Obviously you can tell by my other reviews that I am a huge Tyler Perry fan. So naturally when my family and I heard that he was making a movie in 2005, we got really excited and went to see it in theaters opening weekend. What did I think of it? It was a great film, and it still is! I love movies and TV shows that are just as good, if not better, than the first time you saw it. This movie is just fantastic! Tyler Perry did an absolutely great job updating this story and transposing it over to film. I love seeing Charles at work; it showed more of his human side. When he's not mean and evil of Helena, he's at work being a good lawyer. I like the side story with Brian and Deborah. I love that Orlando isn't rich in this version! I love the message of forgiveness! I just love this movie! It's funny, it's dramatic, it's musical, it's inspiring! I love it! It's one of my favorite movies.

So let's talk about why some people don't necessarily like this movie. I read one review on this website in which the writer stated he or she couldn't understand what this movie is supposed to be: is it a romance, a drama, a comedy? Well, it's life. Again, the strength in Tyler Perry's writing is the realism of the story and characters. Life is funny, life is serious. In life we meet our soul mates and experience romance. This movie is just an imitation of life.

It's also really good to see Madea on the big screen! A lot of people got excited for this, but this may also be what some people don't like about the film. Some of you might be surprised to learn that a lot of people don't like Madea. ("WHAAAAAT?!? Madea is unliked?! How is that possible?" I know, just hold on.) One reason this might be is because we've never seen a character like Madea in mainstream entertainment before. We've seen the loving grandparent, the wise grandparent, and the unkind grandparent hundreds of times. We've never seen a grandparent like Madea in movies before, and people will always react differently to something new. You'll have your lovers and your haters alike.

I think it's interesting because we all know someone like Madea. Whether it's a man or a woman, a grandparent or a friend, we know someone like Madea. So then, why do people have a problem with a character this real? I don't know, and maybe I'll never know or understand. Regardless, however, this movie is absolutely fantastic! I think you'll enjoy it! BOOYIKA!

This was an excellent movie. Kimberly Elise is excellent as Helen, an emotionally abused spouse who gets kicked out of her mansion and has to learn to live life on her own and learn to trust men again. There are moments that are so heart wrenching that much of the theater was crying. However, before things get too down, there are numerous hilarious scenes led by Tyler Perry. The great thing is that these funny moments are integral to the story for the most part and are not just thrown in without relating to the main story lines.

Best of all, this movie has heart and a message. It's about how forgiveness is better than revenge and that you need to forgive someone because it hurts YOU if you hold that anger inside yourself. It's about how love endures even through pain and disappointment. It's about how God can turn people's lives around. It's the type of movie that you can proudly take your mother and grandmother too.

I wish they would market this type of movie more to a broad audience. It looks like they advertised this almost exclusively to a black audience, I was one of the few white people in the theater in a very integrated community.

This is the story of a woman who's husband throws her out for another woman and she is forced to move in with her grandmother Madea. The story then charts her course at finding her strength to put her life together and get on living.

Based on one in a series of plays by Tyler Perry this is a movie with a built in audience. Perry, who plays Madea, barnstorms his plays from urban area to urban area and has a huge following. Being a suburban white guy puts me outside of that core audience, but I still can see that there are good things in this even if it plays like a cross between a romance novel and an Oprah self help book (Cicely Tyson's speech about taping into the strength of being a woman for example is pure Oprah). Its a movie that moves from high drama to low comedy and back again in an instant and has so many plot points going on it makes something like the five seasons of the Sopranos look simple to understand. It a really odd mixture that makes it hard to get into and hard to get a hold of.

The biggest charm and the biggest flaw is that this is so damn busy and all over the place. Perry the writer has thrown in so much, seemingly in the hope of keeping you attentive, that it all begins to grate. I kept wishing that a better screen writer had crafted a tighter script since there is good stuff here. There is a greater movie in here waiting to get out.

I must state that Perry's cross dressing performance as Madea, while hysterically funny at times, seems out of place and over the top in what is essentially a realistic comedy drama. Don't get me wrong I laughed at her antics but she does seem wrong for what they are trying to do. (What works in the theater playing to the back of the balcony doesn't really work in the up close nature of the big screen)

Far from the disaster of the mainstream reviews, this is good but not great film thats perfect for anyone wanting to see a film thats not like everything else out there.

6 out of 10. Your mileage may vary, but worth a shot, especially once Madea shows up.