I don’t know if it’s past due or right on time for us to have a Joe-led movie, but I enjoy it either way because deep down (after Madea) I think everyone’s favorites are either Joe or Brown. It seems we’re following the trend of torturing Brian about how he’s raised his kids. Madea’s Destination Wedding reintroduced us to Tiffany, Brain’s oldest, while this one makes BJ front and center. For those who have no seen any of the previews (although, I’m sure you have. Between “Bridgerton” and anything Tyler Perry, Netflix will make sure that you know they are coming down the pipeline.)
Brain has done a terrible job raising BJ, in my opinion and Madea and Joe agree with me. BJ has no sense of where he comes from as a Black man in America which bothers me for a couple reasons. BJ is graduating high school and wants to do to Pepperdine with his White friends. For reference, Tia and Tamera graduated from Pepperdine, so there’s nothing wrong with that school. He could have went there and it wouldn’t have been a problem. They also didn’t tell us what BJ wanted to go to college to study because that should have been factored into his decision making. Anyway, the problem I have with this decision is what some high schoolers do. They want to be where their friends are so they decide on a school based on where their friends are going–not where their talents will shine. I have no doubt that BJ actually looked at Pepperdine because we know he’s really smart but the fact that he’s best friends with two people who are the lowest in his class is odd. I assume he’s doing their homework or something because why would you want to hang with them as smart as you are?
Here’s another thing. You mean to tell me BJ has seen nothing on the news surrounding Black people and the police in recent years? Did Brian turn off the internet on BJ’s phone? At any rate, Brian hears BJ, and his friends, explain that Black people should just get over slavery and live in the now. Times have changed, everyone is equal, and he and his best buds will taking a cross country trip to California. Mind you, no one asked their parents to go. They just decided that they were driving across country to Pepperdine. I think that his friends had no intentions of going to that school on this road trip but I digress. Because Brian is appalled by what he’s heard from BJ and his friends, he goes to the only place he knows–Madea’s house. On his second trip there, Madea tell Brian to let BJ go on the cross country trip with Joe. Terrible idea but it was entertaining to us, to say the least.
I usually start with the bad to end on the good but I have to start with the good for this film for two reasons–Ms. Pat and Millie Jackson. “Joe’s College Road Trip” is rated R and I feel like Perry has wanted to do a rated R comedy for a while. I’m surprised he didn’t do it with Madea as much as she cusses, but anyway. Ms. Pat is a gem and exactly what this movie needed. Based on Madea’s past, I would have liked to see her and Madea together but I got her and Joe and that worked for me, too. Y’all know I’m a nerd and read the opening credits. When I saw Millie Jackson’s name, I said aloud, in surprise, “Millie Jackson?!” For a minute, I was like maybe this is an actor who has that same name, but then I thought of why Perry would make this name stand out in the opening credits. Ladies and gentlemen, THEE Millie Jackson was in the film as a bar owner in Memphis, Tennessee. Jackson is a native of Georgia, just so you all know. Why am I making a big deal about Millie Jackson when I, myself, am only 34? My grandma, Effie, who has since gone on to glory (as the old folks say) had Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Roy C, and Millie Jackson tapes all throughout her house. As a child who spent a lot of time at her grandma’s house with no cable, I turned to playing tapes I had no business listening to. Millie Jackson was the blueprint for the Lil’ Kim’s, the Foxy Brown’s, the Meg the Stallion’s, the Cardi B’s, and every else you can think of who is a female rapper. Jackson was nasty, you hear me, and I thank Tyler Perry for giving her this platform and I hope you new babies Google her and her music! Also, she is 81 years young, so yes, she was lip-syncing. Y’all leave my legend be.
While I loved Joe and BJ’s bond evolving, it often seemed heavy handed and I can’t tell if it felt heavy handed because I knew all of those history places and almost cried when he made BJ take a picture by that river in Money. I do understand that someone somewhere needed Joe and his lecture to BJ. That was a powerful moment and a moment I needed myself. I don’t know. The history piece was just…odd to me. BJ didn’t know any of it? Just nothing? I know he’s been at cookouts with Madea, Joe and the rest of his elders all his life. He had to know something!
Tyler Perry always runs into the same problems in his movies. Somehow, it worked in the plays, but doesn’t transfer well in the movies. Maybe because the storylines don’t go together as well as they did in the plays. The movie tried to do the following things:
- They tried to deal with human trafficking
- They tried to deal with the younger generation losing their knowledge of their history
- They tried to deal with racism
- I fell like they tried to touch on ADHD or autism when Brian was talking to his neighbor about BJ and his progression in school
- They tried to deal with what it means to be successful with raising children
- They threw in a love story
- They tried to be an action movie as well as a comedy
And I’m sure there is more that I am missing but you get the picture. There was a lot going on and it all didn’t really go together as well as I think he wanted it to, but I also understand that this movie doesn’t want to take itself too seriously. It’s meant to drive home a specific point and be funny and funny it was!
Overall, is it a perfect movie? No, but I would tell you to watch it for yourself solely for Millie Jackson because that woman is an ICON we don’t talk about as much as we should. What do you think? It is too late for a movie about Joe or right on time?
