Review: Madea loses her groove with 'Boo2!'

Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 4:56 PM Central

by John Couture

This review comes with the requisite Tyler Perry caveat. I have not sugar-coated the fact that I don't find his Madea schtick all that funny. I thought Eddie Murphy owned this sub-genre and it's hard for me to see Madea as anything other than being derivative from Murphy's classic characters.

That said, I did give Boo! A Madea Halloween a very favorable review and I was looking forward to this sequel as I was hopeful that I might have finally turned a page with Madea.

In a word: nope.

The gang returns for Boo 2! in which they have to visit a haunted campground to retrieve Brian's daughter. The film, which came out in time for Halloween last year, continues many of the same horror gags from the first film while adding ones from films previously released in 2017.

For me, the film's biggest weakness is that it felt as though the film was rushed and relied too heavily on improvisation. The film was rumored to be shot over only five days and the end result seems to validate this urban legend.

I think I enjoyed the first film because it took these characters into a new direction and there was genuine humor to be had in these new situations. Now, the film simply seems like a long extended scene from the first film and less like a direct sequel.

Boo 2! felt like a new incarnation in the Scary Movie film and less a Madea film. Yes, the same characters were there, but it felt that the very soul of Madea was sucked out of the film - no pun intended.

While I believe that even the most ardent Madea fan will struggle to enjoy this film, it is not without its merits. The one character that I truly enjoyed was Joe and I kept wanting to see more of him. There is no question that Tyler Perry is incredibly talented and the fact that he can pull off multiple characters is impressive, but I really want to see him in more mainstream films.

The included special features are not as robust as they were for the first film, but that is to be expected. As you can see in the snippets above, the outtakes are pretty hilarious and could probably be combined into their own film. Heck, at this rate, they might just do that and call it "Boo3!"

Boo 2! is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.