How has this man found an audience for this swill? I was subjected to two—two!--of these hideous videos as a member of a captive audience (some boor decided to foist his idea of entertainment on everyone who purchased a ticket on a long-distance bus tour). Black man in drag plays loud, intimidating, violent virago—it wasn't funny in 1906, and it isn't funny in 2006. I am baffled and angry that Tyler Perry has resurrected this ugly staple of an unmourned past. There was no plot. (All pretense of a plot simply ceases somewhere in the unending second hour, when unforgivable versions of 1970's soul classics are attempted.) The writing was worthy of a seventh-grader. The platitudes were non-stop. And the cues for the sad attempts at original "songs" were so obvious that I almost wept, because I knew that another assault on my ears was coming. Perry knows his target audience: there was whooping and cheering of violence, particularly the violent punishment of children. There was gyrating in orgiastic delirium at the mere mention of "de Lawd." And where did Perry get the idea that if you scream it loud enough, you need neither poetry, beauty, harmony, nor symmetry? We don't need violent Aunt Jemimas in 2006, and, if you value your history, your intellect, and your hearing, you don't need "Madea."
Review of Madea Goes to Jail
