I watched this movie on cable. I didn't pay to see it in the theater or from Redbox or anything like that. And you know, it was worth it. Despite all the bad reviews and negative press, Tyler Perry knows how to make a movie that we will sit through just to see the bad guy get theirs. And these are not supervillains, or anything like what you see in most movies, these are the run of the mill badguys. The guys who make you happy that you don't know them or if you do, make you feel bad about knowing them. These are stories about the everyday kind of badguys who make us want to slap someone we know for doing exactly what is on the screen. That is why Mr. Perry makes money off of "bad" movies. He tells the stories he knows or knows of and that makes them something we can relate to and feel, maybe not good about but definitely familiar with.

Spoiler Alert

Look Out Below!! Lots of Spoilers are here!!

For the second weekend in a row I did not get to see the movie I really want to see. Last weekend I saw the Meryl Streep film. This weekend I had to suffer through something else. Something I really had no intention of ever seeing.

I know I'm going to upset some people by what I'm about to say. I know there are going to be a lot of p#$$ed off folk wondering where I'm coming from with all this. Well, I've never minded p#$$ing off people before. I don't see why it should bother me now.

Here goes...Tyler Perry can't write.

More specifically, Tyler Perry can't write well. His scripts are elementary, immature, and preachy. Every single one of them. It's almost like he can't help himself. On the up side he does have his finger on the pulse of what his audience likes and he doesn't mind giving it to them. It would just be really nice if he would take a bit of a writing class or something on script writing and plot development. I'm just saying....

The plot of the current movie goes like this...

Three kids break into Madea's (Perry in his signature character) house in the middle of the night (plot device 1 which drags Madea into a story that's not really about her 'cos Perry's fans must have their Madea fix). Madea takes them to their aunt (Taraji P. Henson) who doesn't want them. The Aunt tries to send them to her mother but finds out that no one knows where she is (heavy handed foreshadowing that keeps popping up and eventually becomes a plot hole...more about that in a bit). Madea leaves them anyway and tells the aunt to bring them by her house so they can work off the debt they incurred by breaking into her house and destroying her property including a VCR (plot device 2 to keep Madea in a story that has nothing to do with her). The aunt is in a dead-end relationship with a 'no count' married man (cliché 1) played by Brian J. White. Aunt is also an alcoholic night club singer (cliché 2). Aunt is estranged from her mother and doesn't really worry that no one has seen hide nor hair of the old lady for three days (tiny little plot hole to move the story forward). Mary J. Blige plays the bartender with a heart of gold (cliche 3) and a huge voice.

A Latino handyman (Adam Rodriguez of CSI Miami fame…let me just say, for the record, that Adam is one fine, handy, man!!) from Columbia shows up at the neighborhood church and is told by the pastor (Marvin Winans) that he will find something for him to do. The preacher convinces the aunt to take the handyman in as a boarder who will work off the cost of his board by doing odd jobs around the house (cliche 4). This does not sit well with the boyfriend who is abusively racist (is there any other kind??) to the handyman and leers meaningfully at the young niece played by Hope Olaide Wilson (ham-handed foreshadowing).

Handyman, of course, falls for Aunt because he 'loves her more than she loves herself'. Yeah, right. I found it hard to believe he can love this woman since the Aunt has not shown us, or him, one thing that makes her lovable. She even accuses him of being a child molester because he cares about her niece and nephews. Speaking of which...the three kids are barely more than little stick figures to make us go 'awwww' when the handyman does something nice like fix up one of the Aunt's upstairs rooms as a room for all the kids to sleep in instead of the couch in the living room where the aunt makes them sleep (She won't let them stay in the room although it's obvious the younger kids want to). The handyman buys medicine for one of the sick kids. The handyman saves the girl when the married, pedophile, boyfriend tries to rape her.

What does the aunt do? She tries to kill the deadbeat boyfriend by dropping a CD player into his bathwater. This is when we find out she had been abused as a young girl by her mother's boyfriend (this seems to happen a lot in Tyler Perry's scripts. I realize the incidence of rape for women/girls of color is high but this pops up in almost every one of his scripts. Hmmm...). This revelation is supposed to be the big 'reveal' that explains her alcoholism, poor self-image and her insistence on being involved with married men. Hmmmm....heavy handed? Ya think??

But wait, we've got to have the rushed happy ending where the handyman and aunt get married, have a block party, and boogie down to Mary J's vocal. Cue the credits where we see outtakes of Perry as Madea and Joe riffing off the kids. One good outtake of Taraji and Hope is cute…but you had to sit through this mess of a movie to get there.

I don't have any idea why so many people don't like his movies. After seeing how much of a success they are in the box office I don't understand how they can get so low after that. Well now I'm giving it my review and in a word the movie is great.

In this new installment of Tyler Perry's film making career we see how Madea meets these kids who breaks into her house and now must take them to their aunt April who is an alcoholic singer at a night club (I know, there's a problem with that alone). So when Madea takes these kids over to their aunts place things start changing. The pastor at the church in April's neighborhood sends an immigrant to live with her in exchange for fixing up her place. Thanks to all of these people who surround themselves around her, April starts to realize that there is more to life than sleeping and drinking. She might even realize that her life is worth living.

This is probably one Tyler Perry's best films. It has great music, nice comedy, and entertaining drama. Definitely a great film to watch anytime and anywhere.