By Roger Moore


FILM: Madea’s Big Happy Family
CAST: Tyler Perry, Loretta Devine, Cassi Davis, David Mann
DIRECTION: Tyler Perry

Madea’s Big Happy Family is stuffed to the gills with Perry’s mix of the sacred and the silly and a serious dose of self-help for the self-absorbed. It’s as messy as any of Perry’s Madea comedies — assorted characters doing weakly-connected one-off scenes that are little more than extended riffs.
And there’s the feeling that Perry’s ambitions are pulling him away from this character and this world. But if that’s the case - and Big Happy Family does seem to wrap most everything about the extended Simmons/Brown/etc clan of Atlanta up in a neat little harangue — at least Perry leaves it all on the court. Which is to say, he and his ensemble are funnier than they’ve been in ages.
Madea’s niece Shirley (Loretta Devine) is sick with “the cancer”. And when she’s done with her rationalising, she resolves to round up her family to give them all the news over a big family dinner. he joint-smoking/chain-smoking Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis, a hoot) has been her only help. But Shirley’s kids are a problem. They won’t sit down together.
Byron (Shad “Bow Wow” Moss) is in and out of jail, dealing with a monstrous baby mama and his new girlfriend, who insists that she be “kept”.
Tammy (Natalie Desselle Reid) is a nagging shrew raising two insolent, ill-mannered brats.
And Kimberly (Shannon Kane) is a harridan in her own right, too mean and rich to want to spend time with her mother or siblings.
It’s up to Madea to climb into her ancient Cadillac, risking “carbon peroxide poisoning”, to round the offspring up so that their momma can say goodbye. She’s got to threaten, slap straighten them out, and maybe keep them all off Maury Povich’s TV show — which they all love.
Cora and Mr Brown (Tamela J Mann and David Mann) are also having hospital issues. This big happy family is full of fat people making diet and diabetes jokes.
Davis is the funniest of the supporting cast, though Teyana Taylor’s turn as the shrieking baby mama is epic. She’s got a voice like Wolverine’s fingernails dragging across a chalkboard.
But it is Perry who takes it on himself to comically lift the movie out of its melodramatic moments, exhaling a breathless patter of profane insults, advice and life lessons. His bit on the “traffic jam” years of life, ages 40 to 50, would make Dr Phil jealous, and his own-your-own-actions philosophy can seem refreshing, when Madea’s not hectoring this husband or that one to “be a man” and put his woman in her place.
But his jokes, all the way through to the film’s outtakes, land more often than not. If he’s moving on from Madea — and For Coloured girls and his next couple of announced projects suggest he is — at least Perry’s doing right by the old broad, letting her bow out like one big, wise-cracking mother of a momma. — The Orlando Sentinel/MCT

Reassessing
relationships

By Rafer Guzman


FILM: Why Did I Get Married Too?
CAST: Janet Jackson, Tyler Perry, Jill Scott, Michael Jai White
DIRECTION: Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry fans may wonder how his hugely popular movies manage to consistently dominate the box office, yet fail to impress one significant audience: critics.
Perry doesn’t really need them, as his receipts prove. He is the rare black auteur who writes, directs, produces and acts, and his movies seem tailored to black audiences. In broad comedies and noisy melodramas, he offers valuable messages of self-esteem and upward mobility.
For all that, his movies feel more like marketing coups than personal statements. They stick to topics such as infidelity, money woes and substance abuse.
Why Did I Get Married Too? is a sequel to Perry’s 2007 hit. As in the first Married, four couples go on vacation, this time to the Bahamas, to reassess their relationships. Each pair represents a problem: There are Neglect (Perry and Sharon Leal), Joblessness (Jill Scott and Lamman Rucker), Adultery (Tasha Smith and Michael Jai White, entertaining) and a Dead Child (Janet Jackson and Malik Yoba, unconvincing).
Once again, the movie feels amateurish, and not only because Perry tends to shoot on the cheap (the beach looks like a stage backdrop). The story lines ramble, scenes fizzle, the actors shout and weep embarrassingly; nuance is obliterated by sermonising. In short, it’s another production from a filmmaker who’d rather expand his empire than hone his craft. — Newsday/MCT

DVDs courtesy:
Kings Electronics, Doha

A melodious musical

FILM: Teen Beach Movie
CAST: Ross Lynch, Maia Mitchell, Grace Phipps, Garrett Clayton
DIRECTION: Jeffrey Hornaday

Teen Beach Movie’s story centres around the main characters being swept into a beach musical film set in 1962.
As summer winds down, surfers Brady (Ross Lynch) and McKenzie (Maia Mitchell) are determined to make the most of every last wave, but a bitter reality sets in when McKenzie’s aunt arrives to usher her off to an exclusive prep school that will chart a new course for her future.
Hoping to catch one last magical moment, McKenzie attempts to ride a monster wave, but she and Brady find themselves transported back in time and into the plot of his favourite beach-set movie, Wet Side Story.
Suddenly they’re caught in the middle of a turf war between surfers and bikers and inadvertently disrupt the romantic plot between stars Lela (Grace Phipps) and Tanner (Garrett Clayton), making themselves the objects of their affection.
Desperate to find a way home, Brady and McKenzie try to redirect Lela’s and Tanner’s advances toward each other, thwart the plans of a couple of bumbling villains, and smooth over the disagreements between the rivaling gangs on the beach — all while sidestepping breakout song-and-dance numbers in this melodious musical.
Teen Beach Movie does more than pay homage to beach-party classics; it re-creates one into which it can drop modern-day characters and watch the fun begin. And it doesn’t waste the opportunity to promote some great messages about listening to your heart, respecting others, and being true to your individuality.- WS

DVD courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha