The Madea franchise remains one of the most confounding mysteries in all of cinema. Madea’s Destination Wedding is the thirteenth – count ‘em! – entry, marking the twenty-year anniversary of a series that, as far as I can tell, has never been good. Either critics are wildly out of touch with what audiences really want to see at the movies, or Tyler Perry has enough kompromat stashed away to blackmail Hollywood executives into letting him do whatever he wants forever.
In the interest of fairness, it’s worth pointing out that the Madea movies operate in the broad, larger-than-life comedic mode that Perry is best in. His recent She the People, which is streaming, like this movie, on Netflix, a streaming platform that has become a filing cabinet for some of the most execrable garbage in Perry’s entire oeuvre, proved that he can still do jokes better than drama. So, if nothing else, Madea’s Destination Wedding is easier to swallow than a more serious effort might be.
This isn’t the end of the compliments, either. Perry’s multiple roles in this franchise show an admirable alacrity as a performer, and the fact that ensemble scenes – several of which feature multiple versions of him – don’t become incomprehensible is a testament to a reasonable degree of craft as a filmmaker. I’m not making the argument that these movies don’t hang together on a very basic level; I’m just making the argument that there was never much justification for making more than one of them, let alone thirteen.
But here we are. And while we’re here, we might as well outline the plot, which finds Tiffany (Diamond White), the daughter of Madea’s nephew Brian (also Perry), getting hastily hitched to a potentially unsuitable suitor in the form of Zavier (Xavier Smalls, also in Perry’s Beauty in Black). Zavier is openly disrespectful to Brian, but is nonetheless quite happy for him to foot the bill for a destination wedding in the Bahamas.
After a couple of absurdly long sequences in which the entire family – including Madea and Brian’s father, Joe, who is also played by Perry, albeit disguised as a much older man – get their passports, board the plane, and check in to a swanky resort, the real plot kicks in. This revolves around everyone trying to determine whether the pending nuptials should go ahead – Is Zavier having an affair? Is the whole thing an inheritance scheme? – while enjoying their time on vacation, which mostly consists of living like rich people and charging everything to Brian’s debit card without his knowledge (this is the best recurring gag and has the best payoff).
It just about works, though as a Madea movie and not a more conventional one. This is an important distinction, since most movies wouldn’t unnecessarily elongate every scene as an excuse to have the characters sit around and freestyle back-and-forth banter like they’re in an improv class. Some of the one-liners are funny, but they come at such a ludicrous pace and frequency that you don’t have a moment to enjoy them before you’ve been waterboarded by several more of variable quality.
Joe is my favourite character by a margin, but like Madea herself, he’s an arch stereotype who’s funny on account of his ridiculousness. This is fine for a comedy, but it’s awkward when the movie occasionally tries to swim in more dramatic waters. Brian playing the straight man allows for a couple of surprisingly frank scenes between him and Zavier, but that’s the closest Destination Wedding comes to being a real movie. Most of the other quasi-serious moments are wedged into the usual slapstick-y ensemble dynamic and shouldn’t – can’t, really – be taken seriously.
All this is to say that Madea’s Destination Wedding is, like all Madea movies, essentially critic-proof. The people who like them always have and always will, and there’s no point asking them to explain why. This is, if nothing else, very much a Madea movie, so it will appeal to the usual suspects in precisely the same way as ever. If that’s your thing, enjoy. If it isn’t, don’t expect to have your mind changed. Maybe check back in on the fortieth anniversary instead. I’m sure it’ll still be going.