Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection

Speak Yer Damn Mind!

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Rated: PG-13  Brief drug references and some crude sexual remarks.
Release Date: June 29, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 54 minutes

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Director: Tyler Perry
Writers: Tyler Perry
Cast:  Tyler Perry, Eugene Levy, Doris Roberts, Denise Richards, Romeo, Tom Arnold, John Amos, Maria Gibbs, Danielle Campbell

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SYNOPSIS: When a Wall Street investment banker is set up as the fall guy when his company is found out to be running a mob-backed Ponzi scheme, he and his family are put into witness protection under the roof of a reluctant Madea.

REVIEW: Media mogul Tyler Perry (House of Payne, I Can Do Bad All By Myself) comes at us with another entry in the Aunt Madea saga. The writer/director/actor's creation has become a staple in the Perry stable, amusing audiences and giving the a piece of her outspoken mind.

George Needleman (Eugene Levy, American Reunion) lives the wealthy lifestyle with his second wife Kate (Denise Richards, Scary Movie 3), his daughter from his first marriage Cindy (Danielle Campbell, Prom), his son with Kate Howie (Devan Leos), and his mother Barbara (Doris Roberts, Aliens in the Attic). The acting CFO of a investment fund with various charities as client investors, George goes into the office one Saturday to discover his fellow employees shredding documents and his boss Walter (Tom Arnold, Hit and Run) letting him know that the government is looking into George's fund as a Ponzi scheme, and that George is going to take the fall and have to answer to both prosecution and to the mob that he unwittingly laundered money for. Taken into custody by prosecutor Brian (Tyler Perry, Good Deeds), George pleads his innocence and his ignorance. Looking to take down Walter and the mob, Brian takes George and his family out of the circulation before the trial by putting them in the care of his Aunt Madea (Tyler Perry) and his father Joe (Tyler Perry). In addition to dealing with George and trying to find a way to bring George's boss and a crime family to justice, Brian finds that local former thug Jake (Romeo, Jumping the Broom) put his father and Pastor Nelson's (John Amos, Coming to America) church mortgage into the same fund that is now empty. 


Tyler Perry came up with the idea of Madea's Witness Protection when dining with a friend who said a worse punishment than prison for Bernie Madoff would have been living with Aunt Madea. That anecdote sparked Perry to write 30 pages and become the basis of what ended up on film. Perry himself said that you should take the movie for what it is - a lighthearted film that will hopefully make you laugh throughout. Did he succeed?As a Madea newbie, I didn't know what to expect from Madea other than what I had seen from the trailers on television. Isn't Tyler Perry's creation just a variation of Martin Lawrence's Big Momma or Eddie Murphy's Clump family? No. I realize now that Madea and her brother Joe bring a very different element to screen. They may both be played by Perry, but there is real heart behind the pad and prosthetics. They may be characters, but they are not caricatures. Madea's disbelief that George's daughter speaks and acts toward to her step-mother in the disrespectful manner that she does leaves Madea both speechless and fuming - to comic effect.

The story is a little soft. The Malone mob family never makes a physical appearance, losing an opportunity for more than just family angst. And nosy neighbor Hattie (Maria Gibbs, The Jeffersons) is completely underutilized, either due to editing or because of little to do. But what the story lacks in blockbuster subplots it makes up with laughs and heart. When Madea needs to take a trip on an airplane, her antics through the lines at NSA security is a non-stop side-splitting adventure. Eugene Levy is always fun to watch, and Romeo plays both hilarious in-your-face hijinks and solemn low-key drama where necessary. And when laughster didn't result in tears, Madea's silver fox wisdom makes George realize that his ignorance at work extended further than just at the threshold of the investment bank office doors.

Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection is a silly adventure into Madea's signature style of southern hospitality and heavy-handed advice, all wrapped up in an odd-couple premise of different races, classes, and generations. If you are looking for laughs and a good time in the spirit of past Tyler Perry Madea flicks, Witness Protection will not disappoint.

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WORTH: Matinee or DVD

American Reunion

Be My Cherry Pie!

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Rated: R  Nudity, brief drug use, language, crude and sexual content and teen drinking.
Release Date: April 6, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

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Director:  Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Writers: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, characters by Adam Herz
Cast:  Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Sean Williams Scott, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy, Dania Ramirez, Katrina Bowden, Jay Harrington

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SYNOPSIS: Jim, Michelle, Stifler, and the rest of their friends get together in East Great Falls, Michigan under the guise of a high school reunion to reconnect with old friends, and reignite failing romance.

REVIEW: Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz, writers and directors of the Harold & Kumar franchise - yes, it is now a franchise, especially with a sequel, a video short, and a 3D Christmas movie - take their slice out of another franchise pie, the American Pie films. Thirteen years after their graduation, a high school reunion brings back Jim, Oz, Kevin, Stifler, Finch, and the rest of the gang to where it all happened at band camp one summer in East Great Falls, Michigan.

Now married, Jim (Jason Biggs, My Best Friend's Girl) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan, How I Met Your Mother) try to survive the pitfalls of raising a two-year-old, finding tried and true ways to take care of 'business', usually without one another. When Memorial Day weekend approaches with a call for a thirteen year high school reunion back in their home town of East Great Falls, Jim looks to reconnect with his high school buddies Oz (Chris Klein, We Were Soldiers), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas, Delivering the Goods). As they reminiscence about their youth, hapless intern Stifler (Seann Williams Scott, Role Models) crashes the stroll down memory lane and tries to steer them into adolescent hi jinks.

In American Reunion, everyone in the gang finds themselves at a point in their third decade that they did not think they would be. Jim and Michelle find themselves in a sexual funk since the birth of their son. Kevin is a cooking, cleaning, watching 'Gossip Girls' husband in search of a weekend with the guys. Oz, on the way to be a star athlete, ended up behind a sports desk and a segment anchor and on the dance floor as a contestant on a celebrity dance show. Finch has traveled the world and experienced adventure that the others only dream of. And Stifler gets a job at an accounting firm to appease his mom, still oogling the girls in the office as if sexual harassment has not made it to the firms HR department.

The very first hilariously awkward sex scene with Jim, Michelle, a laptop and a bathtub sets the stage for the rest of the film. The writer/directors weave a tapestry of past and present, using moments and characters from the earlier films, plus new characters and funny situations to drive a funny film. Almost every major and minor character from American Pie, American Pie 2, and American Wedding pops up in one fashion or another. Musical instruments make a return, heavily awkward chats about sex occur between Jim and Jim's Dad (Eugene Levy, A Mighty Wind), and sexual advances lead to knocked out teenage girls. All told, laughter shall be had for the diehard Pie fans and newly initiated alike.

The reason why the American Pie series of films (barring the American Pie Presents: versions) works as a raunchy, sexified romp is partially because the underlying story is a a little more than a thread-bare reason to get laid. In American Reunion, Levenstein and crew realize that they are not high schoolers anymore, and have more adult concerns to worry about. The relationships they thought were complicated during their teen years are replaced by more complex relationships as young thirty-somethings. They see the teenage girls as sluttier and boys as less mature than they remembered 'in our day'. And anyone over thirty will know that 'in our day' is just code for 'getting older'. But as more things change, the more they really stay the same, just become bigger and more intricate.

American Reunion should delight the movie-going crowd that grew up with the series from original theatrical releases or watched the earlier films on DVD or cable. And if this is your first randy step into East Great Falls you will laugh and have a good time anyway. You may miss out on some of the earlier film references or characters cameos if unfamiliar with the series, but there is no reason that American Reunion will disappoint.

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WORTH: Matinee or DVD