Madea Goes to Jail

Name: Madea Goes to Jail
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: February 20, 2009
Duration: 103 min
Rating: 50
Cast: Derek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tyler Perry

2009

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Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Ratings

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5.3

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5.3	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Ratings

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Madea Goes To Jail

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Movie Details & Credits

Lionsgate | Release Date: February 20, 2009 | PG-13

Starring: Derek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Tyler Perry

Summary: After a high-speed freeway chase puts Madea in front of the judge, her reprieve is short-lived as anger management issues get the best of her and land her in jail. A gleeful Joe couldn't be happier at Madea's misfortune. But Madea's eccentric family members the Browns rally behind her, lending their special "country" brand of support.After a high-speed freeway chase puts Madea in front of the judge, her reprieve is short-lived as anger management issues get the best of her and land her in jail. A gleeful Joe couldn't be happier at Madea's misfortune. But Madea's eccentric family members the Browns rally behind her, lending their special "country" brand of support. Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Hardaway is on the fast track to career success. But Hardaway lands a case too personal to handle - defending young prostitute and former drug addict Candace Washington - and asks his fiancée and fellow ADA Linda Holmes to fill in on his behalf. When Candace ends up in jail, Madea befriends the young woman, protecting her in a "motherly" way as only Madea can. (Lionsgate)… Expand

Director: Tyler Perry

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Crime

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 103 min

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Critic Reviews

J.R. Jones

Quicker on the uptake than any of Eddie Murphy's fat ladies, quicker even than Flip Wilson's Geraldine Jones. Read full review

Sam Adams

If the movie is a mess, it's a purposeful mess, cannily, if not artfully, pushing all the right buttons to ensure Perry will be back for another round. Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Though he plays two other roles, Perry only really cuts loose when he dons Madea's housecoat, turning her into a devilishly funny voice of reason. Likewise, the movie tenses up when she's offscreen, becoming the sort of moralistic soap opera we've seen from Perry before. Read full review

Stephanie Zacharek

It's great that Perry has seized opportunity for himself and for the performers he employs. But has he succeeded only in creating a kind of ghetto for black-themed entertainment that's of sub-par quality -- one that, admittedly, makes him a lot of money? Read full review

Joe Leydon

Wildly uneven effort, which is notably more strained and slapdash than such earlier efforts as "Madea's Family Reunion" and "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns." Read full review

Wesley Morris

There is, however, Viola Davis, who might win an Oscar tomorrow for her one scene in "Doubt." Her part here - a minister combing the street for crack-whores to rescue - is about three times as large. Read full review

Josh Rosenblatt

I've been watching movies my entire life, and I can honestly say I've never been more confused in a theatre than I was while watching Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail. Read full review

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User Reviews

shanequa

May 12, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. DAYM NIGGUH DIS MOVIE IS DA SHIITt… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

TheateraNerd

Jul 9, 2012

The critics have done it AGAIN! They have underated another GREAT Perry film! This movie's too good to get such a low score. People who rated this movie low are just JEALOUS just like spike lee is because Tyler Perry makes GREAT films. REMEMBER.....jealousy is a sin!!!!.....

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

greedybadidea

Jun 13, 2020

After a high-speed freeway police chase (seen in Meet the Browns) results in Madea being pulled over and arrested (though she is not convicted due to a legal loophole, as the officers failed to read her Miranda warning), she admits her permanent license suspension and Judge Mablean EphriamAfter a high-speed freeway police chase (seen in Meet the Browns) results in Madea being pulled over and arrested (though she is not convicted due to a legal loophole, as the officers failed to read her Miranda warning), she admits her permanent license suspension and Judge Mablean Ephriam places her in an anger management course. Returning home from court, Madea finds a party taking place in her house hosted by her brother, Joe Simmons, who claims he threw the party to try and cheer up Madea. However, Madea isn't amused by the festivities and uses a machine gun to scare the party goers away.
Madea consults with Doctor Phil McGraw for anger management, but does not cooperate with McGraw. Returning home, Madea, needing to buy groceries, calls Cora, who is at the hair salon, to drive her to the store, but Cora refuses to end her appointment early, angering Madea. Joe predicts that Madea will get into trouble if she drives to the store herself, but Madea ignores him and goes anyway. At Kmart, a woman steals the parking space that Madea was about to take and acts very snobbish to Madea when she confronts the woman over it, so Madea commandeers a forklift truck to remove the woman's car from the space, wrecking the car in the process. Madea is arrested and brought to court again, where Judge Greg Mathis sentences her to prison for five to ten years.
Josh later runs into his friend Ellen, a former drug addict and prostitute who has now become a minister that helps other women get off the streets. After Josh asks Ellen to help Candace, Ellen gets her a job interview, but it results in sexual harassment by the interviewer, whom Candace kicks in the groin before storming out. Just before Madea's trial, Ellen asks Josh how he knows Candace. He tells Ellen that they were close friends from childhood through college, but during their college years, all of Josh's friends mistreated and bullied Candace because of her background and he started pushing her away out of embarrassment. He breaks down when he talks about one particular night when he took her to a party. He ended up going on a date and leaving Candace behind at the party, where a group of his friends gang-raped her in his absence. Since then, Josh has continued to harbor deep-seated guilt for leaving her behind and failing to protect her. Ellen comforts him and tells him that he shouldn't continue holding on to the guilt and that it was never his fault, especially since Candace already had personal troubles beforehand.
At the district attorney's office, Josh's best friend, Chuck, runs into Linda and discovers that she is falsifying Candace's file to deliberately get her sent to prison and away from Josh, a practice she has engaged with other defendants as well, including Madea. Linda blackmails him to keep his mouth shut under the threat of telling their and Josh's boss, the head A.D.A. that Chuck cheated on his bar exam to get his law license. Candace refuses to show up to her trial and returns to prostitution, until she is arrested by an undercover policeman. Due to Linda's falsifying of her file, the judge gives her a seventeen-year prison sentence. Linda later lies to Josh back at the office and tells him that she "tried" to be lenient, but that the case was too severe. Chuck overhears this and nearly tells Josh the truth, but hesitates because of Linda's previous threat towards him.
While in prison, Madea befriends Candace and comes to her defense when she is sexually harassed by Big Sal. Candace, Madea, T.T. (Madea's cellmate) and Donna (Candace's fellow prostitute friend) attend a class taught by Ellen at the prison, in order to have time reduced from their sentences. During a lesson about forgiveness, Madea notices that some of the inmates would rather play victim instead of taking responsibility for their crimes. She tells the class they need to stop seeing themselves as victims and forgive those who led them onto the bad paths they've been on, as they weren't the ones who ended up in jail. Candace is moved by her words and during a visit with Josh, she admits that back when she was raped at the party he took her to, she called his name repeatedly as the attack happened, but he never came for her. Candace held on to her anger at him for so long that she forgot how to move on, which resulted in her dropping out of school and becoming a drug addict and prostitute. But with everything she learned from Ellen and Madea, she finally decides to forgive Josh and pick up the pieces of her life.
On Josh's wedding day, Chuck, serving as best man, tells him that Linda falsified Candace's file. During the ceremony, Josh, appalled by Linda's deceit and fraud, tells the congregation, including their boss, the Mayor and the Governor what she has done and jilts her at the altar, to Chuck’s satisfaction. Josh then rushes to the prison where he admits to Candace that he loves her and will help her get out of jail and restore her life.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Jul 23, 2009

I'm not sure why Madea's name is in the title of this movie. I believe it was done as a marketing scheme because chances are that no one would have given this video a second glance given the real story. Movie fans will likely be very wary of the next Madea movie after feeling like I'm not sure why Madea's name is in the title of this movie. I believe it was done as a marketing scheme because chances are that no one would have given this video a second glance given the real story. Movie fans will likely be very wary of the next Madea movie after feeling like they've been cheated and tricked by this one.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

PrinceIke

Apr 30, 2014

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Jesus Christ this movie is ****
i cant believe a human made this
its been like 20 movies Tyler, you cant base a movie off of just being black
Its uninspired,its pointless and theres only more to come.
Perry has yet to emerge from his own **** and see a color besides black,.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

keving

Mar 23, 2009

The previews were misleading. This was a movie for Tyler Perry to get on his soap box. This is a movie about black peoples problems.And how unfair Society is.NOT FUNNY and BAD ACTING. Perry's A family that prey's together is a excellent movie though.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

Mar 4, 2009

Terrible... This was actually 2 movies in 1 where neither had anything to do with each other. One being the obvious Madea comedy and the other an over the top drama. I was waiting the entire time for how these two plots would weave intricately together and show how the two lives would Terrible... This was actually 2 movies in 1 where neither had anything to do with each other. One being the obvious Madea comedy and the other an over the top drama. I was waiting the entire time for how these two plots would weave intricately together and show how the two lives would affect each other. Instead they just ended up at the same jail and had a couple minor scenes together. In fact, the whole idea of "Madea goes to jail" is misleading. She was probably in jail for about 20 minutes of the movie and half the time was spent in a cliche montage as the days of a calendar get counted off. For as little as the jail had to do with anything, it might as well have been called, "Madea drives a car" or "Madea gets angry". Sadly "Ernest goes to jail" had more of a plot and purpose than this movie.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful

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