Thursday, February 19, 2009
News Madea Goes to Jail, locks out critics
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 5:24 PM
As usual, Tyler Perry has avoided pre-screening his latest film, Madea Goes to Jail, for critics, and one must acknowledge that this approach has worked out pretty well for him. Considering that Perry's huge box office success trickles down to the Atlanta economy, why complain? You can get at least a little taste of the new material from our Tyler Perry Primer from two years ago, which offers a point-by-point comparison of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion and the video version of the Madea Goes to Jail stage play:
The most overtly funny of the three, this stage play filmed at the Fox Theatre in 2005 feels like a musical version of a 1970s sitcom such as "Good Times." Perry and his cast's ease and interaction with the audience conveys Perry's deep-rooted popularity on the "chitlin circuit" of African-American stage plays.
Tomorrow's cinematic release will probably diverge sharply from the stage version in numerous ways. One of the most charming moments in the Madea Goes to Jail video has Perry and the cast essentially breaking character to sing old R&B standards, and I doubt that the film version will have the same kind of ingratiating looseness. One hopes the script will retain such local shout-outs as:
“I wasn’t about to go to jail in Conyers. I had to get to DeKalb County where I know somebody.”
Comments (9)
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Don't forget Oscar bait like " Madea Brockovich" and "The Assassination of Madea by the Coward Curtis Payne"
I saw an advance screening of the movie. Although slightly more serious, its still very funny. Keisha Knight Pulliam portrays “Candace” www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkHs5THJXWY David Mann portrays “Mr. Brown” www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3x3e8pOR1Y Derek Luke portrays “Joshua” www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w-JLJuxoqA Madea Goes to Jail Movie Review herndondavis.com/diversitynews_Madea_Goes_To_Jail.html
I appreciate Perry not catering to the critics. As a long time musician and songwriter, I learned long ago that I am a much better performer and writer than the schlub writing about my performance. The only thing that matters is what your audience thinks.
Got to agree with you on the critic thing but i would certainly not want my music to be considered in the same vane as Tyler Perry popcorn crap. That said thw worst review my band ever got was by a Savannah Newspaper writing about what turned out to be a sold out show at the Jinx. (review came out before the show). PS The jinx only holds about 100 people. I am no rock god....
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