About halfway through Tyler Perry’s “A Madea Homecoming,” there’s a joke that sums up the humour of Perry’s Madea franchise, which includes movies, TV shows, and other media.
In a black-and-white flashback, Perry’s enraged, unfiltered titular matriarch describes how she sparked the civil rights movement by threatening her husband’s mistress, Rosa Parks, who subsequently sought refuge on a Montgomery bus.
Tyler Perrys A Madea Homecoming Review
Madea displays an in-the-moment photo taken by her smartphone camera as evidence. She refers to her pre-me device as her “aPhone” and explains that “they didn’t have an iPhone back then—it was A before me.”
It’s completely disrespectful and silly, but it’s meant to be funny, so why not? Though he said he was done with the persona after 2019’s “A Madea Family Funeral,” it appears Perry has brought Madea back for the same reason he brought her back the first time: because he can.
Madea throws a graduation bash for her great-grandson (Brandon Black) in this episode. When Mr. Brown (David Mann) sets himself on fire, it’s just an excuse for his twelve relatives to get together and have a good ol’ fashioned chuckle fit.
It also provides a forum for Madea to air her mixed feelings about the Black Lives Matter movement, including her frustration that her granddaughter Ellie (Candace Maxwell) has joined the police force and thus poses a threat to her stash of marijuana and her fear that protesters may destroy her neighbourhood liquor store.
Turning Point in the Story
There are unexpected turns in the story that, heck, even make soap operas appear tame. Even Perry’s transsexual counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Irish comedy actor Brendan O’Carroll, who plays bosomy Agnes Brown in the Irish sitcom “Mrs. Brown’s Boys,” managed to squeeze in an appearance.
Perry’s one brilliant remark on love — “Stop building them walls and build yourself fences” — can’t overpower half a dozen speeches about hate, so it’s easy to overlook as the film rushes to a botched ending.
He seems to be in a hurry to get to the end credits sequence, where he dresses up as a blonde and makes fun of Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” concert film from 2019. What’s going on, anyway? Probably because he can and he wants to.
Ratings
A Madea Homecoming, by Tyler Perry, is a PG-13 read. The time frame is 1 hour and 45 minutes. A Netflix show or movie to watch.
