madea (writer/director Tyler Perry in old-woman drag for the uninitiated) at a drive-thru window. She is understandably outraged by the poor treatment given her by Sabrina (Teyana Taylor), who quickly leaps to the top as my least favorite TP character, which is saying something given that I’ve seen both Why Did I Get Married? films. Not a bad premise — I think we’ve all had drive-thru service bad enough to want to take action; hence, this is a pretty good set up. Madea being Madea, she swings her car around and drives it straight into the building, and this is where the film loses me. For one thing, there’s minimal damage to the establishment itself as if we were deliberately saving on destruction costs. The fast food restaurant is also heavy on mobile patronage, but surprisingly light on furniture (like all fast food places); the car does no other damage than smashing a plate-glass window. Madea then hops the counter and … starts throwing things in random directions? She fails to attack the abusive operator; instead focusing her bile on, what? Food in general? Then she leaves. Didn’t hit a single person with a fist or wield a single non-food object in that time. Not one. And being a Madea film, of course, the police only exist as a metaphor. In the last Madea film, she went to jail (for, among other things, reckless driving); but apparently the deliberate smashing through a populated restaurant with your vehicle is not a matter for the fuzz.
Later on in the film, the police bust an 18-year-old on suspected alimony failure. You read that right. So if you’re scoring at home – driving through a restaurant = not even a misdemeanor, but we still have debtor’s prison. The Tyler Perry justice system is fascinating, is it not? I wonder who the Attorney General is in Tyler Perry’s world, Scrooge McDuck? Mr. Moneybags from the Monopoly set?
Geez, where do I add the part where Madea bitch slaps another child into submission? This stuff really will make you sick to your stomach. There is no difference in the TP world between fear and respect. Yes, children need discipline, especially these little punks. But a 6’4” behemoth slapping a child silly until behavior is corrected is not the answer. Do you know what you get when a child acts out of fear and fear alone? The understanding that he or she needs to be a bigger bully to get what (s)he wants. It is no stretch in my mind that a child bullied in this fashion will attempt to own a gun as a teenager. As a message, this is among the worst, even for Tyler Perry.
What sets apart Madea’s Big Happy Family from other terrible TP offerings is not the bullying, but a shocking misogynistic streak. The four younger women in this film are all bitches. Plain and simple. Eventually, we are allowed to see the human qualities in one of them, and sage Madea encourages her husband to lay down the law with her – a man has to rule the roost, use the back of his hand if necessary. Wow. The 1950s ain’t dead everywhere, is they? The running gag in the film is patriarch Joe (also played by Tyler Perry) encouraging men to “choke dat (whore)”. It’s repeated often for comic effect, because, I ask you, what’s funnier than misogyny?
Last fall, Tyler Perry gave us For Colored Girls, his best film to date, by far. It was a shocking step towards potential good filmmaking. Was there hope? Has the man morphed into an actual talent? Now Tyler Perry has followed it up with one of his worst films to date. And by TP standards, a “one of his worst films to date” puts it in bottom-25 of all time range. Was he embarrassed by the women empowerment stuff? Did he feel the need to overcompensate the other way? Forget anything nice I might have said about the man last year. I truly hope he never makes another film. It’s no longer fun panning this crap.
Rated PG-13, 106 Minutes
D: Tyler Perry
W: Tyler Perry
Genre: Tyler Perry
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of corporal punishment on children
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Entertainment hounds
