By Geno McGahee
I have never seen a movie with Madea (Tyler Perry). It never appealed to me, but I do Xmas reviews and now I am going to reveal one of my secrets: I like Larry the Cable Guy. Not like like, but like. A couple years ago, I watched JINGLE ALL THE WAY 2 and found it very funny. I decided to follow up with WITLESS PROTECTION and HEALTH INSPECTOR and found those very amusing as well. I’m not a fan of the standup routine he does, but I love him in movies. It’s like Tim Allen. I hated his standup, but his film work has been very amusing at times.
I have been aware of Tyler Perry and his work for years but never checked it out. He was very funny in the TMNT flick he was in and that comedic timing was spot on in his holiday film: “A MADEA CHRISTMAS.” In this, Madea gets a job in a department store, courtesy of her cousin, Eileen (Anna Marie Horsford), but it’s not going well. Horsford was awesome in THE WAYANS BROTHERS TV show and she does very well here, especially across from the madness that is Madea. When an older lady comes for some lingerie, Madea has at it, telling her that she’s too old for it in a very funny way. I’m not sure how much of this was ad-libbed, but it just flowed really well and had me laughing.
Eileen gets a call from her daughter, Lacey (Tika Sumpter), and is informed that she is not coming home for Christmas. This prompts Eileen to bring Madea and the ex-boyfriend of Lacey, Oliver (JR Lemon), to Alabama to celebrate the holiday, but there is a surprise waiting. Lacey has married Conner (Eric Lively), a white guy, and that is something that Eileen would not be comfortable with. When the trio shows up, things get awkward and Conner must pretend to be a farmhand as Lacey tries to explain to her mom what is going on.
Lacey is having issues at her school. They are underfunded and the farms, locally, are not doing well. They are considering stopping the Christmas jubilee that they have every year and that is not going over well. Tanner (Chad Michael Murray) runs a farm and is very vocal about his hatred of the town government. He also is a bully and still picks on Conner, or tries to. There are guys like that. They are dickheads during high school and then they keep it going well after…until somebody knocks their dick in the dirt.
Remembering that her ex-boyfriend, Oliver, is hooked into money, Lacey convinces him to get his company to fund the jubilee and the day is saved, but Oliver has some dirty laundry and some demands as well. Eileen is also dead set on setting up her daughter with him, which is an idea that he is really open to, but the “farmhand” husband is a problem and it’s a problem that Lacey is keeping away from her family. At one point, she is flipping over framed photos of her and Conner so her mother doesn’t see it, and it was really funny to see Madea sneak over and look at them.
Things get worse when Conner’s parents show up. Buddy (Larry the Cable Guy) and his wife, Kim (Kathy Najimy), arrive and they are informed that they cannot say anything about their son being married to Lacey. They are against it, but play along. Larry the Cable Guy and Najimy work very well together and are very funny, but it gets much better when Buddy meets Madea. I’m not sure how much of their dialogue was ad-libbed, but it was very funny and flowed well.
Madea figures out the truth quickly and starts putting pressure on Lacey to admit that she is married to Conner and when she breaks the news, it gets really funny. Eileen’s lies are exposed and it gives Tyler Perry and Larry the Cable Guy another opportunity to banter and it was good fun.
Conner is finally getting things in order, but then Tanner fucks it up and gets his wife fired and now it’s on. Conner finds Tanner and knocks him out but it was the wrong time. Tanner was just in a car accident and was rescued by Eileen before it blew up. It helped them both. Both had issues with the opposite race and the incident changed them both for the better and helped the entire situation.
A MADEA CHRISTMAS was really good. It could have had more of a Christmas feel. It has the décor and look, but it could have used more atmosphere. That is my only complaint. Otherwise, this is a very funny movie. I didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did.
Rating: 8/10
