Alicia I love this movie so much

Lawbolisted Powerful

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

celestialbaby23 Absolutely LOVE Madea! Wish I had someone like her in MY family! Lol. Amazing movie, great storyline, really funny with a heartfelt story mixed in. Truly a good movie!

sddavis63 I scratched my head through most of this movie and remain quite bewildered by it now that I've seen the whole thing. What's with the title? Madea (one of those man playing a woman characters) is really only about half of the movie, the half that deals with Madea is silly at best and irritating at worst, and she only goes to jail for about the last 20 minutes. So what's with "Madea Goes To Jail" as if that's the focal point of the story?The real meat of the story revolves around the relationship between Joshua (Derek Luke) and Candi (Keshia Knight Pulliam.) Joshua is a DA who rose from the wrong side of the tracks and is now engaged to Linda (Ion Overman) - another DA and something of a "princess" - as she's repeatedly called. Candi, meanwhile, is a prostitute who grew up with Joshua and who reconnects with him. Joshua has a need to help her out of her situation. Something happened between the two years ago that makes Joshua feel responsible for Candi, but it takes a while for that to come out. This story is the "meat" of the movie, far more central than the Madea storyline, and not really related to it in any meaningful way. The Candi story is a heavy one: prostitution, drugs, jail, rape. For a comedy this is actually pretty dark most of the way through. Madea, I guess, is supposed to provide the comedy, but aside from a handful of scenes doesn't really accomplish that. There's a bizarre focus on religion throughout this, highlighted by a decent enough turn by Viola Davis as an unorthodox minister reaching out to the local streetwalkers. Even Dr. Phil appears in this. The exchange between him and Madea was cute for a while, but got tired very fast, and why it was deemed necessary to have yet another portrayal of a Madea/Dr. Phil session run during the closing credits is one of those mysteries no one will ever be able to explain.If this had just focused on the Joshua/Candi story it would have made for some pretty good material and a pretty powerful movie. Unfortunately, the nonsense surrounding the Madea material drags everything else about this movie down. This is basically a poorly put together and overall unappealing movie. (3/10)

beregic as i see it, the main problem here has to do with the title itself ; not appropriate since the ACTUAL(and otherwise excellent) plot has not much to do with "Mandea"...i can only assume that Tyler wanted to kill two birds with one stone = the movie is targeting the wrong audience ( the one looking for cheap forgettable laughs that is). therefore i can somehow understand the low ratings for this particular feature even if i do not agree.getting past that, the plot involving the prostitute and the lawyers is just as good if not better then the other social oriented movies Tyler has made for the REAL "working class". keeps true to realism and "good people" morale theme. it has nothing to do with organized religion as some reviewers have implied before me, but rather with having FAITH, a term that is universal just differently interpreted by each of us. the are some VERY sensible scenes and realistic dialoguesacting in itself is good to very good except for...Tyler.he should give up acting he is quiet BAD at that, and should refrain himself to be a great director as he always has...it is good that he does not take too much screening time himself...Keshia Knight Pulliam would be the best actor here as well as Derek Luke and Viola Davis.for mandea plot i a give 5 rating and for the alternative one a full 10, therefore we come to 7-8.reccomended for mature audiences looking for realism in America; this movie also exposes very well the hypocrisies affecting all social classes.

Fox Hamilton Now, before anything, I'm a Christian and I do have some religious beliefs. However, I'm not a hardcore Christian. I also can't stand it when people shove religious crap down my throat. I can learn to poke fun at my own religion and laugh because for all I know I could be worshiping the wrong religion. Not a big deal to me. I'm still a decent guy. Religion is always the last thing on my mind.With that said, this movie was just bad in every way possible. Let me break it down for you: it's not funny, it's not clever, it's not entertaining, it's overlong, it's boring, it's predictable, it's clichéd, the bad acting and dialog make it unwatchable at times with it's stupid one liners. It also tries too hard to be both dramatic and ends up becoming unbearably hammy. It also leaves me wondering: "Is it comedy or drama? Do I even care anymore because of how unlikeable the characters are?" I've seen some comedy/dramas that evenly weigh out each element very well. This film and the rest of Tyler Perry's films don't fit into that category at all.This also pounds you over the head with religious context and other ridiculous and unrealistic plot elements that just come off as being unintentionally sappy. And why the hell is Dr. Phil in this? Really? Does anyone like this douche bag enough to want him to star in a film (however amateurish)? And not having one pop-culture icon in the film is enough, but they also had to add in another one (Judge Mathis).Oh, I forgot to tell you the story. Madea goes to jail, but it takes forever before she actually gets there (she's there for the final 20 minutes of the show). Tyler Perry casts his conceded ass into three separate roles in this, which gets tiresome. I have no problem with directors wanting to be in their own films (Braveheart and Annie Hall come to mind) but, damn dude, three roles? Seriously? Oh, yeah, back to the "story". Madea keeps doing dumb stuff so she eventually goes to jail and is ordered anger management (with Dr. Phil of all people) and at the same time a prostitute is trying to get off the streets.Is there anything in this film that Tyler Perry hasn't done before? Madea? Sexual abuse? Religious elements? Drug addiction? Yes, yes, it's all so sad and so easy for you to get tears jerked from your audience while at the same time giving them a good belly laugh. You are oh-so-clever, Tyler Perry.All in all, I'm just getting really sick and tired of these stupid Madea movies. Almost as much as those damn "movie" movies with Seltzerberg. The only saving grace in this that I can think of is that the actor who plays Josh is the only one who didn't annoy me. He wasn't good, he just seemed like the only one who was even trying. Kudos to him, but at the same time he should be ashamed to agree to star in a film like this. The man is clearly talented and needs to be in real movies and avoid this kind of crap. He's the only reason why this doesn't get one star out of me. I gave it two for his sake.Like I said with Not Easily Broken, leave the religious elements out of your films unless it actually does have something to do with it (Last Temptation of Christ, Doubt) but at the same time don't exclude your audience. Next time, Perry, I'm not gonna be so easy on your ass.