Movie Review

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (2009)

Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman | Feb 20, 2009

Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

Details Release Date: Feb 20, 2009; Rated: PG-13; Length: 103 Minutes; Genre: Comedy; With: Keke Palmer and Tyler Perry

$Jail Bird Madea serves time in Tyler Perry\'s latest flick Tyler Perry\'s Madea Goes to Jail$

Image credit: Alfeo Dixion

Jail Bird Madea serves time in Tyler Perry's latest flick

As long as Madea, the primly old-fashioned yet fearlessly badass matriarch, is shooting off her machine-gun mouth, Tyler Perry's latest soul operetta lives up to the mischief promised by its title. But that isn't nearly enough of the time. Most of Madea Goes to Jail is devoted to the weary, mirthless saga of an attorney (Derek Luke) out to save a former college chum who is now a prostitute (Keshia Knight Pulliam, all grown up from The Cosby Show) as he swats away the objections of his upscale fiancée (Ion Overman). It's a tale soggy with the kind of race/class lessons that Madea, the director-star's battle-ax alter ego, doles out far more handily (and entertainingly) in a single church-lady-from-hell zinger. C

Originally posted Feb 20, 2009 Published in issue #1037 Mar 06, 2009 Order article reprints

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