Madeas Big Happy Family
Madea jumps into action when her niece, Shirley, receives distressing news about her cancer. Now Madea has to try her best to wrangle her fighting family together for a family dinner to share the news as a family.
9 March 1987, Columbus, Ohio, USA
17 January 1939, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
26 October 1968, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
5 December 1984, Los Angeles, California, USA
9 June 1966, Limestone County, Texas, USA
9 June 1973, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
11 February 1974, USA
April 29, 2011
Deathbed scenes and colonoscopy humor, Bible quotations and Maury Povich "Who Is the Real Baby Daddy" episodes: All cohabit with equal relevance in the world of Tyler Perry.April 29, 2011
... Tyler Perry goes to the Madea well once too often and comes up dry.April 29, 2011
Comedy is comedy, and "terminal illness" is "terminal illness" and the two really shouldn't meet. What you end up with is a movie that's literally as funny as cancer.April 07, 2012
The odd thing about Tyler Perry is that just when you think he may be turning a corner and evolving, he goes into retrograde.April 25, 2011
If Perry gets on your wavelength, you can forgive him too. He's only the host at a home-cooked banquet of wild emotions.December 05, 2013
"Madea's Big Happy Family" is a facetious title; there's not a happy one in the bunch. Eventually, neither is the viewer.April 25, 2011
"Madea's Big Happy Family'' nonsensically knots the spiritual and the salacious, asking gossipy questions then giving pulpit answers so that the movie is wonderfully, woefully absurd.April 27, 2011
Epitomizing the shrill franchise's schizophrenic tonal shifts, Madea metes out Christian life lessons with one hand -- and righteously bitch-slaps with the other.February 29, 2012
Perry's performance of Madea [feels] flatter and more strained than he ever has in the role.April 27, 2011
The title is meant to be ironic. Too bad irony is in such short supply in Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family. Sadly, subtlety is also missing.April 25, 2011
Perry possesses a superb ear for the themes and emotions that connect him to his core audience, and that's on display again here, though the unconverted might grumble that the movie's many riffs and rants feel recycled from previous offerings.April 29, 2011
Like most of Perry's movies, this one oscillates wildly and shamelessly between raunch and pathos, leaving plenty of room for the performers to work. The lively ensemble includes a scene-stealing Cassi Davis as pothead Aunt Bam.