Review of Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016) by Thequietgamer — 20 Apr 2017

While the latest Madea movie apparently still has the production quality of a made for TV film, Tyler Perry's focus on comedy and a lighthearted message make for one of his better works. There are plenty of laughs (provided you enjoy the Madea brand of humor) and even a little heart. It also helps that the movie makes good use of the holiday in question.

This one is primarily all about the laughs and that's a good thing. A lot of the previous Madea movies, particularly the early ones, have been bogged down by heavy-handed drama that sometimes dealt with dark themes like spousal abuse and even rape. The problem was that those topics felt at odds with everything else going on in the movie. Perry just isn't the best at handling serious drama. Don't believe me? Just look at his movie "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor." Actually, don't look at it. It's awful.

However, when it comes to humor Tyler Perry is actually pretty good. That's why it's been so refreshing to see more recent Madea films like Madea's Witness Protection and A Madea Christmas take on more lighthearted tones and focus on the laughs. Boo! is probably the most lighthearted yet. There's still some morals running in the back, but it's handled as lightly as possible so that the sweet parts are pushed to the front and the more uncomfortable ones are cut out completely. So the question remains, is Boo! funny? Yes, in face it is. Maybe even much more so than you would expect. The jokes come about a mile a minute. The majority of them hit their mark even if the movie has a tendency to rely on characters just saying the same thing repeatedly with in their characters weird voices. For those who watch Madea movies as a family, I think it's worth mentioning this is probably the crudest Madea I've seen thus far. I'll admit that I've only watched a few of these movies and it's been a while since I have. However, I don't remember them having this much profanity at this level. Not as many innuendos either. Safe to say, it earns and maybe even pushes it's PG-13 rating in a few areas. At least in this reviewer's opinion.

It's a very funny movie that plays to Tyler Perry's strengths (jokes and character work) and ditches his weaknesses (drama, especially the serious kind). The result is easily one of Tyler Perry's best works so far. It's a guaranteed hit for fans and maybe even a solid way to pull in newcomers who are unfamiliar with the character, but are looking for some Halloween themed laughs. I, for one, really enjoyed myself.