Madea's Witness Protection (2012)

A Wall Street investment banker who has been set up as the linchpin of his company's mob-backed Ponzi scheme is relocated with his family to Aunt Madea's southern home.

Director:

Tyler Perry

Writers:

Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry (based on characters created by)

Stars:

Tyler Perry, Eugene Levy, Denise Richards

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tyler Perry	...	Madea / Joe / Brian
Eugene Levy	...	George Needleman
Denise Richards	...	Kate Needleman
Doris Roberts	...	Barbara
Romeo Miller	...	Jake
Tom Arnold	...	Walter
John Amos	...	Pastor Nelson
Marla Gibbs	...	Hattie
Danielle Campbell	...	Cindy
Devan Leos	...	Howie
Shayne Anderson	...	TSA Agent
Dean Balkwill	...	Attendant
Nelson Bonilla	...	Agent Mulligan
Frank Brennan	...	Jack Goldberg
Eric Brooks	...	Bellman

Storyline

A Wall Street investment banker who has been set up as the linchpin of his company's mob-backed Ponzi scheme is relocated with his family to Aunt Madea's southern home.

---

Plot Keywords:

ponzi scheme | mortgage | church choir | interracial relationship | u.s. attorney | 

---

Taglines:

New Look. New York. New Madea.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some crude sexual remarks and brief drug references

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 June 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection

Filming Locations:

Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$25,390,575 (USA) (29 June 2012)

Gross:

$65,623,128 (USA) (14 September 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tyler Perry Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Uncle Joe, reminiscing about the Army nurses that followed Company B to their barracks, says their names were "Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy". Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy are names of title characters in The Golden Girls TV series.

---

Goofs

When Madea comes out of the bank in Manhattan, the camera operator is reflected in the side of the car.

---

Connections

Follows I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009)

---

Soundtracks

"Ride on King Jesus"
Written by Ronnie Garrett and Myra Walker
Performed by Powerhouse Vocal Network

User Reviews

Shorthand everyone, develop no one

Eugene Levy is such a gifted actor, with an ability to play confused, quirky, and lovable in a very earnest way. Here, he is subjected to the lowest common denominator of humor. I am aware that work in Hollywood now is greatly limited, and it's a "take what you can get" kind of world. I don't blame Levy for experimenting, but I can blame him for picking a film that is doomed from the start.

Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection is yet another entry in the ongoing saga of the gargantuan grandmother who talks fast and threatens violence every few minutes, Madea. The character was made famous because of Perry's many plays, before making a theatrical film in 2005 called Diary of a Mad Black Woman, based off one of those very plays. The film, seen by me not too long ago, is a very faint memory. It wasn't a wretched experience, but an inconsistent one, merging the genres of slapstick, melodrama, and spirituality in a loose and poor manner, generating nothing but a tonal cacophony of unfitting parts. Perry would then go on to do five other films focusing on this "Madea" character, along with doing other films about black families and their struggle to cope with life. I've avoided many of his films for the reason that I am not in total agreement with everything he does. He portrays women to be totally reliant on their males, and rather power-hungry and venomous when something doesn't go their way. This is greatly demonstrated in Diary of a Mad Black Women. I too believe that in order to fully enjoy his films, one must have a person like his protagonists to relate to, and I, for one, have not yet found a character I can connect with in any of his movies.

Madea's Witness Protection, his most recent picture, is an odious miscalculation in every sense. An affront to every genre of slapstick humor and rambunctious comedy that there is. Structuring itself out of corruption and heist plot odds and ends, the film centers around George Needleman (Eugene Levy) and his family, as they are forced to partake in a witness protection program and stay at good ol' Madea's house, after they discover that the company George long worked for was caught up in a Ponzi-scheme right under his nose.

Tyler Perry plays three characters in the picture; the grandmother, her brother, Joe, and Brian, who assists George in getting prepared for a possible trial. I must say that Tyler Perry seems to be the only capable actor in this picture, while everyone carries the blatantly distracting motivation of getting the money for their roles.

Another reason I'm not particularly fond of Perry films is his constant, shallow stereotyping of the black community. Madea's Witness Protection is no change of style. By incorporating a stereotypical white family, Perry has successfully generated more jokes based on race than I ever thought possible. He shorthands all of his characters, regardless of color, and gives them the shallowness neither side needs. I've said it before and I'll say it again; when it comes to black filmmakers, Perry is on the lower-end of the ladder for this exact reason.

The acting is almost unanimously wooden and careless from all its subjects. Denise Richards plays George's wife in a very vague role, poor Doris Roberts is George's mother, who is unbelievably senile, and the kids are the bratty teenage daughter and the innocent son caught in the camaraderie of their father's unfortunate mishap. And if you're going to make a film showcasing goofy white people, one must not forget to call up Tom Arnold, who is given a cameo in the picture as well.

One of the most distasteful, unfunny sequences is when the Joe character, an already unnecessary addition to a film filled with so many meaningless caricatures, is giving George an on the spot interview, asking inappropriate questions like, "what size butt he prefers?" If you giggled at that, you're obviously in the target audience for this picture.

This is my fifth one star review of the year. Not to mention, I have not given a single film that has been released this year a perfect four stars. Have I grown more cynical this year, or has the film industry hit a considerable slump? All I can say is that Madea's Witness Protection, an aggressively unfunny, miserably stale film, that is beyond ideal, sufficient length, has provided me with more hope for one of those reasons than the other.

Starring: Tyler Perry, Eugene Levy, Denise Richards, Romeo Miller, Doris Roberts, and Marla Gibbs. Directed by: Tyler Perry.