Madea's Witness Protection

(Credit IMDb) A Wall Street investment banker who has been set up as the linchpin of his company's mob-backed Ponzi scheme is relocated with his family to Aunt Madea's southern home.

I like Tyler Perry, but I wasn't feeling this one at all! It felt forced and contrived to me. Eugene Levy is a very funny person, but the material lets him down here. This one doesn't have many belly laughs in it. The most I did was chuckle, and that was pretty rarely. I'm beginning to wonder if Madea has hit a wall... I believe Tyler Perry is fully capable of making good Madea movies, but the last two I've seen (This one and Madea's Big Happy Family) haven't impressed me very much. The great cast does what they can. Denise Richards is great to look at, but she's better as the vixen type. Doris Roberts, Tom Arnold & John Amos add presence. The kids were thoroughly annoying in this movie. Charlie Sheen's cameo was fun... I'll say that

It wasn't horrible, but one of Tyler's weakest efforts as Madea. I hope "A Madea Christmas" is a bit of a rebound for Tyler. I still believe in the character!

5/10

I did not see the entire movie when I first watched. The listings said it started at 2 and that's when recording started. But when I watched, the commercial break ended precisely as the recording started. As soon as I saw the family, I realized I knew them. Earlier in the day, I turned on a different TV with a DVR that records from an antenna (the other DVR uses cable) and met a dysfunctional family. I didn't have time to watch any more of this movie, as I had something to watch that the DVR had recorded, but I assumed I had seen it somewhere and could tell I would have really enjoyed it. I even checked the listings (which I don't normally do) and saw "To be announced". No, this channel is not on cable and I wouldn't have seen what it was showing anyway. The bratty teenage daughter resented being told to accept her father's second wife.

I saw the first half hour when this aired in July 2024 and Tom Arnold was a cartoon character but still funny, and Madea nearly destroyed a 1970 Cadillac teaching a would-be robber a lesson. Too pretty a car to be abusing like that; how many are left? But it was fun.

Yes, these people were as much fun as I assumed they would be when I was introduced. A lot of details were missing but I was able to figure out what had happened.

Whether she could act or not, Denise Richards sure was pretty to look at, and even if Cindy hated her, she was nice enough. And I'm not overly critical. Richards seemed good enough to me.

Eugene Levy, of course, gave his usual good performance doing what he does best, a frustrated and somewhat wimpy man who can't seem to cope with all the chaos around him.

John Amos did his usual fine job as the pastor. I don't quite understand why he would be here, because years ago he complained about a quality TV series he co-starred in being taken over by a clown. This is different? Maybe he needed the money, but of course he added to the quality here.

Doris Roberts was funny as a family member losing her mind.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Tyler Perry, he was great here in three very different roles, and the visual effects crew made him appear to be in scenes with himself quite convincingly. Dignified as the FBI agent, silly as Uncle Joe, and, well, what can you say about Madea? I've seen a couple of her movies and you just have to like her, if you are capable of it. She won't take that kind of business from anyone, but if you let her show you love, she will. What I wasn't expecting was the road trip, and getting through airport security was absolutely hilarious. And Madea in the big city? Priceless! All the deception and scheming really made this work for me.

And what a choir! I'm not really a fan of black church music, but these people were fantastic.

No, it won't win Oscars. It's just fun.

Tyler Perry took the film industry by storm when he introduced Madea in his first film Diary of a Man Black Woman. The stories were always filled with comedy, but surrounded by an emotional story that made them so much more. Over time, the idea stayed intact, but Madea has stepped more into the forefront and they have been losing their serious side. With the latest Madea's Witness Protection it seemed to be another with more comedy than drama, but with an all-new twist taking this story outside the norm with the introduction of a white family into Madea's world.

Madea's Witness Protection follows an investment banker who is caught up in a Ponzi scheme to take the fall for the Wall Street firm he works for. In exchange for a lighter sentence he decides to work with the District Attorney's office and is put into witness protection in the home of Madea, the District Attorneys aunt. This is probably one of the weakest of all the Perry movies to date. While it's not horrible, it has almost completely lost all of the dramatic aspect that made these movies so effective. There are a few aspects for this family to grow, but it's played up more on the comedy side instead of the usually powerful drama. The cast is fine with the direction of the film, but really the only truly funny moments are that of Madea and Joe both played by Perry himself. They are the kind of characters that if you like them are really funny if you don't then the entire film falls flat. The story is fine even though the reasoning for them being there is a bit far-fetched, but if you can let that go the movie is pretty fun.

In the bigger picture you are either a Perry fan or not. If you like his films then you will enjoy this one despite the lack of the drama; if you don't then you will most likely not see it anyway. The Madea character is one that has become one of those characters that fans love and others are annoyed by. No matter what you feel of the character or these films you cannot deny Perry's ability as a filmmaker and his creativity on bringing her back to the big screen. This is probably not her last appearance, but let's hope he heads back to his roots to find the passion and drama to team up with the comedy to deliver another powerful movie like the one that started it all.

I sat down in 2021 to watch the 2012 movie "Madea's Witness Protection". Now, I was vaguely familiar with the Madea movies in general, having seen a single one I think, so I wasn't really completely sure what I was getting into here.

However, I will say that writer and director Tyler Perry did manage to produce a script, storyline and movie that was fun enough for what it turned out to be. "Madea's Witness Protection" is the type of movie that you will watch once, and probably never again, as the contents of the storyline just didn't strike me as it was having enough to it to support more than a single viewing.

I suppose it takes a certain kind of humor to fully get into a movie such as "Madea's Witness Protection". But for me personally, there was only so much of a man pretending to be a woman that could be seen before it started to grow stale. I mean, it has been done and seen before in movies such as the 2007 movie "Norbit" or the numerous "Big Momma's House", and others. So it wasn't as if Tyler Perry was inventing anything grand here with this 2012 movie.

The movie definitely is carried by a rather impressive cast list, with the likes of Tyler Perry, Eugene Levy, Denise Richards, Tom Arnold, Doris Roberts and John Amos on the billing.

There was a fair amount of comedy throughout the course of the movie, and that definitely helped to keep the movie afloat a great long way.

I was adequately entertained by "Madea's Witness Protection", but this was hardly an outstanding gem in the comedy genre. Nor is it a movie that I think I will ever be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of "Madea's Witness Protection" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I'm not going to regurgitate the premise of this movie as many others have. I will say that if you don't like TP and/or Medea, why the heck did you watch this movie. It was a typical Madea movie. Silly, OTT, nonsensical etc. But to fans of Perry, it was just plain mindless funny. We're you expecting fine theater based on classic literature? It's beginning to be obvious, based on all the reviews of all his movies that there's a significant amount of bigotry coming from TP's community. What a shame.