This Madea creaks as it starts, before predictable plot mechanics mesh for an upbeat finish, complete with a Christmas carol.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 29, 2017

The problem is the treatment of racism breaks no new ground and represents the issues in the simplest most condescending form.

| Original Score: C- | Jun 21, 2016

A toned down, crassly calculated attempt to expand the brand to a wider audience (see also: white people) and everybody is on their best behavior.

| May 5, 2015

Here's the simple truth: If you like the character of Madea, who is filmmaker Tyler Perry in drag, you will like Perry's 'A Madea Christmas.' If you don't, or if you haven't 'met' Madea yet, then this probably isn't for you.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 7, 2014

Perry's well-worn, play-to-the-nosebleeds schtick drowns out anything as far as basic craft.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2014

Madea has some good line as does Larry the Cable Guy. The movie isn't laugh riot but it has some laughs and it also has a good message.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 23, 2013

Rather than rising above the fray, Madea is very much the fray itself.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 19, 2013

The uneasy peace that has existed lately between the cinema of Tyler Perry and me has been sorely tested by this one.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 18, 2013

If you find yourself outside Tyler Perry's loyal following (even if the reason is skin-deep), this Christmas get-together is still inviting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 17, 2013

Larry the Cable Guy and Madea are an oddly perfect pairing. They're both comedians in drag - Larry just gets to wear pants

| Original Score: C | Dec 16, 2013

The film may sound like an instant camp classic, but while it's staggeringly odd, it isn't much fun.

| Original Score: 0/5 | Dec 16, 2013

The same slapdash, lightweight effort as Madea in any other season, with a few Yuletide flourishes.

| Dec 16, 2013

Slapdash, with dialogue and plot points that were cliches in Dickens' era, the pic sends up, then reaffirms, all the values the media sell us each holiday: compassion, forgiveness, tolerance.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 16, 2013

The humor seems sour and perfunctory from the start.

Full Review | Dec 16, 2013

When Madea is onscreen, at least you know what universe you are in, and there is something interesting and insane to watch. Otherwise, you are thrust into an abyss of meaninglessness ...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 16, 2013

You can see, and hear, the clanking of his melodramatic machinery - the gears and pulleys of emotion - but by the time the movie is over, you've been wedged into those gears; they have you.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 13, 2013

By the standards of Tyler Perry's Madea series, A Madea Christmas is better than average.

| Original Score: C- | Dec 13, 2013

The one fascination of A Madea Christmas is how little care the country's most popular and powerful indie filmmaker takes in shaping his own material.

| Dec 13, 2013

A crass weapon in the crusade against the War on Christmas, the yuletide-themed Madea avoids pushing buttons in hopes of meeting the requirements for annual replay on cable.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 13, 2013

With a character who can essentially say and do whatever she wants, you might expect a bit more.

| Dec 13, 2013