High production designer, Eloise Crane Stammerjohn costume designer, Johnetta Boone sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat), Chris Duffy supervising sound editor, Mike Wilhoit re-recording mixers, Joe Barnett, Marshall Garlington special effects coordinator, David Fletcher visual effects, Crafty Apes visual effects supervisor, Chris LeDoux assistant director, Donald Murphy casting, Kim Coleman. Camera (color, Deluxe prints), Alexander Gruszynski editor, Maysie Hoy music, Christopher Young music supervisor, Joel C. Produced by Perry, Ozzie Areu, Matt Moore.ĭirected, written by Tyler Perry, from his play. Running time: 105 MIN.Ī Lionsgate release of a Lionsgate and Tyler Perry Studios production. Subplots, including a half-hearted treatise on bullying and an adorable little boy (Noah Urrea) with dreams of singing in the Christmas pageant, are scattered artlessly here and there, as are bit roles for long-forgotten viral video sensations Antoine “Bed Intruder” Dodson and Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins.įilm Review: ‘Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas’ Other comic setpieces range from amiably cliched (Madea’s malaprop-heavy summary of the Book of Luke) to jaw-droppingly awful, reaching a particularly painful nadir when Larry’s ghost-themed sexual role playing causes Eileen to mistake him for a Klansman. However predisposed (or not) one might be to appreciating their signature personae, Perry and Larry’s scenes together are easily the highlights of the film, as they at least provide these shticksters with the opportunity to bounce old-timey banter off one another, rather than simply performing to the camera. (The decision to cast a black woman as the unrepentant bougie bigot who confuses her white in-laws for “the help” could have been interestingly subversive in other hands, though Perry does very little with it.) Furthermore, the corporate sponsor for the town jubilee turns out to be the very same company that built the dam that ruined the local farmlands, though this seems to matter far less to the townsfolk than the company’s insistence on secularizing the Christmas festivities, which allows Perry to throw some particularly patronizing scraps of red meat to any Bill O’Reilly devotees who may have wandered into the theater. The store is renamed Sand Dollar Cafe for the movie. They had to shut down during filming, according to their Instagram post.
More complications arise when Conner’s hayseed parents (Larry the Cable Guy, Kathy Najimy), arrive in town for a visit, with the whole family now enlisted to continue Lacey’s charade for the increasingly unpleasant Eileen. Carson’s Store in Noank, Connecticut, was another filming location. Later in November, Netflix will release Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, which stars a variety of black actors, including Phylicia Rashad, Forest Whitaker, and Anika Noni Rose.Also inexplicably in tow with Madea and Eileen is Lacey’s high-school boyfriend, Oliver (JR Lemon), a corporate bigwig of some kind with whom Lacey has reconnected while seeking a corporate sponsor for her school’s annual Christmas jubilee, which the local farmers rely on financially after a newly built dam decimated their crops. Netflix recently released Operation Christmas Drop that stars The Vampire Diaries’ Kat Graham.
A Majestic Christmas is another Hallmark movie featuring black main characters. If you need more black-led movie options, A Diva’s Christmas Carol isn’t available to stream, rent, or buy in digital form, but it might be worth searching the DVD discount bin to find. This film reminds people of the importance of family, and to forgive and restore a broken bond.
Blige,īlack Nativity is a musical that explores trying to heal wounds and learning to become a family again. The film may sound like an instant camp classic, but while it’s staggeringly odd, it isn’t much fun. It was released in theaters on December 13, 2013. A Madea Christmas feels unfinished and rushed, as if Perry shipped the film to theaters without finishing his editing or scoring, secure in the knowledge that no Madea film has suffered at the box-office for being ramshackle and amateurish. This is the seventeenth film by Perry, and the seventh in the Madea franchise. A Madea Christmas is a 2013 American Christmas comedy film directed, written, produced by and starring Tyler Perry with the rest of the cast consisting of. This is the first Christmas themed film from the writer-director and also adapted from his play of the same name. Black Nativity’s all-star cast includes Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese Gibson, and Mary J. A Madea Christmas is a Christmas comedy film directed, written, produced by and starring Tyler Perry. Based on Langston Hughes’ play of the same name, Black Nativity follows a young man Langston (Jacob Latimore) as he spends Christmas with his estranged relatives.