Madea's Family Reunion

Fresh off the heels of his 2005 comedy Diary of a Mad Black Woman, star, writer and now-director Tyler Perry gets back in drag to revive the no-nonsense, pistol-packing Southern matriarch in this film, based on another one of Perry’s stage plays. The multi-talented Perry mixes death, love, marriage and child runaways before the fried chicken is served at the family reunion—aka the unimaginative occasion to build a movie around. While predictable familial tensions, standard relationship issues and not-so-shocking secrets clutter the screen, Madea uses every last trick up her dress to instill the checklist of afterschool-special family values. Perry’s tough-as-nails Madea is entertaining and edgy, but the plot developed around this protagonist is anything but.