To paraphrase and appropriate the late film critic Roger Ebert’s legendary review of 1994’s Major League 2, having never seen a Tyler Perry film or any previous installment in the Madea series, I found Boo! A Madea Halloween very easy to follow. That is neither damning the prolific black auteur’s work with false praise nor is it forgiving this latest Madea movie for its shortcomings. It is simply stating Boo! is a very simple film for people who don’t mind enjoying some very easy laughs.
Tyler Perry once again plays multiple characters while highlighting his elderly female alter ego, this time on Halloween. The often antagonistic Madea (Perry) and friends are asked to supervise underage Tiffany (Diamond White) to prevent her and an underage friend from sneaking out of the house and attending a Halloween party at a nearby fraternity house.
Perry mines the holiday for easy chuckles (although I guess there is some subtle commentary on race and age in the proceedings), and he may even be awarded some points for predicting the current “creepy clown in the woods” phenomenon while filming the movie in Atlanta earlier this year. He is a little less successful at appropriating pop culture’s obsession with zombies, though. Boo! is a middlebrow crowd-pleasing comedy with nothing more scary than anything you might find at a middle school Halloween carnival.
There are no real standout performances, as most of the 103-minute runtime is devoted to Perry’s titular drag show centerpiece, and the whole thing plays out like a TBS holiday special shot for the big screen. The lone aspect I remember — after waiting for the gag reel to finish during the end credits — was that while Cassi Davis’ marijuana-fixated senior citizen was often funny in her scenes, her counterpart (played by Patrice Lovely) bordered on becoming a cloying caricature. Please, Mr. Perry, use less Miss Hattie next time.
One of my friends told me Perry’s theatrical work, upon which the Madea movie universe is based, is much better than the films which followed — and I’m inclined to believe that assessment. It is still not enough for me to seek out A Madea Christmas just yet. But, if you like that sort of thing, you probably won’t mind this either.
Perhaps most prophetically, Boo! features Perry in old-age makeup playing a character’s father and saying, “If she don’t come back from this … that’s a dude.” In this day and age, I suppose some people need such things so clearly spelled out. Rated PG-13 for drug use, suggestive content and language.
Now playing at Carmike 10, Carolina Cinemark, Epic of Hendersonville, Regal Biltmore Grande and UA Beaucatcher.
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