Director: Tyler Perry
Writer: Tyler Perry (screenplay)
Stars: Tyler Perry, Eugene Levy and Denise Richards
Tyler Perry's most famous character Madea is actually the least obnoxious part of his latest movie, Madea's Witness Protection. Given that Madea is Perry in drag as an overweight gray-haired woman who delights in threatening people with violence, this is pretty amazing.
The Madea movies aren't supposed to be nuanced character portraits, they're Teachable Moments. In this case, it's about shady businesses and Ponzi schemes — Bernie Madoff is even referred to by name. Although there's no doubt we're all feeling the repercussions of the 2008 financial crisis and will be for some time to come, Madoff isn't exactly breaking news any more. Perry also wants to have his cake and eat it too, showing the greed and corruption of big companies while also offering at least one of the people at fault both the benefit of the doubt and a shot at redemption. None of it adds up, and half of the movie is taken up by a tiresome group of snobs who deserve their comeuppance at the hands of Madea.
The Needlemans are a rich, white family whose patriarch is inadvertently involved in a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme. The mob is somehow involved — don't ask — so the Atlanta ADA Brian (also Perry) puts them up at the safest place he knows: his Aunt Madea's house. George, played by Eugene Levy's eyebrows, is such a schmuck that he had no idea he was being set up to take the fall or that the company he worked for was stealing millions of dollars from charities. Denise Richards plays his typically brittle and much younger housewife Kate, whose main interests seem to be yoga ("yoda" in Madea-speak) and carbs. They both let George's daughter Cindy (Danielle Campbell) walk all over them, and George and Kate's son Howie (Devan Leos) is the subject of many "fat loser"-type jokes. George's mother Barbara (Doris Roberts) is either senile or pretending to be or is just pilled out from all the Valium they give her; she's also a horny old broad that keeps making googly eyes at Joe (Madea's brother, Brian's father, and, of course Tyler Perry in old man drag). Cindy is so awful that it's a relief when Madea lets loose on her, even though it's a truly cruel prank that sets the girl straight. They are all totally boring and incredibly annoying, so much so that any time Madea or even Joe appears, it's a relief.
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