First of, I read your wack article about Tyler Perry and you mentioned that the movie is not for white people, but it was mighty funny that when I wen to see the movie there was an awful lot of white people there to see the movie. Get over yourself what does it matter if it was white a movie or black movie. We have a BLACK president so what does color of your skin have to do with anything. I am a black female and I feel that the movie was very real and deals with things that go on in everyday life. This reality might not go on at your front door but it is very real for other people other than a prick such as yourself. You said that the jokes were lame but I think you are the lame one that did not get the message that was sent in the movie.

Sparkle

Your problem isn't as "a white critic." It's as a critic who doesn't appreciate what you consider poorly realized moronic humor. Did your race influence your response to the Naked Gun movies? If black critics didn't enjoy them, was that because they weren't white? Or because the Naked Gun movies were lame? You think the Madea series is dumb, poorly made, and a waste of talented actors. Fine.

Dear Ms. Zacharek,

My first reaction (having just read your comment "Everyone knows" that the Madea movies are not "made for white people")is to consider that this "everyone" certainly doesn't, I gather, include two of my friends (both black) who've taken me to see two Madea movies.

I should emphasize that I'm about as unmistakably white as it gets in this country.

Apparently, my black friends (whom I've previously considered reasonably clued-in folks) aren't as well-informed as they ought to be.

I wonder.....did Perry himself say, at one point or another, that his movies weren't "made for white people"? Or is that phrase simply something that's come spinning out of the inevitable critics'-circle echo-chamber?

Amusedly,

David Terry

www.davidterryart.com

I was recently told a joke in another language that somehow fell flat when translated; I had to have the colloquial equivalent told to me and then I understood -- somehow, in translation, the kind of jokes that are great when told among friends and family, the sort that everyone somehow "gets" because they're familiar with the subject/subtext/players; those that have some sort of hidden meaning because of cultural perspective or ideologies; they do not translate well on screen, the way a great book sometimes will not "transfer" into a great movie. To do him credit, Tyler Perry's plotlines and/or details are taken from true life, his background has given him great fodder, enough for a thousand more movies like these. As time goes by hopefully he will become better in getting his point across.

One more illustration of the great "cultural divide", though not necessarily "philosophical" (as two people can say the same thing or live by the same creed, but express it entirely differently)that exists between Black and White people in the United States.

Funny that Black people have no problem understanding both (perspectives), however.

I just read "Funny that Black people have no problem understanding both (perspectives), however."

All I can think is that this letter-writer hasn't recently tried explaining the housekeeping routine to a new maid.

Of course, the latest applicant hereabouts wasn't THAT black, all done and said. Presumably, if she were, I wouldn't have to keep explaining why I really would prefer that the sterling not go through the dishwasher.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon feeling as though my "perspective" were conceived in a vacuum and sent out into a void.

Wearily yours as ever,

David Terry

Of how easily racialized ANYTHING in America becomes. I am an African American with a keen sense of humor and I do not find Perry's movie's funny or entertaining in the least. The most interesting thing about his movies is their indictment of a racist Hollywood system, in which extremely talented performers who should be A-list actors must resort to Perry's shoddy productions. I agree with everything the reviewer says about Perry's movies. I only wish she hadn't felt the need to racialize her review.

Tyler Perry's been making bad movies that waste a lot of good talent for a long time now. I was completely unware of him until I moved to New Orleans, where ads for these movies are everywhere.

There's no reason that a well-made, well-written, well-acted movie or t.v. show that has an all-black or majority-black cast should not be a critical or commercial success even among white audiences. See "The Cosby Show," "In Living Color," "Eve's Bayou," "Frank's Place," etc. ("Frank's Place" managed to attract a loyal audience and land on several critics' "Best of" lists even though the network moved the show's time slot SIX TIMES in twenty-something episodes. Then it was cancelled after one season because of an episode dealing with the then-controversial topic of junk bonds, which pissed off the network bigwigs, who were heavily promoting them.)

It ain't racism that keeps me from watching any more of Tyler Perry's movies. It's because I've seen one, and it was awful.

Stephanie, I think you missed the mark here. Tyler Perry's movies may be made from an African American perspective, and its jokes or cultural references may indeed be in-house, but all movies are ultimately made for all people. On one level white people like myself might not grok certain moments of the movie that African Americans will immediately recognize, but there would be universal truths that of course I and other white people would recognize: love, hate, anxiety, jealousy, and the humor of a person of any color slipping on a banana peel.

I would have said that there are universal human truths, but as "March of the Penguins" showed, you don't need to be a penguin to understand love and sadness and parental devotion among those penguins, even if we're not always sure about what's going down between all those penguins in their little penguin town. It just goes to show that life, in all its variations, shares common truths that are understood by anyone willing to look past the surface.

Having said all that, I think Tyler Perry's movies are junk.