Now, I've talked about anime and manga and I've done Youtube videos about movies but all of those posts have been largely about the genre that primarily interests me which is fantasy. I very rarely enjoy seeing movies or really anything that's set in reality because I find reality to be largely pretty boring and I often need the fantastical elements to keep me involved. That's not to say that I like only fantasy because to be quite honest, I don't. Fantasy is all well and good and it provides me with most of my inspiration as a writer but I can enjoy series set in a very firmly grounded reality. Movies like Speed, The Town, 12 Rounds, The Help and Sparkle are all capable of holding my interest for their duration and A Time to Kill is one of my favorite(ish) movies of all time. I've enjoyed Mission Impossible, Cloud Atlas, Sherlock Holmes, Rush Hour and others. But...then there are my (slightly) guilty pleasures which come in the form of the Tyler Perry movies and plays.
In Tyler Perry's productions black people go through good and bad times and usually the drama comes to a head and is partially solved by the aging, large, loud and thuggish Madea for whom most of Tyler Perry's productions are named after. Despite being a central character Madea is rarely the central protagonist and her role is often comic relief and giving some sage like advice in a ghetto way since most of the drama is often brought to or happening in her house. More often than not, the protagonist is somehow related to Madea and this relative and a number of others around them will be going through some tough times like dealing with an abusive husband putting them out on the street, being forced into an abusive relationship, helping couples get together or get out of bad relationships and all sorts of typical drama that you mainly see in movies about black people or minorities but mainly black people. The films are very similar to each other and while they're entertaining and dramatic all at the right times, they're very repetitive and often star some beautiful black woman down on her luck either being repressed by her lover or abused by him or trying to find love again and a cast of other black people to add additional drama and comedy. That aside, I quite enjoy these films and while I know people who don't like them, I can very easily see why. Today I'm going to talk to you about one such movie that, while I did enjoy it, I felt it to be probably one of the worst Tyler Perry movies ever created. That movie is Madea's Big Happy Family.
Oh where do I even beGIN with my opinions on this film?! WHERE?! Well, for one, let's look at the actual good stuff. Tyler Perry, repetitive and trite as his films are in their formula, does manage to do a very good job at balancing humor and serious drama within the same film sometimes within the space of five minutes. There's lots of jokes about weed, Madea's methods of discipline and solving problems, Mr. Brown and Cora's drama with Madea and other things that mostly black people will laugh at. The drama is dramatic! Tyler Perry often uses his own life experiences and other things to make you sympathize with his characters. Out of everyone in this film, Ms. Shirley is probably the most sympathetic character in the movie as we're forced to see the pain and anguish she suffers as her time runs out and how the issues of her children's personal lives have the worst possible effects on her. The acting and actors are also very good. Another thing I really like about Tyler Perry's movies and plays is that his actors play characters that don't seem like just fictional characters but people that you know or that you know exist within this world. I'll praise the fact that for once in a Madea movie, it's the men who are the one's receiving the abuse but even looking at the wives, you can kind of sympathize with them...kind of. They're made out to be the villains, which isn't a good thing, but...well, considering that most of Perry's female characters are the one's getting abused by the men in their lives it's just...refreshingly disturbing to see women in the role of abusers when it's not being played for laughs the way it normally it is with Madea. Madea herself (or himself as she's played by Tyler Perry) is also a positive for the film in the advice she gives and the methods she takes in resolving the family issues.
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
But now we must get to the bile spewing from this film. I apologize now for any horrible or insensitive things I may say in this part but...dis shit need's to be said! First of all, THE WOMEN! THE WOMEN IN THIS FILM ARE HORRIBLE! Kim, Tammy, Sabrina and Renee are some of the most horribly written and utterly evil women I've EVER seen in a Tyler Perry film or play. Let's start with Sabrina and Renee. Sabrina is probably the closest thing to an antagonist this film has and she is the biggest bitch in the movie! She spreads rumors about Byron humiliating him in front of his family and turning his mother and older sister against him by saying that he's dealin' dope again and she's constantly nagging him about child support! What's more, she ends up getting him arrested for failure to pay child support or something and comes by to start the biggest family dinner meltdown I've ever seen. Renee's a demanding bitch who wants more money and doesn't give a rats ass if Byron goes to jail for dealing drugs or not and abjectly refuses to have anything to do with his son. Byron breaks up with her at the end of the film and DAMN STRAIGHT HE SHOULD'VE DONE THAT EARLIER! Next up, we've got Tammy who's probably the nicer of the siblings and not as horribly vilified as Kim and the other tricks. Tammy's relationship with her husband is verbally abusive with all of the abuse coming from her. Poor Harold just takes it because that's what men are kind of conditioned to do when women throw their bitch fits. Not even his own children respect him and call him and their mother by their first names or "Punkass". Were I to call either of my parents "Punkass" I'd have been beat within an inch of my life and I'd never do it again! Now it's not a bad thing to have relationship drama in a film in fact, it probably makes the message of coming together as a family that much stronger in this film. The problem is that other than Harold being weak and submissive, we don't know where the hell Tammy's anger comes from! It's never stated during the film but once Harold puts his foot down, we see their relationship beginning to improve. Worst of all is Kim who's spouting VENOM AND BILE DURING THE ENTIRE RUN OF THE MOVIE! Dammit all to hell this bitch! This bitch is the most successful of the siblings and can't stand to be around her family because they're "too ghetto" for her. THEN at the dinner it's revealed that she got pregnant at the age of 13 and let her mother raise the baby who turns out to be Byron. WHAT A TWIST! Haha, NO! Turns out that Kim was raped by one of her uncles as a child and so she shut out everyone and acted like a bitch to cope or some bullshit like that. Eventually she's redeemed at the end by apologizing to Calvin who's probably one of the best husbands ever portrayed in a Tyler Perry movie alongside Harold. Oh, and most of the issues are resolved AFTER Shirley's funeral. Madea just tells off all the idiotic family members and says exactly what we've all been thinking or what should've been said years ago! And then...it just ends. The only resolution at the end of the movie that I felt to be decent was Byron's ending of the relationship with the black skank slut trick bitch Renee.
*Sigh*, I like Tyler Perry movies as much as...I suppose is possible to like them. I mean, I'm not saying that you shouldn't go see this movie because I recommend it! It's enjoyable, it's dramatic and it's Tyler Perry at his best while also at his worst. The main problems I have with the film is the complete demonetization of the women, the barely flawed men and the resolution of the problems. I mean, honestly, I felt that EVANGELION had a better ending than this film because at least all the issues were resolved in some way! At the end of this movie, yeah the issues are resolved but it's after a funeral and it's just a hug and a break up after the old black woman sets everyone straight and reality doesn't work like that. People are more complicated than that. There's a reason why family drama is some of the hardest to deal with and resolve and if all of life's problems could be solved with a Madea setting people straight then...well I don't know. So, here's what I have to say on the issue of family secrets and respect. Don't keep secrets. There's a difference between intentionally keeping something from your family that's honestly no one's business and a secret that's been looming over everyone for most of their lives. Issues need to be discussed because if they're not, they'll become much harder to deal with in the future. Respect your elders...even if at times they don't fully respect you. Unless reincarnation proves to be true (which I believe that it is) we only live once and it's best to address issues and love one another while we're still around to do so. So...I suppose that's it from me this year! Happy New Year everyone, I'm John Cortez and this is The Broken Infinite. DaWaRou~!
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