Madea goes to Jail (Movie Review)

Madea Goes to Jail is an interesting dilemma for me, because it's a good movie on one end and a disaster on another because the love story is a total mess. Once again Mabel "Madea" Simmons gets in trouble with the law and ends up in the big house for destroying a car because she cut right off of a parking spot. The subplot involves assistant district attorney Joshua Hardaway (played by Derek Luke) who seems to be on the fast track of success with his fiancee Linda (Ion Overman) until a case where he's in defense of a prositute (Keshia Knight-Pulliam) turns his life in a talespin. Madea Goes to Jail is probably the funniest Madea movie I have seen so far. That's not saying a whole lot this suffers from the same problem as it predecessors do. Yet, this one attached me in terms of it's stupidity. Sure, it's all trite and one-dimesnsional, but I couldn't help but laugh. (I'm Serious!) That's part of the reason of why I like the Madea character because the whole concept is so outlandish and absurd. There's some funny stuff and it's acceptable for the most part. The same goes for The Browns (David and Tamela Mann), I thought Mr. Brown was a little overwrought, but that's the point of this character; as he mispronounces stuff more than Dan Quayle can spell potatoe and is an overexaggerator. The love story is where everything falls apart. Derek Luke came off as unbelieveably bad in this role and it's not all his fault. Where the main subplot falls on it's face is more execution than the main actors because for a movie like this there would need to be two versions of Madea Goes to Jail. Disjointed, lame, and sloppy exchanges between Luke, Overman and Pullam give the movie a weird, and disorganized direction and it never recovers from it's struggle. Comedies and romantic movies can work, if you have a "forward" script to put it all together and this one just doesn't have it. So, it's a passable effort from Tyler Perry and Ms. Mabel Simmons, lets hope some story elements are fleshed out better.

*** out of 5

Good: Fairly good humor, Sofia Vergara is oddly sexy as a loony convict, Judge Greg Mathis (need I say more)

Bad: Sloppy, overwrought love story, often stilted in moments

Cast:
Tyler Perry ... Madea / Joe / Brian
Derek Luke ... Joshua Hardaway
Keshia Knight Pulliam ... Candace Washington
David Mann ... Brown
Tamela J. Mann ... Cora
RonReaco Lee ... Chuck
Ion Overman ... Linda
Vanessa Ferlito ... Donna
Viola Davis ... Ellen
Sofía Vergara ... T.T.
Robin Coleman (Hellga from American Gladiators) ... Big Sal


Produced by
Roger M. Bobb .... co-producer
Reuben Cannon .... producer
Karen Gorodetzky .... line producer
Michael Paseornek .... executive producer
Tyler Perry .... producer

Cinematography by
Alexander Gruszynski (director of photography)

Film Editing by
Maysie Hoy

Casting by
Kim Hardin

Art Direction by
Mark Erbaugh
Roswell Hamrick

Costume Design by
Keith G. Lewis


Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)
Tyler Perry writer

Directed by
Tyler Perry