Susan Granger’s review of “A Madea Family Funeral” (Lionsgate)
Writer/director/actor Tyler Perry has previously made 11 feature films that revolve around the sharp-tongued matriarch Mabel “Madea” Simmons, but now he’s decided: “I just don’t want to be her age, playing her.”
This installment opens as family members in Georgia are planning a 40th anniversary party for their parents Vianne (Jen Harper) and Anthony (Derek Morgan).
When Madea (Perry), Uncle Joe (Perry), Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis) and Hattie (Patrice Lovely), who have been driven to the festivities by Joe’s attorney son Brian (Perry), arrive at their Atlanta hotel, they learn that Anthony has suffered a fatal heart attack while having an adulterous, S&M-tinged affair with his wife’s best friend, Renee (Quin Walters).
“If I’m not in the Will, I tell you that funeral will be messed up,” Joe says.
Plus, there’s an extended ribald joke about Viagra and why the lid of Anthony’s coffin will not stay shut during the unnecessarily lengthy Baptist funeral, complete with a full gospel choir.
Observing the multitude of unknown women who suddenly appear at the service, Madea asks, “If you knew the deceased, raise your hand.” They all do. She then adds, “If you knew the deceased in the Biblical sense, raise your hands,” noting they all comply again.
So does Anthony’s wife Vianne know all the sordid details of her husband’s demise? And what’s this about Vianne’s older son, sullen A.J. (Courtney Burrell), shacking up with his younger brother’s (Rome Flynn) fiancée, Gia (Aeriel Miranda)?
In addition to the multitude of eccentric characters that Tyler Perry plays, he’s added a new one: Madea’s Vietnam War veteran cousin, a lecherous amputee named Heathrow, a throat-cancer survivor who speaks through an electronic larynx.
As usual, slapstick reigns supreme, peppered with sentiment, stilted melodrama and social commentary. Plus there are cameos by Mike Tyson and YouTube comedienne Joanne the Scammer.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “A Madea Family Funeral” is a final 5 – or is it?
