Much like his other “Madea” movies, Tyler Perry, who directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the feature, plays his iconic character in another Halloween comedy romp for the scary season. Despite the movie getting trashed by critics (and some moviegoers) and receiving negative reviews, Boo! A Madea Halloween was still able manage to make a small profit at the box office, cultivating almost $75 million dollars against its $20 million production budget. Now, roughly a year after its release, Lionsgate (and Tyler Perry Studios), and (as director) Tyler Perry present the second go-around of the Halloween spirit with the follow-up sequel Boo 2! A Madea Halloween.
Synopsis: Madea and the gang are back for this hilarious sequel. Madea, Bam and Hattie venture to a haunted campground and the group must literally run for their lives when monsters, goblins and the bogeyman are unleashed. (eOne Films)
Starring: Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely
Writer: Tyler Perry
Director: Tyler Perry
Rating: 14A (Canada)/PG-13 (United States)
Running Time: 101mins
Trailer:
For showtimes and more, check out on Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween movietimes.com.
Perry’s Madea movies aren’t the cleverest and original films out there, but it should have been much more which was mostly an uninspiring feature lacking any entertainment, be it the weak storyline, the elongated improv sketch sequences, the laughable dialogue, or even the bad acting by several characters. At the very least, Perry’s character of Madea was somewhat humorous (at some parts) and the movie did have vague moral lesson to be learned. However, despite a few comedic bits and the Halloween theme, those positive qualities could not save it from being both bland and derivative. The movie never takes itself too seriously and maybe that’s a good thing as Boo 2! is perhaps the silliest Tyler Perry he’s never made, including his Madea movies.
Unfortunately, Boo 2! is far, far, far away from being a masterpiece even by the standards Perry’s other Madea films. That’s because the movie itself is riddled with so many numerous problems that hamper the movie greatly from even being slightly mediocre at best. The movie mostly is deplorable, finding itself severally redundant from beginning to end. Perhaps the reason for that is by being a sequel to Boo! A Madea Halloween. Yes, it was sort of interesting (or rather amusing) to see Madea and crew having a comedy adventure with a Halloween themed picture, but the first film was not that spectacular to be that endearing or even memorable. Thus, it boggles the mind why Perry would want to revisit this setting again. Furthermore, and perhaps the main crux of it all, Boo 2! is basically a recycled version of its predecessor. There are a few scenes that differ between the two, but (in a nutshell) it is almost a duplicate, with the same jokes, same gags, and same pretty much everything. What makes it even worse is the fact that, while Boo 2! follows a similar path to the first film, it does it to a lesser degree. In short, Boo 2! lacks any originality to its name, feeling very much derivate to 2016’s Boo! and to any other Madea movie out there.
This means that every single problem that appeared in the first Boo! movie returns in Boo 2!, with more diluted execution and agonizing results. The movie is woefully weak and lacks substance, feeling like a very thinly sketched story that should’ve been a fun extra “short film” on the first Boo! movie home release. The story is the same from the first film and additionally, Perry continues his usually trend of devoting a lot of time to superfluously “improvisation” sequences where most of the on-screen characters usually bicker and banter with each other for the duties of comedic effect. Most of this acted as filler with most jokes being poorly written and DOA. To be honest, a lot of the comedy bits throughout Boo 2! fall flat, with most being unfunny and only a few were only worth a chuckle or two. The Halloween horror elements just feel bland and hardly register as the movie could’ve really dismissed the whole Halloween scenario and it wouldn’t have changed anything. Also, the film’s runtime of 103 minutes, feels way too long, especially with all the filler.
Tyler Perry usually has some type of moral / message / lesson to be learned in his movies (some a bit more macabre / serious than others), finding the first Boo! film, focusing on a toxic father / daughter relationship (i.e. Brian not letting Tiffany walk all over him). Boo 2! however, doesn’t really pose any sort of moral lesson to be learned. In fact, Boo 2! Basically, Perry negates the lesson learned from the first film, finding the relationship between Brian and Tiffany reverting back to where it was at the beginning of the first movie. Even so, the resolution in Boo 2! is never fully realized and just comes off as a weak element to the movie, which is disappointing and odd on Perry’s part.
Similarly, the cast for Boo 2! fails in the same way that it did in the first film, with most of the movie’s characters (if not all) being cardboard “cookie cutter” cutouts, with extremely weak / corny personas that barely challenge any of them as actors. Naturally, Tyler Perry is front and center of the feature, playing the outspoken, linebacker-sized female protagonist Mabel “Madea” Simmons. He always seems to have the most fun in portraying these titular comedic character, which usually produces the most laughs (when she’s on-screen) and probably the best part of all the Madea movies, including this one. The problem, however, is that Perry really doesn’t bring anything new to the character, which makes the character of Madea (as a whole) stagnant. Basically, the character is becoming stale and Boo 2! does little to advance her as a character. It’s a certainly a fun role to watch but Perry’s Madea needs to be retired from his films or evolve beyond her current iteration. Likewise, the same with Perry’s other character of Joe Simmons, who is similar to Madea but he has been dialed up more in Boo 2!, finding Joe having a bit more humorous lines that actually stick their landing. Then there’s Perry’s last role in the movie as Mike Simmons who is the more straight-laced character of the three. The character wasn’t memorable compared to the parts that Perry as played before, but it’s kind of mixed bag. This is because of the character of Brian is bland but Perry is good in it, despite the role being corny at times.
The other two adult stars, Davis’s Aunt Bam and Lovely’s Hattie Mae Love are thinly sketched characters, who really don’t have much to offer in the movie and are basically “window dressing” for the feature. Like Perry’s Madea, these two characters are stale and are getting old despite their quirky / odd personas. The movie does add several new adult characters, such as real-life UFC fighter Tito Ortiz as Victor (Tiffany’s other friend Gabriella’s father) and Taja V. Simpson as Tiffany’s mother Debrah. While there’s nothing wrong with Ortiz’s portrayal of Victor, Simpson’s performance of Debrah is badly cliched, bordering on cringe-worthy. Basically, her character is almost identical to Diamond White’s Tiffany character, however, her character’s journey has little impact and is only there to move the plot forward at the beginning and nothing more.
While most of the older cast give okay performances, the younger cast members in Boo 2! are mostly terrible and almost cringe-worthy. Like last time, Diamond White’s Tiffany Simmons is the main culprit. White is just terrible in the movie (as she was in the first Boo! movie), but it’s just magnified in this sequel. Sure, she portrays Tiffany as a spoiled and rebellious newly minted 18-year old teen, but it doesn’t help that White’s acting is bad. However, perhaps the worst performance has to be Internet YouTube star Yousef Erakat who returns to reprise his role as big honcho frat brother Jonathan. If you think White’s acting was bad, Erakat is extremely deplorable and his character is so stupid, goofy, and awful. Most of the other younger cast members from the first Boo! film return, including Lexy Panterra as Tiffany’s friend Leah Deveraux, Inanna Sarkis as Gabriella, Mike Tornabene as frat brother Dino, and Brock O’Hurn as frat brother Horse. Like the first movie, most of these characters are cliched and forgettable but Boo 2! just magnifies it.
The ramblings and comedic styles of Tyler Perry’s Madea (and the rest of her company) return for another Halloween tale in the movie Boo 2! A Madea Halloween. Tyler Perry’s newest feature film sees his iconic character return for a sequel of its 2016 predecessor. What follows is the standard proceedings of a Madea movie, with Perry’s Madea stuck in the middle of everything that’s going on. Unfortunately, Perry doesn’t change his tiresome comedy shtick formula, which makes the entire movie boring, unoriginal, unfunny, and just downright terrible. This was awfully bad with its recycled plot beats, weak narrative, bland characters, bad writing, bad acting, and infamous elongated comedy sketches. The bar was not high for this one but even the first movie was better than this sequel. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that this movie is a hard skip as there’s really no reason to see this movie (unless you’re a hardcore / die-hard fan of Perry’s Madea). In the end, Boo 2! A Madea Halloween is a representation of how stale and unoriginal Tyler Perry’s Madea endeavors have become, replacing promising creative ingenuity for cheap improvisation laughs and uninspiring ones at that. Flat out,. this is just a bad movie. Plain and simple!
1.4 Out of 5 (Skip It)
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