Tyler Perry's "A Madea Christmas" marks the madcap matriarch's seventh appearance in the Lionsgate franchise since the 2005 release of "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." Mind you, Tyler Perry had dressed up in drag as his favorite character Mable 'Madea' Simmons three years before "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" opened in theaters. In fact, Perry played Medea in four stage-plays lensed primarily for home video. All the "Madea" stage-plays differ from their cinematic adaptations. Outside the cinema, Madea has made three guest appearances on the TBS comedy "Tyler Perry's House of Payne." The last "Madea" sequel "Madea's Witness Protection" qualified as the weakest entry in the franchise. "A Madea Christmas" surpasses its mediocre predecessor. Meanwhile, "A Madea Christmas" ranks as the funniest Madea outing since "Medea Goes to Jail." The major difference between this "Madea" and previous "Madea" laffers is that Perry restricts himself to playing only Madea. Meaning, neither marijuana-smoking Uncle Joe nor squeaky-clean lawyer Brian are anywhere in sight. Nevertheless, this amusing, light-hearted entry benefits from the added bonus of blue-collar comic Larry the Cable Guy who was allowed to improvise his dialogue.Writer, director, and actor Perry is in top form again with this holiday-themed, message-laden, and racially harmonious farce. Basically, "A Madea Christmas" constitutes Perry's homage to Stanley Kramer's landmark interracial romance "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967) with Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, and Katherine Hepburn. Of course, Perry has altered some things. In his version, a young, idealistic, African-American public school teacher has married a Caucasian, college-trained, crop specialist who doesn't have a clue about cows. They live in the rural Alabama town of Buck Tussle. The chief problem is that our heroine hasn't informed her mother about her husband's racial heritage. When he isn't addressing the complications inherent in any interracial marriage, Perry deals not only with the topical issue of bullying as well as an intolerant secular corporation that sponsors a small town's Christmas Jubilee on the condition all traces of Christianity are eliminated from the celebration. Ironically, the most racist character in "A Madea Christmas" turns out to be African-American! The comedy in "A Madea Christmas" ranges from smirk to side-splitting while the storyline deploys few surprises. Nevertheless, the rude, crude, hopelessly opinionated, politically-incorrect Mabel has regained some of her spunk that she sacrificed in "Madea's Witness Protection.""A Madea Christmas" gets off to a strong start with Madea dressed up as Santa Claus at a metropolitan Atlanta department store. Madea's niece Eileen (Anna Maria Horsford of "Gridiron Gang") has hired Madea to greet customers and give them directions to the various store departments. Naturally, the loud-mouthed, cantankerous Madea succeeds in doing just the opposite. Rather than making customers feel welcome, Madea scolds and insults them with her impudent, 'tell-it-like-it-is' commentary that not even Eileen can persuade her to tone down. Predictably, Madea loses her job the same day but refuses to leave until she collects her pay. Meantime, Eileen is counting the days until her daughter, Lacey (Tike Sumpter of "Think like a Man"), arrives home for Christmas. Lacey informs her mom that she cannot get away to visit with her in Atlanta. Eileen persuades Madea to accompany her to Buck Tussle, Alabama, and spend Christmas with her daughter. Secretly, Eileen wants to play Cupid and match Lacey with her former high school boyfriend Oliver. Lacey is struggling with problems when her 'know-it-all' mom pays her a surprise visit without warning. As it turns out, the town of Buck Tussle is suffering from serious financial setbacks that threaten to cancel the town's annual Christmas Jubilee. The town needs funding as much as their public schools to survive. Lacey learns from Oliver (JR Lemon of "Bad Batch") about a corporation desperately seeking positive publicity. No sooner have Eileen and Madea caught a ride with Oliver to Lacey's remote house than Eileen thinks something fishy is happening. Eileen makes an ass out of herself until she learns that her taste in men is nothing like her daughter's taste in the opposite sex.If the earlier "Madea" epics tickled you, you will probably enjoy "A Madea Christmas" when you aren't laughing yourself silly at Madea's antics. Some of the dialogue verges on crudity. Aside from Larry the Cable Guy and Kathy Najimy, Perry has cast a lot of fresh faces and "A Madea Christmas" doesn't wear out its welcome. Stick around after you've see the movie to watch the outtakes from botched scenes.

Basically if your a fan of Madea then you will love this movie. I thought it was absolutely hilarious! One of the best Madea movies Tyler Perry has done! All of the characters in the movie bring their own sense of comedy (and of course drama). The storyline is great and I was really entertained the whole length of the movie, not bored once. There were people of all ages in the theater and everyone was laughing through the movie. I highly recommend this movie to all Madea fans/Tyler Perry fans and really even if you have never seen a Madea movie then I still suggest you go see it. You surely wont regret it. I would actually go see it a second time in the movie theaters it was so good.

. . . and going undercover to expose crime and racism in the American South. Though the switch from comedy to docudrama in TYLER PERRY'S A MADEA CHR!STMAS may go against Mr. Perry's forte, he is to be commended for this public service contribution to the citizenry of the U.S. In CHR!STMAS, we see how there are still as many Ku Kluxers as bed sheets in the South. We see a Black family (Eileen and Lacey) struggle to overcome decades of heartbreak after racist Dad has "moved on up" to a White woman. We see how a White man pretends to be a farmer (though he can't tell a bull apart from a milk cow) working on a new "corn syrup" formula, when it is obvious the main reason he married school teacher Lacey was to provide himself with "cover" for his Meth Lab operations. We also are warned that Ford pick-up trucks are liable to crash and burn for no reason at all, and we are shown the necessity for "brushing" away any evergreens planted too close to homes in wildfire country. Perry further exposes the conspiracy to steal Christ out of Christmas, and suggests that the American crime rate can be lowered by a return to crucifixion. The Madea writer\producer\director also lobbies for minimum wage workers to use any means necessary to obtain a "living salary" from their employers, even if it means raiding the till. The main "takeaways" from CHR!STMSAS: be suspicious of EVERYONE, and never sacrifice a "teaching moment" on the altar of humor.

I've seen some Medea movies but this was the first time I've watched one in a movie theatre. I watched it with my movie theatre-working friend but since he was on call for a possible shift today, we saw it at a cinema for a competitor which meant we both paid admission. Anyway, there was plenty of laughter from the audience including my friend but I, myself, only chuckled during Medea's attempts at his department store job but by the time the scene changed to Alabama and the arrival of Larry the Cable Guy, I laughed plenty especially whenever he had dialogue with the Tyler Perry woman character! There's the putting-in-lessons about racism, a corporation's attempt to put "Christ" out of Christmas, and bullying to stew the pot to contrived effect though because it's meant to go down easy for about 90 minutes, one probably won't get too offended. Anyway, Tyler Perry's A Medea Christmas is indeed pretty entertaining especially if you watched TV during the '80s and liked recognizing Lisa "Blair Warner" Whelchel from "The Facts of Life" or Anna Maria "Thelma Frye" Horsford from "Amen" while viewing this...