I saw two very different movies today. Munich was a well written, well shot, excellently acted film about a group of men who were on a mission to kill the eleven Palestinian terrorists who killed the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. It was very layered and thoughtful, and had a message of nonviolence. My husband saw it twice and is reading the book it is based on. It was a long movie, but there were no weak moments in it at all. It dealt with issues of home and homeland, and violence breeding more violence. I think it should win something tonight. I also totally dug all the cool seventies clothes and hairstyles.

Madea's Family Reunion was a very shallow movie with completely one-sided, simplistic characters. It had the maudlin simplicity of an afterschool special. Madea is an outspoken older black woman who believes in giving cheeky kids a whuppin' with a belt, speaking her mind, and being the matriarch who keeps her huge family together. It was a predictable and cheesy movie. It got really preachy, too.

Guess which movie had me breaking down in tears....

Halfway through Madea I was sobbing like a baby. I don't usually cry at movies- and I particularly hate movies that blatantly try to manipulate my emotions. But it touched a nerve in me. I simply don't understand it, but maybe now I am beginning to see why Tyler Perry's movies and plays have been so wildly successful across the country. I need to rent Diary of a Mad Black Woman now.




Here are some quotes about Madea from the Washington Post:
"Let's get this straight, first. No one should go to a Tyler Perry movie -- including "Madea's Family Reunion," just released yesterday -- looking for complex story lines, layered characters or panoramic cinematography that steals your breath away.To put words in the mouth of his outsized, truth-telling, gun-toting, sixty-something Madea (Perry in a dress, wig and really big-breasted fat suit), "That really ain't what this thing is about."
"Perry's stories about empowerment of women set among Madea's family have a built-in following among black audiences familiar with his plays and video versions of the tales. Black women 35 and older made up 52 percent of the movie's audience, according to Lionsgate."The themes Tyler Perry presents resonate very strongly with the black community," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "It reminds me of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.' It has elements of comedy and drama and community that just definitely works."

"This isn't so much a movie as it is one Christian man's attempt at reclamation and resurrection. It is celluloid call-and-response about the path to personal and community salvation. That path, Perry says, is in some way back to the future -- a reclaiming of old values, whether it's a good whack across the mouth of a too-fresh teenager or the idea of marriage before sex."