Tyler Perry’s work never aspires to the best of comedy or drama, and it’s not uncommon for him to cast actors and actresses prone to overacting. Maybe they’re just responding to the hackneyed scripts or Tyler Perry’s inept direction, but every now and then a quality performance or film manages to surface seemingly in spite of all the bad creative decisions made. Unfortunately, Madea’s Big Happy Family, the film adaptation of his stage play, has very few positive aspects working in its favor as this time around Perry seemed more intent on cramming the screen with the stars of his TV series instead of finding some genuine talent. The film sputters along from one scene to the next with little plot to speak of; it’s as if Perry has finally lost all touch with how to tell a story and decided he’d just cobble together a bunch of “humorous” scenes starring characters his fanbase has come to know and then called it a film.
In this slapdash collection of physical and obnoxious comedy, matriarch Madea (Perry) dishes out advice to the rising matriarchs in her family as they deal with cancer, drug-dealing teenagers, controlling spouses, and a few health scares. In a way, it does resemble the series of random events that makes up the goings on of a family, but on the other hand it makes for unfulfilling character arcs and a whole film of poorly written dialogue with nothing to make it worth a single viewing.
The two high points of the film are Loretta Davis and Isaiah Mustafa whom, having proven themselves as capable actors in other features, struggle to elevate the material here beyond utter trash. For their individual roles they have credibility the film as a whole lacks, but they by no means make Madea’s Big Happy Family worthwhile.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The extras only compound the irritations created by the feature. The featurettes cover the casting and characterization of the film’s Baby Mama (Teyana Taylor), the cast and crew talking about what makes the film so “deep” and “inspiring”, a visual map of the characters of Perry’s films as they relate to Madea, and a little segment of David Mann in character as Brown faking a call to Maury Povich. Like the film, all of the extras fail to hit their mark, making this one Blu-ray that virtually everyone should avoid.
"Madea's Big Happy Family" is on sale August 30, 2011 and is rated PG13. Comedy, Drama. Written and directed by Tyler Perry. Starring Bow Wow, Cassi Davis, David Mann, Loretta Devine, Tyler Perry, Isaiah Mustafa, Teyana Taylor.
