Yep, they made another one. Tyler Perry's long-running Madea film series dates back to 2005's Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which itself was an adaptation of Perry's popular stage play. 12 years later, we've arrived at Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, and at its current pace, the latest entry may well pull off the impossible: become the worst reviewed Madea flick ever.
Boo 2! is the tenth movie in the franchise, although it's tough to count I Can Do Bad All by Myself, a film in which Madea makes a brief appearance but is otherwise absent. (Not so coincidentally, that movie is the only one in the series that wasn't eviscerated by critics.) But despite racking up an average Rotten Tomatoes score of about 29%, the nine films to date have grossed over half a billion at the box office on minuscule budgets, making them a quietly consistent force for their studio, Lionsgate. Madea has her fans, apparently.
Boo 2! looks set for another respectable opening at this weekend's box office, despite critics' best efforts. Rather than waste any more time attempting to piece together what's actually supposed to be happening here, plot-wise, we're just going to hop right in to the meanest things reviewers had to say about it.
Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween is a plodding mess of a movie. Neither funny nor scary, its structural incoherency and lack of relatable characters make it nearly unwatchable. -- CinemaBlend
It’s bullshit, but they’re all bullshit. The problem this time is that it’s boring. The usual saving grace with these movies - Madea, Joe and to a lesser extent Bam and this weird-ass new character Hattie - don’t get much action. We see a lot of them, but Perry can’t think of anything for them to do beyond yell at each other and complain. He picks a few jokes and just has the crew - especially Joe - repeat them over and over again. Perry’s jokes have never been complex, but I don’t think they’ve ever been this lazy. -- Birth.Movies.Death.
The prospect of Mr. Perry’s rambunctious Madea possibly taking on a Jason Voorhees-type killer has an amusement value that is not even vaguely realized here. This movie finds Mr. Perry, never the most deft at the technical aspect of filmmaking, drastically off whatever his best game is. -- New York Times
Boo 2 is terrible, but you know that already, though it does identify just how little Perry cares about the look and content of his features ... There’s no moral presented here, no teachable moments. “Boo 2” is fluff, shot as inexpensively and quickly as possible, trying to vacuum up a few bucks from Halloween maniacs and loyal Perry followers who, bless ‘em, love this man and all the noise he creates ... Perry being Perry, he’s more than happy to recycle anything that caught audience attention before, putting in the least amount of effort for the second Halloween in a row. -- Blu-ray.com
The box office, of course, will probably vindicate “Boo 2!,” but the time is overdue for Tyler Perry to throw a wrench into the assembly line. -- Variety
The cinematic equivalent of getting Necco Wafers in your trick-or-treating bucket, “Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween” is a cheap, outdated effort for his beloved character Madea. While its predecessor at least pleased his fans, writer-director-star Perry’s latest offers few laughs and embarrassing post-production work. -- Los Angeles Times
These movies make a lot of money and are cheap and easy to make. Like Madea, Perry’s getting away with attempted murder. I can’t knock his hustle. I just pray I’m not living in a fool’s paradise hoping he’ll make some kind of masterpiece to show us critics how wrong we’ve been. -- RogerEbert.com
Either you're part of the fan base that keeps this staggeringly untalented director making movies, or you can barely imagine finding him funny ... In the end, the scariest thing about Boo 2! is the idea that A Madea Easter might be next. -- The Hollywood Reporter
Next: Tyler Perry Greenlights Our Madea Mashups
It doesn't appear that Perry's discouraged in the slightest by the negative publicity, so we wouldn't bet against Madea bursting her way into theaters again sometime in the next few years. And as long as her creator is willing, her loyal fans will be there to back her. For some reason.