Mr. Tyler Perry, I know continuity is not your strong suit, BUT you made an iconic movie by the name of “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” The scenes and the storyline between Brian and his drug addicted wife, Deborah, was something we didn’t forget. So, for some reason I cannot explain, changing her to this uptight, brown-skinned woman upset me. Yes, I know Tiffany is also not the same actress and not that same innocent girl who wanted to sing, but for some reason, I let that slide. I cannot with Deborah. When Brian sat at the table with Deborah, I found myself going, “Did Brian get married again, and I missed it?” Then, she started talking about her drug addicted past, and I was immediately upset.
While we’re on the topic of Brian and Deborah, when did we get a Brian Jr.? Jermaine Harris, who plays BJ, has been in no other Madea movies so where did we get him from? What purpose did he serve except for some comic relief? We didn’t even have a scene where BJ redeemed himself, in a way. He never evolved, and it bothered me that he was just there.
You want to know what grinds my gears? That go-pro-esque camera shot they used when they were in the rooms. It seemed like someone put a teddy cam in the corner of the room. I have a production background, so I notice lightning and camera shots a lot. The camera shot felt odd with all of the other shots, and it looked amateur.
The script. We know Tyler Perry isn’t strong with the recent Madea movies as far as the script. (They were better when he first started making the movies. I don’t know what happened since then.) However, I’ve been Tyler Perry put in effort. I feel like a lot of the time he relies on the relationship between him, David, Tamala, and Cassie to make the dialogue. That can work in spurts, but not for the entire movie. Also, that entire scene at the beginning of the movie….did not need. Added nothing to anything. Why was that there?
Also, Zavier’s behavior shift from the beginning of the movie to the end was odd. Towards the end of the movie, he seemed like a completely different person and not because we got to know him. It’s because he was written to be a different person. He started unnecessarily disrespectful and ended the movie as a misunderstood, sweet man.
Here’s what I loved about the movie, and I wish I had more of were the moment between Brian and Zavier towards the end of the movie. That was beautiful. THAT’S WHAT WE WANTED TO SEE MORE OF. I needed more of a build-up to the mom reveal and who Zavier really was. I get the message is not judge a book by its cover, but we could have used more mystery about who Zavier really was. Honestly, it would have been better if Madea was the one who caught his mom trying to talk to him and brought that to Brian or Tiffany instead of Brian seeing it. It felt flimsy when Brian saw them and brought it to Joe. He saw a fully clothed, older looking woman arguing with Zavier and only heard come back to the room. That’s not a way to make a great case against this man. You’re a DA. Do better.
We also never went back to how Brian felt he failed his kids. The best thing about a Madea play or movie is the heartfelt moments between characters. Lately, that’s felt nonexistent, and I don’t like that. Give us less ridiculousness and a little more heart.
Last but not least, I love the old people. Brown, Cora, Madea, Joe, and Bam make this movie! I’ve watched ever Madea movie and play (I think), and I can never get enough of them. If you go to Netflix and watch this film, you will literally laugh at them the entire time. Enjoy that. Not the storyline. The storyline needs to be rewritten to better set up the ending. Not the best Madea movie, and dare I say, not really worth a full watch. You can get away with clips and be fine.
