Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween

Excepting Perry's performance as Brian, the film is chockablock with terrible actors, and the jokes he gives his inferior cast to work with are stinkers.

Madea remains a distinctive, weirdly compelling character. Maybe someday Perry will make a good comedy for her.

Mr. Perry is ... an eccentric, inspired performer, and his screen-filling antics as the raucous but righteous Madea - a character who runs through Mr. Perry's stage, film and TV work - is the truly pertinent component here.

This comedy is unlikely to win over any new fans, but the devoted will find comfort in the familiarity.

At 103 minutes, this film has way too much dead weight. Scenes are repeated over and over, and some of the acting would not cut it in a school play.

"A Madea Halloween" is rare for Perry in that it's one of only two "Madea" films not adapted from a stage play, but it sure feels like one, with several scenes ... feeling like a one-act, one-room play that goes on and on and on.

Boo! A Madea Halloween is a movie that shouldn't exist.

The film spirals into supposedly funny, but actually vindictive, violent fantasy.

Like the trick-or-treating scene, Perry the director doesn't know when to exit.

Boo! feels like a one-note television sketch that runs on and on and never really goes anywhere. This isn't perceptive nor inspired comedy; it's lazy, self-referential, and tired.