The Tyler Perry Madea Movies are a series of movies built around the Madea character in the movie. Madea, a character created and played by Tyler Perry himself, is a tough African American woman who plays a pivotal role in all of the movies in the series. The character is based on Tyler Perry’s mother and aunt and he says it is a good opportunity to pay homage to them. The character has been behind all Madea movies in the series since starting in 2005 with “Diary of A Mad Black Woman”.
So far, there are ten movies under the Madea name with the last one coming in 2019 for “A Madea Family Funeral”. It is however reported that a new movie for the series will drop in 2022 even though it had been said that the last movie in the series would be the one released in 2019. Even though all the movies are comedies, they also deliver moral messages around several issues. And while some of them were quite movies worth watching, others were perhaps not as good. In the next subheadings, I’ll be taking you through each Madea movie, ranked, from worst to best.
10. Boo 2! A Madea Halloween
The movie is a sequel to Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016) was released in 2017. It received negative reviews from critics and didn’t quite get the reception you would have expected following the way the movie before it was. It ranks as the worst Madea movie on IMDb with a rating score of 3.9. The movie was distributed by Lionsgate Films and stars Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, Andre Hall, and many others.
The story starts around Tiffany’s 18th birthday. Her dad, Brian, and brother, B.J, are waiting for her outside the school when her mom and Brian’s ex-wife, Debrah, arrive with her new husband and with Tiffany’s dream car that she wanted for her birthday and she had expected for her dad to get her. Excited about the car, she drives to their frat house with her friend, Gabriella, and hears about Jonathan and his other friends hosting a Halloween party at Lake Derrick. She decides that she wants to go so she can make up for ruining their party the last time.
She asks Debrah if she can go and Debrah accepts just to upset Brian. Madea, however, hears Tiffany talking about the party and informs Brian but he says he would let her go which prompts her to round up her old friends to go and get Tiffany from Lake Derrick, where the party is being held.
Tiffany, on the other hand, gets to the party with the new car and is also in the company of Gabriella, Leah, and Anna. They link up with the frat boys who have fun with them. Soon, some of the people at the party start disappearing after an encounter with some weird-looking people. Elsewhere, Madea is already on her way to Lake Derrick with her friends and Joe, Brian’s dad, driving. As they soon approach the Lake, they accidentally hit a little girl. As they go on to check on the girl, she reveals her scarred face which causes the old group to run back to the car and head away immediately.
At the Lake, Tiffany, her friends, and the frat boys are discussing the deaths that had happened at the Lake by a “Derrick”. Soon, some of the members of the group decide to go elsewhere. Horse and Leah leave the group to go and have sex. Not long during their escapade, they find blood on a truck and before they know it, they are being chased by “Derrick” and his family. Horse is caught and then appears to be killed. Leah, who is still running, gets to the middle of the road where she sees Madea and her crew.
She decides to stay with them and not long after they are all chased down by yet another “Derrick” person, who slashes the car’s tires.
Back in the party area, Gabriella has followed a frat brother, Dino, into a tent but before they can do anything, they find “Derrick” and his family outside the tent. The same thing happens to Tiffany too who is now with Jonathan and they all run to escape from the lake.
Elsewhere, Debrah is worried about her daughter at the police station and Brian says he will go and look for Tiffany with Gabriella’s dad, Victor. At Lake Derrick, Madea and the old group have now arrived but Hattie has to use the bathroom and Madea accompanies her. There, they see someone wearing a mask and with an ax coke out of the river and they hurriedly leave. They soon find Tiffany, Gabriella, Jonathan, and Dino inside an abandoned house.
Inside, they are scared by a small girl again from the “Derrick” family. Brian and Victor soon appear and tell them all it has been a prank and Brian only wanted to teach Tiffany a lesson and to let Debrah learn how to co-parent.
After that, the men then realize that the masked man was not part of the prank and as it approaches them, they run away.
9. Madea Goes to Jail
The movie was released in 2009 and it features events from “Meet the Browns”, a movie where Madea makes an appearance but despite that, it is not considered a Madea official movie. The movie has an IMDb score of 4.5 and is also distributed by Lionsgate Films starring Tyler Perry, Derek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Viola Davis, Sofia Vergara, and many others.
The movie follows the story of how Madea gets arrested and sent to jail. Initially, she gets arrested after a police chase and is sent to have an anger management class. When she gets home, she sees a party hosted by her brother, Joe, meant to cheer her up but once again, she flares us and disperses the party people with a machine gun. She soon starts her anger management courses with Dr. Phil McGraw but she doesn’t cooperate in class. When she gets home and needs to get some groceries, she calls Cora to come to pick her up and drive her to the store.
Cora doesn’t make it on time and despite a bit of advice from Joe not to, Madea drives herself to the store. On getting to the store, someone steals the spot she wanted to park in, and in an interesting turn of events, Madea uses a forklift to remove the car from the spot and in the process, damages the car. For this, Madea gets arrested.
Elsewhere, an assistant district attorney, Josh, is prosecuting an old friend, Candace, who is a prostitute and drug addict. His fiancée, Linda, who is also an ADA, gets jealous of his relationship with Candace and thinks there’s something between them. She makes this known to Josh but he says he’s only helping a friend and continues to help her even to the extent of letting her stay in his apartment.
He also tries to get her a job through his other friend, Ellen, who is a minister helping other women get off the streets, but it doesn’t quite work out as it leads to sexual harassment by the interviewer.
It was after that Josh tells Ellen about Candace being someone his friends mistreated and bullied in college. He also invited her for a party once that ended up in her being gang-raped by his friends in his absence. Linda, who is still threatened by Candace’s relationship with Josh, falsifies Candace’s file to get her sent to prison. She is however caught by Chuck, Josh’s best friend but he can’t say anything about it to Josh or anyone after she threatens to blackmail him.
Candace, on the other hand, had failed to show up for her trial after returning to prostitution and she get sent to Prison and due to Linda’s falsification, she gets seventeen years.
In prison, she becomes friends with Madea, who is also already in prison after being sentenced for five to ten years. Madea, on the other hand, has gotten a serial killer, T.T as a roommate. Madea, Candace, and T.T attend Ellen’s class in prison to help them have their time reduced. Madea advises the inmates to stop seeing themselves as victims but instead, take responsibility and with that Candace faces Josh when he comes visiting and tells him she was angry at him for events in college but eventually forgives him.
On Josh’s wedding day with Linda, Chuck tells him what she did and he calls off the wedding and tells everyone including the Mayor and Governor what she did. He then goes to prison and confesses his love for Candace. Following the news of Linda’s falsification, something she has done for other defendants like Madea too, there is a public outcry to get them released. This gets done and Linda gets arrested.
8. A Madea Family Funeral
This is the last movie in the Madea series so far and it was released in 2019. It was distributed by Lionsgate and stars Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, among others. It also has an IMDb rating score of 4.5.
The story starts when the children of Vianne and Anthony want to plan a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party for their parents. Madea and her old crew of Joe, Aunty Bam, Hattie, and then Brian, are invited to the party. On their arrival, they are met with strange circumstances as Anthony is caught sleeping with Renee, Vianne’s best friend, and Anthony’s son, A.J, also caught with Gia, his brother, Jesse’s fiancée. The turn of events results in a heart attack for Anthony which causes his eventual death. The cause of his death was kept a secret.
Vianne, who has just lost her husband, asks Madea to plan the funeral in two days. She is soon upset by the number of mistresses who attend the funeral. A.J, who gets drunk, exposes Renee’s affair with his father and in return, Renee exposes his affair with Gia. This revelation prompts Carol, A.J’s wife, to leave him and also a fight between Jesse and A.J. Later on, Vianne reveals she knew Anthony was cheating but she stayed to protect the family. A.J confronts Vianne about this and calls her weak and she tells him he’s just a spiteful boy.
In the end, Vianne wishes the family luck and travels to Las Vegas with Roy, played by Mike Tyson, which reveals her escapades as a cheater too.
7. Boo! A Madea Halloween
The first installment of the Boo! series was released in 2016 with the sequel, Boo 2! released in 2017. The movie stars Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, Yousef Erakat, Andre Hall, Bella Thorne, and many others. It was distributed by Lionsgate and has an IMDb rating score of 4.6.
The movie starts when Jonathan and the other frat boys invite Tiffany and her friends, Rain, Leah, and Aday to a Halloween party. Brian is against Tiffany going to the party and asks Madea to stay at the house and prevent Tiffany from going to the party while he takes B.J to his ex-wife’s house. Tiffany and a reluctant Aday, invent a ghost story to scare Madea and the other old folks and they hide in their rooms. Soon, Madea realizes it was not a real story and checks up on Tiffany only to find out she has gone to the party.
The old group head to the party and crash it as they look to find Tiffany. They soon get thrown out and sent home from the party. That, however, didn’t stop them from calling the police on the frat house. The frat boys then plan revenge for Madea and her group of old friends by posing as the ghosts from Tiffany’s story. This scares Madea and the others who flee out of the house to a church. Joe, who is still at home, knocks down one of the frat boys at the house, and with that, he gets their scheme.
At the church, Madea believes the zombies were a punishment for her sins. Aday, whose parents were Ministers at the church and overheard the frat boys’ scheme, then reveals to Madea what the boys were doing. Madea, Bam, and Hattie then return to Brian’s house where they call Brian to return home after Tiffany’s misbehavior. Brian, who is reluctant to his the methods used by his father and aunt on his children, finally gets to stand up to Tiffany, who alleges that she knew of her mom’s infidelity and her father knowing of it. He explains the situation to her and packs her things, something Madea and the others had been doing.
He gives her an ultimatum to either leave the house or stay and abide by his rule. She agrees to stick to his rules and stay in the house. Soon after, the police come to arrest her in connection to Aday’s sudden disappearance. They arrest the boys at the frat house too and they are kept in a police bus with some other people posing as prisoners causing the young group to panic. Aday soon reveals herself to them alive and well and reveals it was a prank to punish their misbehavior.
6. I Can Do Bad All By Myself
This Madea movie is a romantic comedy released in 2009. It stars popular actress Taraji P. Henson, Adam Rodriguez, Brian White, Mary J. Blige, Tyler Perry, and others. The movie was distributed by Lionsgate and also has an IMDb rating score of 4.6.
Madea and Joe catch three children, Jennifer, Manny, and Bryon, breaking into their house but after hearing about their troubles, they invite them in and feed them. They reveal that they stay with their aunt April, who is a self-centered, alcoholic singer who sings at a nightclub. The following day, Madea takes the children to April’s house where she stays with her boyfriend, Randy, who is married with kids.
Later on, a pastor brings a Colombian immigrant named Sandino to work for her and have a place to stay. April has him stay in the basement and soon he cleans himself up real good to the surprise of April.
Not long after, the pastor brings news of April’s mother’s death and which has her devastated. She looks to Randy for comfort but he shrugs her off but Sandino is there for her. The children soon arrive and learn of the news of their grandmother’s death. As time goes on, Sandino becomes food friends with April, which causes Randy to threaten him.
The next night, Randy tries to rape Jeniffer and it causes April to threaten to electrocute him. Sandino then tells him to leave the house. April reveals how her stepdad harassed her but her mom didn’t believe her causing her to lose faith in people.
In the end, she gets married to Sandino and takes more time to connect with Jennifer and the other children.
5. Madea’s Big Happy Family
The movie was released in 2011 and stars Tyler Perry, Loretta Devine, Shad “Bow Wow” Moss, David Mann, Cassi Davis, Lauren London, and many others. It was also distributed by Lionsgate Films and has an IMDb score of 4.8.
The movie starts when Shirley, Madea’s niece, is diagnosed with cancer and told she has a few weeks left to live. She plans to call her children together for dinner to tell them at the same time. Also at the hospital is Cora and Mr. Brown who are there for a check-up on Mr. Brown. The doctor told them Mr. Brown needs surgery to remove a growth they found during his colonoscopy
At Shirley’s house, her children Tammy, Kimberly, and Bryon, arrive at the house with their families for dinner where she would tell them about her prognosis. They soon start arguing over a number of things and Shirley misses the chance to tell them.
Later on, Aunt Bam tells Madea about Shirley’s prognosis and she promises to get all the children together for dinner so their mother can tell them. She visits each of them at their workplace and threatens them to come. Madea appears to succeed with her promise as they show up for dinner but again, they start fighting, and there, it is revealed that Bryon is Kimberly’s child that she had at age 13.
As time went by, Shirley’s case became worse and she was taken to the hospital where she finally gets to say goodbye to her children.
At her funeral, Madea tells Shirley’s children that she was a peaceful woman who would not enjoy their fighting. She then advises and helps them to sort their issues. Elsewhere, Mr. Brown has lost a lot of blood during the surgery and needs a blood donation, Cora volunteers to donate the blood but she’s not a match which makes her believe Mr. Brown is not her father. In the end, Madea storms out of the stage on “Maury” when she is asked about who Cora’s biological father is.
4. Madea’s Witness Protection
The movie was released in 2012 and stars Tyler Perry, Eugene Levy, Denise Richards, Doris Roberts, Romeo Miller, and others. It was distributed by Lionsgate Films and has an IMDb score of 4.9.
A man, George, is unknowingly linked to a Ponzi scheme run by a Malone mob. He is soon asked to testify against the mob since he is the only one around since his boss had run away to Europe. His family is then placed into the witness protection program by the FBI to a place where no one will be able to look for them; At Madea and Joe’s house.
One of the victims of the Ponzi scheme is Jake, whose father is a pastor and had been placed in charge of the church’s mortgage funds which he lost due to the Ponzi scheme. George’s family’s arrival at Madea’s house doesn’t go as planned as it turns out awkward but soon they start to get along. George is later able to devise a plan to get part of the stolen funds and send them back to 12 charities.
With the help of Madea and Jake, he is able to recover the money but Madea cunningly gets money for herself. The charges against George are later dismissed following his cooperation with the authorities and also his efforts at returning the 12 charity funds.
3. A Madea Christmas
The movie was revealed in 2013 and stars Tyler Perry, Kathy Najimy, Chad Micheal Murray, Anna Maria Horsford, Tika Sumpter, Eric Lively, and many others. It was distributed by Lionsgate Films and has a 4.9 rating score on IMDb.
Madea gets talked into getting a job at a store by her great-niece, Eileen but Madea gets fired on the first day. Eileen’s daughter, Lacey, is married to a white man, Connor, which her mother is not aware of. Lacey works in a school and Connor has corn growing plans which he wants to share with corn farmer, Tanner McCoy. Later on, Lacey calls her mother to tell her she won’t be coming home for Christmas. Eileen then decides to go visit her daughter with Madea and Oliver, Lacey’s ex-boyfriend.
As there is not enough money for the school to fund a Christmas party, Lacey realizes that the sponsor she is getting is Sheldon Construction Company, which is responsible for many town citizens losing their jobs. Due to this, Tanner asks the mayor to sack her. Back at her house, Connor’s parents are around and soon it is revealed to Eileen that her husband is Connor which she doesn’t seem to approve of. She leaves and soon after, she saves Tanner from a burning truck, and in return, he calls the mayor to reinstate Lacey. Eileen then decides to approve her marriage.
The Christmas party was eventually held and the sponsors announced their promise to help the town by letting some water out of their dam.
2. Madea’s Family Reunion
The movie was released in 2006 and is the second official Madea movie after “Diary of A Mad Black Woman”. It has an IMDb score of 5.3. It stars Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood, Lynn Whitfield, and others.
The movie starts with Madea taking in a foster child, Nikki, as a result of violating her house arrest to buy Joe some medicine. Elsewhere, Lisa, one of Madea’s grand nieces, is engaged to an investment banker, Carlos, who is abusive towards her. She plans to leave but her mother doesn’t agree as she wants Lisa to get married to him so she can have his money. Lisa’s sister, Vanessa who has two kids from different men is subject to criticism from Victoria. Vanessa soon meets Frankie, who is a bus driver.
Lisa gets fed up with Carlos and leaves him to stay with Madea. An angered Carlos then blackmails Victoria into bringing Lisa back to him for the wedding. At Madea’s house, Vanessa reveals to Lisa the bad things their mother had been doing over the years. At a family reunion, later on, Vanessa and Victoria fight after Victoria insulted her relationship with Frankie.
On Lisa’s wedding day, Carlos shows up and asks to be left alone with Lisa. Madea tells Lisa to give him some grits which are on the stove. She also tells her they are hot. As they all leave the room, Carlos slaps her but she retaliates and pours the hot grits on him much to Madea’s delight outside. Lisa then goes to the church and tells everyone of Carlos’ abusive behavior. Just then, Frankie proposes to Vanessa and they instead get married at the venue.
1. Diary of A Mad Black Woman
This is the first movie from the Madea series installment and it ranks as the best Madea movie on IMDb with a rating of 5.8. It was inspired by a stage play of the same name and stars Tyler Perry, Kimberly Elise, Steve Harris, Shemar Moore, and others.
Helen and Charles are a married couple who look perfect but behind the scenes, Charles is an attorney who is verbally abusive and is having affairs while Helen is unemployed and seriously trying to save her marriage. On their 18th anniversary, Charles kicks Helen out for a hound mistress, Brenda. He had already put her belongings in a U-Haul. Helen then goes to visit her grandmother, Madea, after kicking the driver, Orlando, out of the truck.
Her grandmother helps her get back on her feet and Joe’s son, Brian, becomes Helen’s attorney after she is caught together with Madea vandalizing Charles’ mansion. Because of this, Madea is placed on house arrest and the judge sets a $5000 property or cash bond for Helen.
Elsewhere, Brian kicks out his drug addict wife and this causes him to have a strained relationship with his daughter. Meanwhile, Charles has been hired by a career criminal, Jamison, who shot an undercover cop, to help him get the judge to rule in his favor. This doesn’t turn out as planned as Jamison is sent to prison. In the courtroom, Jamison manages to get a gun and shoots Charles.
Just then, Orlando proposes to Helen but before she can say anything, the shooting appears in the news and she runs off to the hospital where she makes a decision to have Charles saved even though Brenda didn’t mind having him dead. When he recovers, Helen goes home with him and when he starts abusing her again, she retaliates and also tells him he has nothing since Brenda took all his money and his friends and associates had left him. Realizing he was at a loss, he decides to change but it appears to be too late eventually as Helen says she can only be his friend. Orlando proposes again and then she accepts.
