The film is blessed with the presence of Cicely Tyson, who apparently was desperately for one last cinematic fling.

| Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 6, 2020

It is a film full of jagged edges, but one that is sincere and beguiling at its core.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 14, 2013

[Jams] together not two but three separate genres that probably should have remained that way.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Jan 19, 2012

Syrupy drama -- not much here for kids.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 22, 2010

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 14, 2007

In an extremely strange genre combo, inner city gross out comedy meets evangelical passion play in Diary Of A Mad Black Woman.

Full Review | Mar 30, 2007

What ruins this revenge flick is Madea's boorish, bull in the china store act reminiscent of the sassy black woman stereotype popularized by Sanford and Son's Aunt Esther. Loud and ignorant, Medea tends to trivialize every scene.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 17, 2007

A satisfying end, but it takes a lot of work -- and a lot of suspended disbelief -- to get there.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 1, 2006

This bizarre movie is many things--a celebration of Christian values, a drag act, a drug plunge, a soap opera, a sitcom revenge fantasy.

| Original Score: C- | Nov 18, 2005

As a comedy this movie works. As a love story, the movie contains no sparks. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, which belittles the drama.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 30, 2005

This is a film that's gone way beyond the realm of bad, past disaster. This one's in the area of all-time grand mistakes.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 28, 2005

This movie really touched upon an aspect of black life that we can all identify with. More realistic then all of these ghettofied movies that have been presented as representation of black life previously.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 27, 2005

The story begins with a situation so artificial you can't believe it was ever put down on paper, let alone filmed, then goes on to become even more contrived.

| Apr 23, 2005

...a passion play with a guy in drag (who could ask for anything more?)...

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 20, 2005

What works in the theater doesn't always work in the movies. Part of the problem, as mentioned, is with the broadness of the material. But it doesn't help that the script relies way too much on syrupy voiceovers.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 9, 2005

Blandly directed and dramatically shameless.

Full Review | Mar 29, 2005

Perry's writing is dramaturgy of the most primitive kind, with melodramatic situations, tons of woozy sentiment, and humor which might be described as 'lowbrow,' were that not probably too elevated a term for it.

| Mar 24, 2005

the film's dramatic components are just as outrageous as its comedic moments

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 20, 2005

It's never less than watchable, a bizarre hybrid that somehow works as a whole, even though its various components don't mesh.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 18, 2005