I’ve never been to a family reunion and I feel extremely guilty after watching Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion.
I have an extremely large family too (well…at least on my father’s side). My father’s mother had 11 kids (7 girls, 4 boys). My father had the lowest kid turnout…just two…my sister and I. His other siblings have at least three kids each (so that’s plenty of cousins I have no idea who the hell they are).
My mother’s family is very small. My father’s mother had only three kids (my aunt in Jamaica, my uncle in Florida and my mother). I’ve always identified with my mother’s side of the family (less names and birthdays to remember).
According to the Yahoo’s movie page, the critics gave Madea’s Family Reunion an average grade of C+ while yahoo users gave the movie an average grade of B+. I would score Tyler Perry’s movie somewhere in the middle of that with a B.
I love the cast (Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood, Lynn Whitfield, Boris Kodjoe, Henry Simmons...etc). I love the story line because it was a fresh perspective from the black world (unlike Sanaa Lathan’s recent flop…Something New). I love the fact the movie made me laugh (repeatedly) and I love the fact that it made me think about my family.
So, what prevented me from giving Madea’s Family Reunion an A+?
I didn’t like the fact that Blair Underwood’s character slapped his fiancé (my god that scene was explosive). I also thought the actors and actresses were a little slow at delivering their lines during the tension scenes (for example…the bedroom scene with the mother and her two daughters). I also deducted some points for originality with the Eddie Murphy-like and Martin Lawrence-like routine of doing more than one character in the same movie.
Now, I have a homework assignment for the first time since 2003 (the year I graduated from Northeastern University. I have a lot more names and birthdays to learn before the year is over.
24 comments:
Yeah I feel kinda guilty too. Both sides of my family have semi started getting together, we had one a couple of years ago on my dad's side, then my aunt whose house it was at and was supposed to be at again died February 2005 and then my grandfather died a couple of months ago. On my mom's side, we were going to Louisiana to see my great grandmother anyway, after my high school graduation, but then she died 2 days before the ceremony. So my grandfather was there, since he wanted to stop there before coming to my graduation. So her funeral ended up being my chance to meet that side of the family. Which wasn't really all that huge, but everybody's soooo spread out and sooo busy, we haven't had a chance to get together again. And most of the people aren't up for traveling anyway, on account of their age. But I agree with you about everything that kept me from giving Madea's an A. I think I kinda liked Diary of a Mad Black Woman better, but I guess it was b/c it was the first one. But what is up with him putting the light-skinned brotha who saves the day in some ugly azz wigs (Shemar Moore and Boris Kodjoe), and the dark-skinned brothas (Steve Harris and Blair Underwood) being the bad guys?
Boy, am I sick of Tyler Perry's act.
He has put all these people "on" in terms of giving people jobs and providing good family oriented material--but somehow finds time to reflect all of the attention back on himself. Is there a bigger self-promoter in all of Hollywood?
I have seen him on 78 magazine covers.
He gets up and starts preaching at the end of his plays.
He's careful not to let any of his co-stars get too popular.
The dress. Has. Got. To. Go. It's had a nice run. Let it go.
Perry's obsession with the light skin phenomena is almost as despicable as his knack for character development. Presenting the audience with reliable, hard-working light skinned men as saviors of both the woman awaiting her moment of exhalation, and the paranoid black family is a reflection of his shallow thoughts on how black people view color, and demonstrates his willingness to aid the stereotype of years of such conditioning.
The matriarch in his films, is a bumbling, dim-witted sespool of one-liners, prone to random violence and this, to all of us, is supposed to be funny. Right.
ok yeah, you need a whuppin. i LOVE family reunions. esp. since all of my cousins on my mom's side are in MS. w/o them, i would almost never see them. and even still, every year i meet someone new. thanks for moving little ol me to the top! :) and wow darren! tell us how you REALLY feel.
family reunion provided a fresh perspective?? funny...it was suspiciously a lot like the last damn Tyler Perry flick. how many times he gonna do the domestic violence plot? and how many blue collar (and yup, lightskinnded) saviors he gonna have? fart jokes? and isnt there already a black-man-in-fat-mammy-suit movie out inn theaters right now?? come on. stop hating on sanaa for a progressive movie written, produced, directed and starring sistas, especially when you yourself talking about putting sistas on alert. blaxploit never lacks for an audience.
@journiemajor....i agree with you on the lightskinned brothas and dark-skinned brothers.
@d.l.sands....tell us why you man son? LMAO
@andrea s. b....I'm stating facts about my future baby momma (Sanaa Lathan). Her last movie flopped...do you want me to dig out the box office revenue? This was also the first Tyler Perry movie I've seen...and I will have to see the others that were made.
so did u enjoy sanaa's last movie? and madea's plots are usually the same...but i still go see them. its very feel-good, but not deep at all. if anything, i applaud him for having the older women who speak at the end about the communities/families and thier behavior...everything else is just entertaining. and boris couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag!-HA!
Heeeeyyyyy!!! I admit his last few roles weren't acted very well, but I think he did pretty good in Soul Food. And he doesn't need to act, he just needs to stay fine as frog legs, LOL. I didn't see Something New, MFR was the first movie I've seen in over a year. But I guess it's just b/c black men don't wanna see black women with a white man, and probably especially after Monster's Ball, and although it's probably more common nowadays, I just don't see a lot of black women dating white men, so it wasn't realistic and didn't relate to us. Why couldn't he have just been a black man that was her landscaper, or, (not trying to stereotype) but a latino man? I liked Guess Who b/c it was funny, not b/c it was a remake and they switched it around to have Zoe's dating Ashton's.
SPC: "I love the story line because it was a fresh perspective from the black world (unlike Sanaa Lathan’s recent flop…Something New)."
I read (and responded to) your point as not whether it flopped (cost less than $5M, grossed $11.4 to date according to moviejungle), but whether it provided a fresh perspective. no? and in comparison, yes it did. madea, as entertaining as it may be (to some), with fat suit, family picnic, dirty old man, poetry night, etc. is Nothing New.
Admit it, it's personal btwn you and your baby moms. rofl
(cracks knuckles)
@Miss A...beyond lusting at a chance to see Sanaa on screen...NOPE. I wouldn't physically pay to see it (and I didn't...someone else picked up the tab that night).
@andrea...you made my point for me...Something New cost less than $5 million and grossed ONLY 11.4 million. Yes...that's a profit but in Hollywood standards...11.4 million is nothing to brag about. Hell, the movie did $6.4 in its first weekend and apparently the interest is wearing off. If you want my flat out opinion...IT SHOULD HAVE WENT STRAIGHT TO VIDEO.
BTW, a good movie doesn't finish 6th in its opening weekend.
once again, you're missing MY point.
SPC: "I love the story line because it was a fresh perspective from the black world (unlike Sanaa Lathan’s recent flop…Something New)."
you didn't compare box office, you compared "story lines." and i respectfully disagreed.
ps - "a good movie doesn't finish 6th in its opening weekend."
i can think of quite a few like Antwone Fisher (not even in the top 10). i think we understand one another, no? ;)
@Andrea...looks like we are not going to agree on this...
i haven't seen it so i don't know how good it is, but block party was in the botto. sometimes a good movie can have a poor opening. particularly "ethnic" movies that are not widely shown.
Hey, whether or not Sanaa's movie flopped doesn't negate the fact that it was a fresh perspective. We never had the perspective of a black woman dating a white man in the mainstream theatres before, only the reverse (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with Sidney, Guess Who with Ashton, etc.) Just because maybe mainstream America wasn't ready for it doesn't take anything away from the film.
In other news, thought Family Reunion was cute also considering the limitations of a chitlin circuit stage play rejiggered for the big screen. Madea is funny, no doubt, but we see the same loud song and dance every movie. The same smooth light skinned brotha out to save a downtrodden sista (who's almost unbelievable circumstances... I mean, who gets dragged out of their house by force (Diary)... or has their mother negotiate their rape? (Family Reunion) Not knocking Tyler... he works within his audience. But let's not pretend this is Shakespeare :)
@jameil....Dave Chappelle's Block Party is next on my list.
@mahogany elle...The white actor (I don't even know his name and I'm not going to look it up) was totally lame. Sanaa needed a much stronger actor and someone that was way better looking (clears throat). Everyone is entitled to at least one bad movie...even Halle rebounded tremendously from BAPS. I can see Sanaa winning an Oscar down the line...she just has to pick better movies and better co-stars.
my dad had several other children besides me and my younger sis, so we're not quite sure where we fit in, although we have on and off contact with our oldest half-sister, so it's going to be a struggle to find the rest of our relatives, but it would be nice just to know who's who.
I really, really need to see that movie. I only saw one of the plays, but I thought it was cool, so I'm interested in what the movies have to offer...
Simon Baker's not your type? Sexy white boy, all cute hiking in the rain and stuff! ;)
@so...wise...sista....NOPE! I'm a big lover of T&A and I can provide plenty of female references.
you might wanna roll to SC with me and see how we put it down.
Dude, "Something New" might not have pulled in as much money as "Wedding Crashers" or some other shitty blockbuster movie, but "SN" was a GOOD movie. It sounds like you're one of those hating brothas who was adamantly exposed to seeing a black woman on screen with a white man, yet on your blog you talk about going to the clubs specifically to mack at white girls. Give me a break. Oh and I'm anonymous not because I'm scary but because I'm not a blogger and I just pass thru from time to time
@anonymous...well it seems like the several women that read my blog faithfully (thank you very much) are the ones agreeing with you and the rest of America doesn't (myself included). I love Sanaa (always have) and want her as my baby momma. I just thought this was a step down for her...considering Out of Time, Brown Sugar and her best movie Love & Basketball were way better. I love Halle too. Halle made (BAPS) and rebounded well. I think Sanaa has Oscar potential of any black actress in Hollywood outside of Halle. That's my point and I'm sticking to it. So, CAN I LIVE?
Now...where have you seen me brag about macking white girls? LMAO. I remember only three incidents of using the phrase white girl on this blog and I was not flaunting anything. The first time was when i was on a date and these two white girls keep bumping into me on the dance floor. One of the white girls was eyeing me...but I didn't act on it. The next time I used that phrase when I went out with my boy to a place in Seaside Heights. The white girl in question was talking to my friend...NOT ME! The final reference to a white girl was my reading is fundamental post and that was about a white girl not liking me because I was black. So, your honor, I move to dismiss all charges against the founder, president and CEO of this blog.
I tried to start a family reunion on my dad's side, but I realized that I don't like many of them, especially my own dad.
@professorgq....now that was funny
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