‘Happy Family’ is typical Tyler Perry

April 23, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

The Orlando Sentinel

“Madea’s Big Happy Family” is stuffed to the gills with Tyler Perry’s mix of the sacred and the silly and a serious dose of self-help for the self-absorbed.

It’s as messy as any of Perry’s “Madea” comedies — assorted characters doing weakly-connected one-off scenes that are little more than extended riffs. “Big Happy Family” does seem to wrap most everything about the extended Simmons/Brown/etc. clan of Atlanta up in a neat little harangue.

Madea’s niece Shirley (Loretta Devine) is sick with “the cancer.”

The joint-smoking/chain-smoking Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis, a hoot) has been her only help. But Shirley’s kids are a problem. They won’t sit down together.

Byron (Shad “Bow Wow” Moss) is dealing with a monstrous baby mama and his new girlfriend, who insists that she be “kept.”

It’s up to Madea to climb into her ancient Cadillac so that their momma can say goodbye.

This big, happy family is full of fat people making diet and diabetes jokes.

Davis is the funniest of the supporting cast, though Teyana Taylor’s turn as the shrieking baby mama is epic. But it is Perry who takes it on himself to comically lift the movie out of its melodramatic moments, exhaling a breathless patter of profane insults, advice and life lessons.