What Is the Movie Madea Goes to Jail About?
Moving picture Review
Madea—writer/director/role player/producer Tyler Perry's buxom, bouncy alter ego—has been in trouble with the law since she was in pigtails. Most recently, she shell upward police officers post-obit an O.J. Simpson-style automobile chase. Prison awaits.
But what'southward this? The police didn't read Madea her Miranda rights? "We were fighting for our lives, your honor!" 1 officer protests. And and so Madea goes free on a technicality.
Only the estimate bug a warning: Side by side time, jail.
Well, nobody tells Madea what to do. Inside five minutes, she's breaking upwards parties with automatic weapons, ramming motorists with her daughter's SUV and well-nigh luring Dr. Phil into a throwdown during a court-ordered anger-direction session.
The kicker comes when an obnoxious woman in a red convertible steals Madea'southward parking space. So she commandeers a forklift, picks up the snazzy auto and dumps it on the cobblestone. Madea manages to make information technology home before a SWAT unit converges on her house to take her away.
All of those shenanigans, though, are incidental to the pic's existent story: a morality play about a sympathetic prostitute named Candy, a kindhearted assistant DA who wants to aid her, his conniving fiancée who's more interested in career advancement than bones homo decency and a tough-beloved minister defended to helping prostitutes get off the streets and get right with God.
Positive Elements
Perry'south movies are sometimes advised and crass, but they always pack a moral or three. And in Madea Goes to Jail, the messages are clear: Have responsibility. Don't blame others for your misfortunes. Forgive others. Forgive yourself. Or, as Madea says, "Everybody got a life. What you do with that life is up to y'all."
Josh, the assistant DA, is the film'southward nearly admirable character. Candy is just one of countless of people he's chosen upon to prosecute. But when he realizes he knows her, he turns the example over to his fiancée, Linda (who'south too an assistant DA), and begins to have a more personal interest in Candy's fate.
Josh buys Candy lunch, introduces her to the street preacher and provides her shelter when she needs information technology most. Fifty-fifty when Linda begins to pressure Josh to give up Candy to the consequences of her choices, he continues to demonstrate compassion and goes out of his way to aid Processed untangle her life from the circumstances that have ensnared her.
Ellen, the preacher, ministers to prostitutes on the street and women in prison. While we might question some of her methods—she hands out condoms and clean needles to prostitutes, for instance—no i can question her centre or sincerity. "That adult female correct there?" one prostitute tells Candy, "She's real."
Spiritual Elements
In the world of secular moving picture, arguably no one talks most faith as openly, honestly or ofttimes as Tyler Perry. "The thing virtually information technology is, I don't know why it's never talked about in flick," Perry told beliefnet.com. "There are people [making films] who believe, but I think they're people who believe in the closet. They believe very quietly. There's this huge separation of church building and state. I'thou not agape to mix the 2. I'one thousand not afraid to have a character say, 'I am a Christian,' or, 'I believe in God,' because I think they represent real people on this world."
So, as is always the case in Perry's Madea films, the abrasive grandma's shallow, cocky-serving "faith" contrasts with the deep and genuine behavior exhibited past several other characters, particularly Ellen.
Candy initially wants no part of Ellen's faith. "I ain't got fourth dimension for no Jesus," she tells the minister. When they see again, Processed mocks Ellen'due south Bible-thumping means. Ellen retorts that she'southward not even carrying a Bible. Some other prostitute says that Ellen doesn't need one because "you know every word in it." Candy eventually allows Ellen to adapt a job interview for her. Only when the supposedly Christian employer offers Candy the task if she'll sleep with him, she hits him in the groin and storms out of the interview, making disparaging comments about hypocritical Christians equally she goes.
Ellen's spiritual messages finally take root after Candy gets sent to prison, where she starts attending Ellen's worship meetings. (Madea's there, besides, touting her own, decidedly different "gospel.") Ellen touches on her testimony, how she too was once a prostitute and a drug addict. And she preaches the value of forgiveness. "Yous have to forgive, so nosotros may be forgiven," we're told. Later, Candy asks Josh if he believes Jesus can aid people. Josh does. And Candy affirms that she does too. She then forgives Josh for an incident from their shared past.
Elsewhere, Madea's interactions with her girl, Cora, and her son-in-police force, Brown, often involve both sincere and sarcastic references to Christianity. Cora and Brown ardently apply their behavior to simply about everything in life, while Madea continually questions those convictions. Cora, for instance, points out her "WWJD" bracelet, proverb, "It'southward a reminder for how to care for people." After a confrontation with a rude driver, Madea quips, "Did you evidence him your bracelet, Cora?"
In moments of crisis, though, Madea of a sudden (if not sincerely) changes her tune. Worried virtually the prospect of prison house, she says, "If the Lord gets me out of this, I'm going to church." But when she temporarily dodges hard time, she reneges, insisting that just driving by church is skilful plenty. During the credits, nosotros see outtakes of Madea arguing with Dr. Phil, mangling Scripture references about taking an eye for an eye.
The soundtrack features some spiritual songs, including a remake of "Amazing Grace."
Sexual Content
We see Candy and several other scantily clad prostitutes on the street. When Candy is kidnapped by the would-be pimp, the photographic camera shows her lying on a bed, patently naked, with the shirtless human sleeping on height of her. She later flees his flat, wearing merely a towel.
Processed describes several degrading events that contributed to her condign a prostitute. It's hinted that her stepfather sexually abused her. She also had a boyfriend afterwards college who asked her to take sex with other men. [Spoiler Warning] And she was gang-raped by Josh's football pals in college—a criminal offense he knew about but never reported to the government. That effect triggered a downward spiral in Candy's life and turned Josh into a guilt-driven workaholic.
We hear that Madea once worked as a stripper, and we run across an old nude photo of her, with R-rated areas covered by plume fans. A business menu for a strip club includes suggestive line drawings. Crude slang is used for breasts. An elderly partygoer makes a rough pass at Cora. Madea makes a snide reference to virginity. Candy attracts the involvement of a beau prisoner, Big Sal, whom Madea addresses equally "fellow" and whom the pic non-then-subtly suggests is a domineering lesbian.
Josh and his fiancée, Linda, are shown sleeping together clothed. After a fight, they suggestively discuss making up at his apartment. Several couples kiss. When Josh posts bail for Candy, she assumes he wants sexual favors in return. (He doesn't).
Fierce Content
About of Madea's violence is of the slapstick multifariousness. Madea repeatedly batters, wrestles and squashes police officers and bailiffs. A melee with Large Sal involves Madea shoving the woman's caput beneath a steam press. Candy also gets into the act, half-heartedly elbowing Large Sal after Madea tosses her foe into a laundry bin. Driving, Madea purposely rear-ends someone and, every bit mentioned, dumps the convertible in the Kmart parking lot. She talks about conveying a Glock pistol and fires an automated rifle to clear her house of partygoers. Madea'due south cellmate claims to have killed eighteen men.
Much more realistic (and serious) violence occurs when a prostitute gets slapped to the ground by her pimp. Later that, the man pins Processed to a fence and chokes her until she passes out. It'southward implied that he rapes her while she's unconscious. And when she comes to, he tells her that she'south his slave and that she has to pay for her liberty.
Crude or Profane Language
We hear "h—" at least l times. Other vulgarities ("d–due north," "a–," "b–tard") are used occasionally besides. God'due south names ("God," "Lord") are taken in vain a scattering of times. Nosotros likewise glimpse ane crude hand gesture.
Drug and Alcohol Content
Madea's brother, Joe, is tethered to an oxygen tank, just that doesn't go along him from rolling and toking a marijuana joint. At one bespeak, he even attaches a bong to his oxygen hose. Joe describes marijuana and Viagra as gifts from God and wears eyeglasses with decorative beer mugs on them.
Candy's drug problem is portrayed in a more visceral, realistic mode. Several times she gets the shakes every bit she goes through withdrawal, presumably from heroin. (She and another prostitute accept clean needles from Ellen, who'due south asked them whether they're hooked on cocaine or heroin). Other characters smoke cigarettes, and a party at Madea's house boasts a keg.
Other Negative Elements
In society to get a college conviction rate, Linda pads her cases with prior convictions—a technique she uses to ship Candy to prison house for 17 years. One of Josh'due south friends cheated on his bar test, and Linda uses that information to keep him from telling Josh about her unethical behavior afterwards it's uncovered.
Madea drives, fifty-fifty though her license has been suspended for 38 years. She mentions flatulence. Racist remarks popular up equally well.
Conclusion
Jesus tells the states to turn the other cheek. Madea tells us we only have two cheeks. After those get slapped, it's fourth dimension to kickoff whuppin'. That philosophy goes a long fashion toward explaining Madea Goes to Jail.
On 1 paw, we have Tyler Perry's messages: Faith matters. Forgiveness is important. Accept responsibility for your own life.
On the other, we have Perry's style: Madea.
OK, Madea'southward a comical character. I become it. Nosotros're non supposed to accept her seriously. Her outlandish exploits are intended equally vaudeville interlude, over-the-top slapstick designed to give viewers a suspension from the otherwise serious story Perry wants to tell.
And yet, in a way, we're asked to embrace Madea. Even to admire her. She represents, on some level, what nosotros all wish we could do to the driver who takes our parking spot. She'south the human id unleashed, total of anger and vengeance and snappy one-liners.
Madea does reinforce the thought that we should accept responsibility for our choices. Yet at the end of the film, despite a rap sheet as long as the Nile, she's released from prison. Why? Because Linda'south unethical prosecution lets her off the hook. Subsequently all, a v- to x-twelvemonth prison house sentence would hateful an end to Madea'southward movie franchise, right? Of course she gets out.
So Madea exits the big house unbowed, unrepentant and as obnoxious as always. I've mentioned that she sometimes serves as congenital-in spiritual foil. Just more often, just every bit in the other Madea movies, Perry's would-exist protagonist becomes a walking rebuff of the serious and significant messages the director apparently hopes to evangelize.
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