Boo! A Madea Halloween

Hellur there, Robbie K is back again and if you haven't guessed my next review is on the latest Tyler Perry "masterpiece". Madea, and all her lovable qualities, has been making audiences laugh for almost twenty years. Although many of her movies are essentially double dipped versions with a slight twist, the crossdressing writer continues to get people to flood into theaters almost every year. So, let's see if the mad woman can conquer a Halloween themed movie, shall we?

LIKES: • Madea smacking on young kids • Some clever jokes and timing • A change in setting…sort of

I'll come out and say that I'm not a die-hard fan of the series like others, but I'd also be lying if I said I didn't enjoy her brand of justice. Madea's Halloween has plenty of moments where juvenile, annoying teenage characters meet her wrath. Smacks in the back of the head, fists flying into rubber noses, and intense threats are just some of the tactics the old woman uses to scare the daylights out the brats. It's silly fun that will keep many laughing most of the movie, but Perry sneaks a few morals into the mix to give some of the scenes a point. Older generations will surely enjoy seeing the immature generation get some sense beaten into them. And when Madea isn't laying the smack down, she also manages to get some clever jokes into the mix. Amidst the mindless ramblings that come out of our characters 90% of the time, Madea gets a few good lines in to maximize the laughs. Often this is in the form on an insult or a rebuttal to an accusation, but Perry has some witty moments that had me riling. Her brother Joe had me laughing even more, primarily due to his well-timed confession though I wish he could have a cleaner mouth at times. Ms. Hattie and Aunt Bam also contribute some of the laughs, rounding out the comedy to appeal to as many people as possible. Finally, it was nice to see Madea leave her home for…somebody else's home. Madea's Halloween hasn't moved too far from her hood, but it integrated a new theme into the setting to freshen things up. The spoof on killer clowns, the integration of a frat house, and putting some ghost themed tricks into the mix finally broke the mold on the family drama that every other installment has. Halloween trades the tearful, preachy character moments for more laughs, giving it a more positive energy that doesn't make you want to take a nap. This new approach will be refreshing for most and may be the new formula to Madea's success.

DISLIKES: • Annoying characters and antics • Rambling gets old • Editing

Tyler Perry certainly knows how to develop annoying character, and Madea's Halloween does not get an exception. As mentioned earlier, the teenagers are annoying representations of today's youth, portrayed as being obsessed with booze, sex, and back talking parents. The main girl Tiffany takes lead in this category. Her extreme rebellious attitude leads to over dramatic and overacted antics that rubbed my nerves raw. The rest of the cohort doesn't fare much better, with the exception of one, that serve little more than becoming fodder for Madea and having audience members say "Oh no she didn't!" And I'll get bashed for this, but Ms. Hattie was too much for me in this movie. In her past appearances, the small woman's high pitched voice was timed well to be fun and funny, but she was too much for me in this film. Her antics were too overdone and her voice just rubbed me the wrong way. If you like her though, then good news, she's in this movie a lot. Something else that started rubbing me the wrong way was the rambling. Madea and company have many moments where all they do is gab, usually involving three to four people talking incoherently about drugs, sex, stupidity, drugs, sex, stupidity, police, crime, and stupidity. Then Madea comes in and shares her experience and the rambling starts again. Yes this is Madea and it has come to be expected, but usually there are some other things to break it up. Not the case in this film and the lack of balance quickly led to the ramblings getting stale and losing its comedic edge for me, though this wasn't the case for a lot of the audience. As for the editing, it is greatly skewed in this movie and quite poor to be honest. At least three times the movie was just extended sequences of rambling that did little for me other than add forty-five extra minutes to the movie, though it did have others laughing their heads off. Even more disappointing is that the Halloween theme is kind of lost to Madea's rambling and so much potential for jokes is lost to the old hat antics, which is just so sad. But with how much fun most will have with this movie, I don't think this will be an issue to most.

The Verdict:

Madeas Halloween is surprisingly fun and refreshing compared to her other works. It's filled with her characteristic rambling, corny insults, and the same types of jokes that have been played for years. Unfortunately for this reviewer, the Halloween potential was lost to annoying characters and rambling, which only extended the run time for me. While this is certain to win top box office this weekend, this reviewer thinks this movie is best left to TBS/TNT showings.

My scores are: Comedy/Horror: 6.5 Movie Overall: 5.5

so sweet and so funny! I know people have their opinions about Tyler Perry...but I love him and I think that he is so talented and so funny. Madea is awesome and she is so funny and just a really likable character. I will always love his stories because they always have a great message and I love how he believes in Jesus and I love the faith aspect in his movies. This is a great movie and I will love to see it every Halloween.

First of all, I would like to announce I'm a HUGE Madea fan ever since I watched the first one and have watched all of them.

There were certainly good elements in this Madea but the movie lost my attention at times. Some scenes were way too long - first thing you learn as a screenwriter is not to write a scene that's over 3 minutes, especially not at the beginning, or you may lose your viewers. Some parts of the dialogue were redundant.

Some of the Actors are not actual actors but Youtube sensations. Their acting was not the most convincing. It's hard to be over-the-top character-style (like Tyler Perry does with Madea) but still be believable. It also take talent to be natural and not over-the-top when needed. Acting is an Art and takes lots of training. Some may believe the number of followers is more important to the success of a project than actual talent, I would have to disagree on that one.

This Madea is not one of the Madea's I would watch again. In the end, it could have been better.

I still love Madea and will keep going and being a big fan. And I can't wait for the next one.

PS. Bloopers after credits come up are funny. If you go, make sure you stay until the end.

Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016)

1/2 (out of 4)

Brian (Tyler Perry) can't control or even say no to his 17-year-old daughter Tiffany (Diamond White) so he asks Madea (Perry) to sit with her while he goes out of town. Daddy is worried she will sneak off to a frat party, which she does and of course Madea must follow her.

You have to respect Tyler for what he has accomplished in his career. I will admit that this here was my first Madea movie and I will admit that I hated it. In fact, it was one of the worst comedies that I've ever seen. At the same time, I can respect the fact that this film as well as other Madea movies are quite popular and Tyler at least gives his fans what they want.

With that said, this is without question one of the worst comedies in recent memory. From what I've read this was filmed in six-days, which is rather remarkable for a film made today. What's so bad about this movie is that the screenplay is just so uneven and so unfunny. I mean, the final sequence is basically a bunch of young adults being terrified with rape. Yeah, real funny.

The entire movie was one failed laugh after another and all of it can go back to the screenplay. There are scenes that just drag on for no apparent reason and then there are scenes where the "joke" just gets dragged out to the point where you wish you'd hear someone yell cut. I honestly laughed at maybe two things here and everything else was just so forced and juvenile.

Again, I can respect that this series has its fans but I honestly can't see why. I'm not going to judge the entire series off of one movie but this didn't really make me want to check out others.

As expected this movie was based on various stereotypes of the black community. After all Tyler Perry's entire career is based on the exploitation of racial stereotypes. While I don't condone that I have to say that the movie was funnier than expected. It definitely had its moments.

As far as I can tell most people watched this movie mainly because one of the protagonists is a famous Youtube personality (Yousef Erakat). I personally am not too fond of his Youtube videos but his acting performance was solid. Gotta give it to him.

Final verdict: Not quite re-watchable but it's a solid comedy.