Review of Madea's Witness Protection (2012) by Jesse O — 30 Oct 2012

I'm not going to deny that Tyler Perry is a talented performer. At least as far as as Madea and Uncle Joe goes. I don't think I can deny that, no matter how much I truly disliked his movies. The problem is everything that he gives his "characters" to perform.

He doesn't write good scripts and, it's a damn miracle quite frankly, that he didn't include a melodramatic story in this movie as well to go along with the comedy. Madea goes to Jail had some horrible drama, just fucking TERRIBLE stuff, as did Madea's Big Happy Family.

Though the Jail one was considerably worse. So it's surprising, to say the least, to see Tyler get rid of all the drama altogether and stick with what he does "best" and that's the comedy.

With that said, and I know this isn't saying much, but this is the best of the 3 Madea films I've seen. Again, that's not saying much since the movie still isn't any good. The comedy is what Tyler Perry does best but he's also not particularly good at it either, at least as far as writing it.

The problem is that he's the main creative force in his films. Perhaps if he had someone to work with, someone to bounce ideas off then maybe the films wouldn't be as, shall we say, lacking in real genuine laughs.

Once you've seen every Madea movie you've seen them all, and I suppose it's what like. Sort of like The Pink Panther, in a strange and odd way. I think the main problem, other than the script itself which is full of cliches and lame-ass jokes, is the fact that this feels like a TV movie for a cancelled sitcom.

That is really what it feels like. I had been having a hard time trying to find the exact description for these films for a while, and this is exactly what they feel like. This would be more than fine if it were a TV film, but the fact that Tyler Perry's art is, somehow, supposed to be worthy of release in a movie theater is beyond me.

It doesn't bother me as much but, again, this should, by all intents and purposes, be a TV film. But hey, I don't get to decide that, plus there's money to be made here obviously. Exploit that cash cow as much as you can.

The movie is also far too long, 1 hour and 50 minutes is simply too long for a script that is already stretched thin as it is. There are long stretches of time when you're not even sure what's going on and what the point of it is.

There's this subplot with Barbara and Uncle Joe where they had an affair which may have spawned George (Eugene Levy) and I suppose it was meant to add laughs, but it simply felt like filler to me.

Like they just had to give them something to do, but it served no other purpose otherwise. It wasn't that funny, but really that's film's main problem. I mean it does have its moments, it's not all bad and, perhaps, I'm being generous with the rating.

I didn't hate this film as much as Madea goes to Jail, but it's still no good. Unless you're a HUGE fan of the series then I wouldn't really recommend this.