Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 35
Divided between sincere melodrama and populist comedy, Madea Goes to Jail fails to provide enough laughs -- or screen time -- for its titular heroine.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 8
Divided between sincere melodrama and populist comedy, Madea Goes to Jail fails to provide enough laughs -- or screen time -- for its titular heroine.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 304,155
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Movie Info
Tyler Perry transitions another one of his hit plays to the big screen with this adaptation of Madea Goes to Jail. The successful filmmaker stars once again as the mischief-prone older woman whose exploits this time lead her to jail, where she befriends and reforms a prostitute named Candy (The Cosby Show's Keshia Knight Pulliam). ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
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Cast
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Tyler Perry
Joe, Madea -
Keshia Knight Pulliam
Candace Washington -
Derek Luke
Joshua -
Tamela Mann
Cora -
David Mann
Mr. Brown -
RonReaco Lee
Chuck -
Ion Overman
Linda Holmes -
Vanessa Ferlito
Donna -
Viola Davis
Ellen -
Sofía Vergara
T.T. -
Robin Coleman
Big Sal -
Bobbi Baker
Tonya -
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Madea Goes to Jail Trailer & Photos
All Critics (51) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (35) | DVD (3)
As ridiculous as his films frequently are, Perry, a shrewd yet benevolent showman, knows and loves his audience.
Top CriticThe women's prison dramedy I wanted never really happens.
Adapting his own play, Perry has pared the plot way back while giving his law-breaking matriarch more room to run free.
Perry brings his own sensibility to every movie he makes and has enjoyed great success by following his own path. But he leaves you wanting more.
If the movie is a mess, it's a purposeful mess, cannily, if not artfully, pushing all the right buttons to ensure Perry will be back for another round.
Crowd-pleasing African-American filmmaker Tyler Perry has been heralded as an entrepreneur, a populist, and an expert on the wants of female audiences, but none of that would have been possible if he weren't also an expert drag performer.
A tedious melodrama stuck on top of shrill comedy, and the two parts are both the worse off for the combination.
Perry clearly knows what his fans like, and he gives it to them -- by the shovelful. But for those not so tuned to his talents, Madea Goes to Jail is two excruciating hours of hard time.
Madea's antics held me captive.
Madea is the antithesis of the moralistic soapbox Perry's movies stand on, which is why she is usually the enjoyable ingredient in his films.
Perry's silly beyond 'belief' born again bully pulpit is thankfully upstaged by his former plus size stripper bully protagonist. But the big treat is anger shrink sessions with Dr. Phil, no less, though Madea/Perry's gender grudges get a pass.
Tyler Perry's best Madea movie to date!
if it doesn't work quite as well as some of Tyler Perry's previous efforts, it certainly isn't for lack of trying.
I like Tyler Perry's movies best when the character of Medea isn't in them.
Perry knows what his fans want (that would be Madea) and so his fans should be well-pleased by his latest film.
It is, in short, not nearly as funny as Madea's Family Reunion, Perry's benchmark for freewheeling, low humour.
Pulliam lends the material emotional shadings that Perry does not write into the script himself.
[Tyler Perry's] talent, however heedless and untidy, is real...it's clear that he can make better movies than Madea Goes to Jail. The pity is that, with the enthusiastic audience he's already found, he may never feel the need to.
The predictable, even absurd twists that the movie takes to reach its happily-ever-after conclusion are amusing, as are the smart-ass quips and disposition of Perry's popular alter ego.
Hokey and ham-fisted, cheaply made and appallingly edited. Even good actors like Derek Luke and Viola Davis are at a loss to get past the dialogue and the characters.
Audience Reviews for Madea Goes to Jail
Super Reviewer
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- T.T.: I can't never do no wrong!
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Foreign Titles
- Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (DE)
- Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (UK)
This does have serious matters in it. I only enjoyed Tyler Perry's part as Madea. Other scenes were okay. Too much seriousness seems always boring to me (doesn't mean I don't take things seriously, just happens during the movie that's it).