PHOTOS: Scenes from ‘The Best Man Holiday’

Blige and “True Blood” actor Joe Manganiello can’t get into a Ritz Carlton or a Motel 6 and so have their baby on the street thanks to a mangy talking dog. That being said, a high point is Madea’s garbled riff on the Nativity story to a group of schoolkids - in her version singer Mary J. What’s most odd about the film is how not Christmas-y it often is, as if Perry was bringing together a patchwork of ideas under the cover of a holiday story rather than crafting one from whole cloth. Perry can now knock these films out in his sleep, and with “Madea Christmas” he certainly seems to be dozing at the wheel.

Here he is refreshingly lighter with his typically heavy-handed moral lessons, which also makes the film feel even flimsier than some other Madea outings. An adaptation of his own stage play, “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas” winds up the same slapdash, lightweight effort as Madea in any other season, with a few Yuletide flourishes.Īs usual, Perry has created a casual mix of easy comedy with a touch of dramatic filigree. As pop singers eventually make holiday albums, it was bound to happen that Tyler Perry would bring his cornerstone character of Madea to Christmas sooner or later.

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