The spectacle of Halloween becomes too much for the silver screen’s most famous elderly woman, in “Boo: A Madeal Halloween”. Tyler Perry once again writes, produces, directs, and stars in the latest project with the popular character Madea. “In Boo! A Madea Halloween,” Madea winds up in the middle of mayhem when after being asked by a family member to babysit his daughter Leah (Lexy Panterra) Madea spends a hilarious, haunted Halloween fending off killers, paranormal poltergeists, ghosts, ghouls, and zombies while keeping a watchful eye on a group of misbehaving teens that are causing mayhem at a nearby party. “Boo: A Madea Halloween” is rated PG-13 for drug use and references, suggestive content, adult language, some horror images and thematic material.
It’s no secret that I have never been a fan of the Madea series of movies. I feel that they are a stereotypical brand of trash humor that makes for an insufferable sit for film after film. There’s minimal effort that goes into these movies, yet they turn a profit every time because they are the Blue Collar Comedy Tour of modern day cinema. Wal-Mart humor for the whole family. After watching “Boo!! A Madea Halloween”, I can’t say that my opinion of the character and series has changed much, but I can say that this was the easiest sit in the whole series, if you can call that a compliment. This is a very strange movie, and not for the tricks and treats that I described in my synopsis above. This movie feels very much like a television Halloween special that just happened to make it to the big screen. It’s distracting from its paper thin narrative, poorly crafted, and worst of all; a bit of a trick with no treat for the audience that was expecting something completely different. Never before has a movie been completely the opposite of what it was marketed as in the trailer, and that deception can be acceptable if what material they do serve up offers something fresh and different.
It doesn’t. This movie quickly becomes a parenting PSA to anyone in the audience who has unruly kids who take advantage of them. I felt very much like I was watching an after school special that just happened to star a 6’5 male dressing in women’s clothing. Once you get past the eye-rolling conclusion that this series once again advertised something in its trailer that they didn’t come through on, you are subjected to a mixture of physical parenting 101, and an improv throw-down with Tyler and the few friends desperate enough to star in this prison sentence. At 98 minutes long, there is absolutely no reason why this film shouldn’t go through another edit. It mostly feels like a studio obligation that these producers were told to squeeze this Halloween theme into the movie at integral parts of the movie, and then Perry decided a lesson that doesn’t fit with the narrative should be shoehorned into it. If you haven’t guessed by now, there are no zombies or ghosts or anything of that nature in the movie. Most of this revolves around a prank war between two sides that will really have you scratching your head on how they were conjured up. Sinks, lighting, and even mirrors are rigged to make our characters run away in hilarity, and there I was stuck wondering how you rig a mirror to write in English in less than ten minutes. I would’ve preferred this movie take a blacksploitation B-movie turn similar to the 70’s when stories didn’t have to sink up with their previous efforts. Go bat shit crazy and make this movie a legit Madea Vs Zombies movie, and I could’ve gotten behind that. As it stands, it’s just another television production that passes itself off shamelessly as a big screen feature.
The material isn’t terrible, and I did get a couple of laughs throughout. These came mostly in the reactions that Perry garnered as Madea. If there’s one nice thing that I can say about his production in this movie, it’s that Perry certainly never rests at any point in this movie. He is always front and center, injecting the right laugh at the right moment, and that’s something that I had to appreciate from him. It’s just unfortunate that anytime this narrative starts to get moving, it halts stop at these long diatribes so all of these characters can improv to fill time. At the most, this is an episode of “Meet the Perry’s” on TBS, and all that’s missing is the annoying laugh track to fill in the blanks. Not that I didn’t have this. My theater was filled with more than enough people laughing at every single, and I DO MEAN EVERY SINGLE line that Perry spoke when he donned the wig and dress. There’s a certain feeling that I got as I left the theater. I will probably never get this kind of humor, and I’m OK with that. Perry’s audiences will line up around the block for this helping of gruel every year, then return to their cells waiting for the next barrel to be opened.
Budgeted is definitely the proper adjective here, as this cheap 20 million dollar production is short-cutted at every single aspect of the movie. Tyler Perry plays three different characters in the movie, and the film doesn’t even try to dazzle its audience with multiple Perry’s in the same shot. The easiest way out is to film each face of Perry one at a time, and this starts to get formulaic as the movie continues on. Every time something was mentioned, we have to stop so each and every single character in Perry’s universe can have their goofy reaction to it. Perry’s movies have originally been stage plays before this one, and even though this one doesn’t follow that formula, it does feel like a stage play in that it constantly takes place in these one-and-done fashions before moving on to the next arc. Scenes aren’t left to focus, some characters are zoomed in on far too tightly, and it just presents an eye sore of a presentation in visual storytelling. I can’t imagine anything here got more than one take to send to the cutting room floor. Perry’s directing behind the camera feels very basic and uninspiring at times. I would’ve liked him to focus on just one thing in this movie, and let a competent director feel out the rest. A clear case of Perry wearing himself far too thin. This never looks or feels like a horror comedy movie, and without that descent into that world, this film left me disappointed at this being just another Tyler Perry movie.
“Boo!! A Madea Halloween” is a disappointment for someone like me who was hoping for something slightly different than the same spiel that we have been getting for over a decade from Perry. It’s a missed opportunity on its own distinctive offering that instead settles for the routine directions that 20 million dollars will bring. The movie gave me a couple of solid laughs and another energetic turn from Perry in this familiar role. But Perry’s fun is my torture in yet another Madea blunder that this time condemns non-physical parenting, in favor of child violence. Happy Hallurween
3/10