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I must start by saying that movies that have one actor playing numerous roles have the potential to be good or a flop. For instance, Austin Powers by Mike Myers \u2013 good, Madea\u2019s Witness Protection by Tyler Perry\u2013 flop. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not the only reason this film was sub standard in my opinion.<\/p>\n
From the onset the acting seems a bit flat and there isn\u2019t any real depth in the characters. There are the stereotypical characters you would expect, like the spoilt , bratty daughter, the take-no-nonsense title character Madea, the stiff, no fun accountant, the semi-senile grandmother who attempts to get a few laughs going, and a few others. None of them offer anything solid though and the moments of bad acting don\u2019t help either. It\u2019s surprising that the acting should be so bad considering that we have seen, and enjoyed watching Eugene Levy, Denise Richards and Tom Arnold before in various other films where they weren\u2019t that bad. I put this lack of attention to small detail down to the fact that Tyler Perry wrote, directed, produced and acted as three characters in the film \u2013 perhaps he had a bit much on his plate to notice and attend to the bad dialogue and flat \u201cbeginner acting\u201d tones.<\/p>\n
The story itself centers around an accountant who is about to take the fall for his company\u2019s mob-backed Ponzi Scheme (a fraudulent investment named after Charles Ponzi \u2013 the man who famously used the scheme in 1920, which took huge amounts of money at the time). Cue witness relocation to Madea\u2019s southern home. She then instills rules and discipline on the family, which was evidently lacking beforehand. It\u2019s all fairly predictable and even the parts you knew were coming never arrive with any fanfare, they come and go without much meatiness behind them. The film drags along at a slow pace looking for laughs, but the comedy lacks the oomph needed to keep an audience enthralled. Eventually the viewer is led through a sluggish ending which doesn\u2019t hold much weight in realism and which doesn\u2019t leave you with any real desire to come back to it again.<\/p>\n
Having said all of that, I must say that I never watched any of the previous six Madea movies by Tyler Perry and for the franchise to have come this far it must have something to it. It grossed $65,000,000 which means that there are fans out there; maybe I\u2019m just not one of them.
\nIf you are a fan, head over to Ster-Kinekor at The Bridge in Port Elizabeth and catch this on the big screen, if you aren\u2019t a fan, go anyway and watch something else and wait for this to hit the bargain bin and your local DVD store.<\/p>\n