‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ Review Roundup: Critics Say Tyler Perry’s Latest is Scary Bad
Tyler Perry‘s “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” the tenth film in Perry’s “Madea” series, will be released in theaters this Friday, and early reviews haven’t been kind to the new comedy horror film. Based on the fictitious Madea Halloween movie from Chris Rock’s film, “Top Five,” the film follows Mabel “Madea” Simmons, played by Perry himself, who winds up caught in the mayhem of Halloween fending off killers and the paranormal all while watching out for a group of misbehaving teens. Below are some excerpts from the latest reviews.
READ MORE: ‘Boo! A Madea Halloween’ Trailer: Tyler Perry’s Horror Film Looks Wonderfully Insane
The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck says that the film “makes awfully depressing viewing for those who don’t find the concept of a large, middle-aged man in drag inherently funny,” but admits reviewing a “Madea” film is mostly futile.
“At this point, reviewing a ‘Madea’ film is like a food critic reviewing the fare at McDonald’s. By any objective standard, it’s subpar, made of cheap ingredients and panders to the undiscriminating. But millions of people seem to love it, and happily come back for more.”
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman argues that “Boo!” has “a few old-school laughs, as well as an unassailable message…but it also has a lack of surprise that’s almost scary.”
“It’s another of Perry’s raucous and slovenly comedies of responsibility, which means that its heart is in a very old — and right — place. If only a message that was this solid equalled solid laughs.”
The Wrap’s Dan Callahan asserts that Tyler Perry “will likely always be a divisive figure, but he is funnier than some of the more over-rated comedians of the present day” with a real “voice and sensibility.” But he had issues with the film’s main conflict, which largely involves a parents’ right to discipline their child.
“And so we have three Tyler Perry’s in this scene, one dressed in drag, one dressed as an old man, and one who looks and sounds like the real Perry, and all of them are discussing outrageous physical cruelty toward a child. There is an air of psychodrama about all of this, as if Perry is working through his own issues about childhood abuse through the broad comedy characters he has created, and this is unsettling, to say the least.”
Finally, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sofiya Ballin had the most positive review of the bunch. She claims that the film would’ve been better without the “deeper message, but that it doesn’t take away from the comedy.
“Also as usual, this latest Perry ‘Madea’ flick is all about laughs – nothing less and nothing more. With ‘Boo!,’ you’ll laugh hard, even when the jokes feel too slapsticky, too vulgar, too over-the-top.”
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