32 Best Tyler Perry Movies and Stage Plays
32. Madea’s Tough Love
In 2015, Perry tried his hand at animated comedy with Madea’s Tough Love. Though he didn’t write or direct the live-action film, his beloved fictional matriarch Madea Simmons takes center stage in a kid-friendly flick about a group of disadvantaged kids who enter a sports competition to keep their local recreation center open. But because the hour-long cartoon is void of Perry’s usual family drama, it pulls in last on our list.
31. Acrimony
30. Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
Perry film regular Lance Gross starred in this sexy drama, alongside R&B singer Brandy Norwood, Vanessa Williams, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who played his love interest, Judith. Everything was good in Judith’s world—until she fell for the wrong guy. Again, the 2013 film is yet another derivative of a Perry play—this time The Marriage Counselor—but due to its lack of continuity throughout, it fell short of our top 20.
29. Tyler Perry’s I Don’t Want To Do Wrong
Perry has a knack for entertaining audiences while delivering hard truths. I Don’t Want To Do Wrong excelled at enveloping those teachable moments in humor. However, the ensemble cast didn’t quite deliver the one-two punch of comedy that fans were used to from Perry’s usual suspects, such as Madea, Uncle Joe, Mr. Brown, and Aunt Bam.
28. Tyler Perry’s the Haves and the Have Nots
You may already be a fan of the OWN hit The Haves and the Have Nots, but the TV series actually began as a play. Featuring recurring characters Hattie (Patrice Lovely) and Floyd (Palmer Williams Jr.), the drama centered on the privileged Willis family and the funny family that worked for them.
27. A Madea Family Funeral
Back in March 2019, Perry revealed that he was finally saying farewell to the Madea character. A Madea Family Funeral is the last movie in which fans will see the silver-haired senior. Although, despite the title, fans can breathe a sigh of relief that Perry didn’t kill Madea off in the entertaining flick. “I’ll be 50 this year and I’m just at a place in my life where this next 50 I want to do things differently,” Perry told CNN. “She’s also run out of things to say in my point of view. So if there’s something else for her to say maybe one day she’ll return but for right now, no, I think I’m done.”
26. Good Deeds
In Perry’s 2012 film Good Deeds, Thandie Newton portrayed a tough-as-nails character Lindsey Wakefield, a struggling single mother working as an office custodian by day. Until, that is, Perry’s character Wesley Deeds swoops in to show her the good life. Gabrielle Union also stars in the film as Perry’s well-to-do fiancée, Natalie.
25. Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club
Speaking of single mothers, Perry celebrated five of them in this 2014 comedy led by Nia Long and Amy Smart as women who forge a bond despite their differences. Single Moms Club was an uplifting movie, and, at times, even laugh-out-loud funny. Though the premise was a wee bit predictable, Perry’s move away from his go-to narratives resulted in a memorable film.
24. Nobody’s Fool
Tiffany Haddish continues her hot streak in Perry’s November 2018 movie, co-starring Whoopi Goldberg, Tika Sumpter, and Omari Hardwick. With Goldberg and Haddish at the helm, the film had the potential to be a lot funnier. But what we appreciate most is the sisterly bond between Haddish and Sumpter’s characters, as the two siblings’ differing personalities eventually collide.
23. Tyler Perry’s Madea Witness Protection
Ask any Perry fan, and they’d tell you his Madea character is practically synonymous with jail and courtrooms. But in Madea’s Witness Protection, the sassy grandma was actually on the right side of the law. In the 2012 film, she opened up her home as a safe haven to a troubled married couple, played by actors Eugene Levy and Denise Richards. The feel-good film didn’t rank higher because it’s missing the spontaneity and laugh-until-you-cry moments of some of his better works.
22. For Colored Girls
21. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Neighbors From Hell
Perry has dabbled into everything from marriage woes to family sparring. But in Madea’s Neighbors From Hell, Madea takes on her neighbors after she gets a hunch that something wasn’t right with the family next door. She stops at nothing to get the bottom of it in what turns out to be one of the most successful plays on Perry’s resume.
20. Tyler Perry Presents Peeples
Perry is the co-writer and producer on this 2013 interpretation of the classic Father of the Bride. In it, Kerry Washington and Craig Robinson starred as a soon-to-be-married couple. However, before they could walk down the aisle, Robinson’s character needs to meet the parents and ask for Washington’s hand in marriage. There was just one thing: her father was a bit…strange. Like, sneaking off to nudist sweat lodges kind of strange. Bu the valuable lesson Peeples taught about preserving family traditions is why it comes in at 20.
19. Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween
Perry has made audiences laugh at every major holiday, including Christmas and Thanksgiving. Boo 2! was no exception, a sequel presenting characters Madea, Bam, and Hattie on haunted campgrounds. Admittedly, audience squeals are more from laughter and not fear, but it’s a treat worth watching with the family on Halloween—only bested by its predecessor.
18. Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas
Madea headed to the countryside in this seasonal charmer, bringing her own wise-cracking dose of Christmas cheer along with her. Tasked with helping a family reunite, the 2013 holiday release was full of hysterics as Madea lobbied as Santa’s little helper.
17. Madea’s Big Happy Family (The Play)
Miss Shirley (played by Chandra Currelley-Young) enlisted Madea and Aunt Bam to assist with getting her family together. Part of what made this play one of Perry’s best was when his character Madea went off-script and the impromptu jam session between the characters began. However, the stage production paled in comparison to the movie adaptation.
16. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself
This 2009 film was one of the better pairings of Henson and Perry, though the eponymous stage show was miles better. Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight, Adam Rodriguez, and Brian White also joined the cast. Here, Henson portrayed a nightclub singer burdened by her grief, family, and alcoholism.
15. Tyler Perry’s Aunt Bam’s Place
Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis) finally got her moment to shine in a solo production without her trusted sidekicks Madea and Hattie. All the same, by the end of the play, we missed the pistol-packing grandma and Hattie’s crass humor.
14. Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?
Sequels very rarely do the original justice, which might be why Why Did I Get Married Too faltered. The four couples return to work through their marital problems we first learned about in the first installment, but the premise wasn’t as enticing as it was with the 2007 film. Still, it was hard for us to rank anything starring the legendary Cicely Tyson lower than 15.
13. Tyler Perry’s Madea on the Run
Once again, Madea found herself in a high-speed chase with the law. The thrills didn’t stop there, though, in Perry’s latest live production. It wasn’t as exciting as seeing her threaten her cellmates behind bars, but the jokes still landed.
Michelle is the Culture & News Writer for OprahMag.com, where she writes about celebrities (she considers herself an expert on Beyoncé and Reese Witherspoon), plus the latest in pop-culture news, binge-worthy TV shows, and movies. The transplanted Southerner turned ambitious New Yorker lives her best life by listening to hip-hop and Pod Save America, watching The Office on repeat, quoting Oprah-isms, eating dessert before dinner, and avoiding avocado. Seriously, she doesn’t get the hype.
It should say, “Michelle is the former Culture & News Writer for Oprahmag.com…”
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