“A Madea Family Funeral” Movie Review

    It’s become something of a tradition for my girlfriend and I to see a movie in the theater once a week.  This week, we decided to check out “A Madea Family Funeral” and I didn’t know what to expect.  I have never watched a full Madea movie and have only seen a few odd clips of Tyler Perry’s movies and read other people’s reviews.  So, I basically entered the Madea Cinematic Universe blind.

    At it’s core, “A Madea Family Funeral” is a family melodrama with some humor sprinkled in.  It dives into the morality of relationships and trust (sometimes a bit too heavy handed even for a melodrama).  As the title naturally suggests, what brings Madea’s family together (and tears them apart) is the funeral Medea and her friends are asked to help coordinate.

    Tyler Perry is a bit of a fascinating figure to me.  Perry was (and still very much is) a beloved figure in the African American community and he managed to transcend racial demographics to become a main stream success.  Regardless of what you might think of his work, it’s hard not to respect and admire all he has accomplished by bringing important issues to the forefront of his work while still making them enjoyable and accessible to a general audience.

    After reading all the negative reviews for this film I have to say that I think most critics are a little too hard on this film.  To be honest, I really thought the film would be disappointing and while it’s far from the best film ever, I thought the film worked and told an entertaining story.  There were things that didn’t work and the film could be overly sappy, but no one manages to make soap opera drama work like Tyler Perry.

    The cast was led primarily by Tyler Perry in several different roles and he is enjoyable and funny in every role he is in.  Perry reminds me a bit of Jim Varney as Ernest in that respect.  Regardless of your opinions on the Madea and Ernest films, both actors were stellar in their roles which is why they both became so iconic.  On a side note, as a WWE fan, it was cool to see David Otunga in a supporting role.

    “A Madea Family Funeral” is supposedly the last Madea film Tyler Perry plans to make.  While I am not the biggest soap opera fan, Perry manages to keep you invested in the film even during the schlock moments.  Would I ultimately recommend this film?  Well, Madea fans should definitely see this in theaters but while I wouldn’t give this movie a complete pass, I would probably recommend this one as a rental to casual fans of Perry.

Grade: C