Madea is whack … um …back.
Accomplished film producer-director-actor Tyler Perry has dusted off his fat suit, retro spectacles and lace-front wig to revive the boisterous, but beloved, gun-toting grandma in his latest installment, Madea’s Big Happy Family.
Not straying too far from Perry’s tried-and-true formula, Big Happy is about Madea’s antics-riddled intervention in family affairs as she helps her cancer-stricken niece, Shirley (Loretta Devine), cope with the disease and unite her disjointed family in its wake. No doubt, to the delight of her throngs of fans, Madea — and her crass alter ego Joe — is a central figure in the dramedy, doling out her usual aggressive, unorthodox wisdom to the adults and visiting multiple cans of whoop a– on the youngsters that find themselves in “grown folks business.”
Also starring with Devine are rapper Bow Wow (Byron), as Shirley’s reformed drug-dealing son; Lauren London (Renee) as Byron’s gold-digging girlfriend; David and Tamela Mann as The Browns; Cassi Davis as the weed-smoking Aunt Bam; and Teyana Taylor (Sabrina) as Byron’s drama-prone “baby mama.” Comedian Rodney Perry, Old Spice sensation Isaiah Mustafa, Natalie Desselle Reid and Shannon Cane round out the rest of Shirley’s dysfunctional family.
Perry’s now-proprietary formulaic approach to the Madea franchise has resonated with his targeted audience to the tune of millions of dollars and several number one showings at the box office, but after watching Big Happy only halfway through, I must add, I have to ask the question: Who exactly comprises his audience? Are they completely mindless or just blindly loyal? Comedy is one thing, but I must revisit Spike Lee’s recent statements leveled at Perry and say, “Buffoonery is quite another.”
As a typically conscientious critic, I was appalled at the low quality of the first installment of Perry’s stage-play-on-steroids film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, but somehow, over the course of subsequent releases, I was lulled into a sense of non-judgmental acceptance. After all, he’s black, successful and was providing jobs for talented blacks shut out of Hollywood, AND, I would dare say, his skills as a director had begun to evolve over time sans the slip up of the rushed and odious Meet the Browns release. But this time, I cannot turn a blind eye toward what I deemed as some of the worst writing, directing and acting since the blaxploitation era. Does Perry think that lowly of his people to make a buck … no, millions of bucks off the gross and deprecating exaggeration of how blacks live their lives?
Apparently. When Spike brought the possible oversight to his attention, he responded in Madea fashion with, “He can go straight to hell!”
Don’t get me wrong, I like to laugh (and real life certainly provides great fodder for it) and looked forward to doing so as I entered the theater to check out Big Happy. But instead, my jaw dropped and remained in that position for as long as I could endure seeing African Americans being portrayed as illiterate, weed-smoking, drug-dealing, smack-talking, scandal-riddled coloreds to reality-defying, over-the-top degrees. We do have issues. I acknowledge that. But the exaggerations in this film are so gross, I had to exit the theater early. Madea and the rest of the Big Happy cast shucked their way up one side of the screen and jived their way down the other.
No need to go into further details about the disservice Madea’s Big Happy Family does to our race because, though under fire for it, Spike Lee said it best. But I was embarrassed by the film and dumbfounded by the guffaws that echoed throughout the theater as black moviegoers watched exploitative caricatures of themselves on display for anybody with $10 to see.
As a black man, I sincerely applaud your business savvy, Tyler Perry, but your two steps forward in Hollywood have truly set your African American “Family” 10 steps back this time around. That doesn’t make me “Happy,” especially since we have so few opportunities to show and prove. –painfully aware
