'Not Another Church Movie' Review: Nail this Unfunny Tyler Perry Parody to the Cross
Whatever progressive strides a Black filmmaker makes for Black representation in cinema, it only takes one new Tyler Perry movie to take us twenty steps back. Granted, I lived peacefully, never having to cover any of his projects after his banishment to the Netflix mines. Yet his power has only gotten stronger. Since then, he has maintained ownership of BET+, has deals on numerous streaming channels, and receives endless accolades for regurgitating Lifetime trash for Black people. So yeah, The Boondocks episode "Pause" was not enough. That multi-hyphenate of minimal talent deserved a long-overdue takedown.
This is what sold me on Johnny Mack's blatant Perry-spoof, Not Another Church Movie, a parody flick ribbing on all the tropes of one of today's laziest living writers/directors—coupled with starring many Black sitcom legends from Kyla Pratt to Jamie Foxx and even Mickey Rourke. Mind the DIY below-average YouTube comedy sketch production quality. You say Tyler Perry takedown, and I am there. Instead, I got a quasi-ass kissing sesh that was too outdated in humor and too cowardly to offend.
Courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment
R: Sexual material and some language
Runtime: 1 Hr and 28 Minutes
Production Companies: JMC Media, Monty the Dog Productions
Distributor: Briarcliff Entertainment
Director: Johnny Mack
Writer: Johnny Mack
Cast: Kevin Daniels, Vivica A. Fox, Lamorne Morris, Tisha Campbell, Jasmine Guy, Lydia Styslinger, James Michael Cummings, Kyla Pratt, Mickey Rourke, Jamie Foxx
Release Date: May 10, 2024
In Theaters Only
After her stocks dropped, billionaire talk show host Hoprah Windfall (Luc Ashley) is looking for a new billionaire prodigy. With her direct line to God (Jamie Foxx), who loves riding on his green-screened heavens in his Harley-Davidson, she requests that he find the next person to take her mantle. Out of all people, he calls on lawyer/doctor Taylor Pherry (Kevin Daniels) to start anew as a screenwriter. So, Pherry finds inspiration from his dysfunctional family and tries to write a movie about them.
Johnny Mack mines sporadic laughs poking fun at the self-serious tropes found in Perry's films. A silly gag clowning on Perry's poor character writing, particularly the personas of the dark-skinned foes he typecasts, got a big laugh out of me. Usually, it's at the mercy of the comic talents' sheer charisma and line deliveries. Despite it all, the infrequency of laughs stems from Mack's refusal to offend Perry, as his comedic writing overemphasizes silliness, refraining from having any edge or commentary, and decides to reenact his works instead. Thus, begging the question, why are you satirizing if you're not going to have a spine?
Say what you will about Tyler Perry's gunk, but the man understands good comedy. There's a reason why the man made millions off Madea alone. I hate to say it, but she's up there as one of the century's most iconic fictional comedy characters. In the laziest drama productions, Perry unintentionally generates peak comedy—ruined by his poor character writing, terrible hair and makeup quality, and filmmaking so bad that shots sometimes reveal an actor holding a script in plain view.
As for Johnny Mack, who comes from a broader comedic background, serving as a writer on BET's Real Husbands of Hollywood and Jamie Foxx's short-lived Netflix sitcom, Dad Stop Embarrassing Me—possibly reasons why Tisha Campbell and Foxx said, "Yes" to starring in this—it's baffling how light his Perry jabs are, amid misunderstanding what makes a functional parody. Writers use one specific movie as a basis for a parody flick’s structure. As they reenact that movie's story, they either add commentary on all the tropes within the genre or go for sheer absurdism. NACM does neither, forming an overly long, unfunny, nonsensical setup involving the excessively talented Foxx and Rourke as God and the Devil. It all makes way for Daniels' Taylor Pherry to narrate over a series of sketches, including Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion, Madea Goes to Jail, Meet the Browns, Daddy's Little Girls, and the Boo! A Madea Halloween movies, all done with little vision and precision.
Mack had the opportunity to call out Perry’s terrible depiction of abused Black women, his colorist casting, and his overall Black struggle obsession. Yet, the buck stops at calling his Madea knockoff "MaDude." Lacking the balls Aaron McGruder or Black female culture writers had in their takedowns of his work, Mack walks eggshells around Perry, diminishing the point of even making a spoof movie. It's as if Mack was scared that shooters around Tyler Perry Studios would appear during production and aim for his head. He did film this project in Georgia, after all. All of his "riffs" on Madea are simply Madea bits, making you question where the commentary or comedy would come in. Hell, it made me wish I were watching a Madea movie instead. What sits in place are references to Fifty Shades of Grey, Shake Weights,” You Get a Car,” and white Karens. It’s 2024 and those jokes aren’t outdated yet… at least according to Mack.
Not Another Church Movie makes even the cheapest-looking Tyler Perry trash look like a Best Picture nominee. To confidently release something of the same quality as a middle schooler's first "CapCut" video gives major secondhand embarrassment. I got more enjoyment from watching the old Black woman sitting below me in my empty ass theater going "mhmm" every five minutes or so as if she were watching something serious. I don't think she laughed once—at least not as much as I did (six times)—but she was the only reason I didn't walk out.
With every sporadic laugh I had, a longer disassociative glare into the void followed. Not entirely due to its Android picture quality but because I saw many network sitcom legends from my UPN days appear at their most amateurish. Even though they're glorified cameos, seeing Jasmine Guy, Kyla Pratt, and Jamie Foxx—all hustlers who put in the work when Perry was having his meteoric rise and maintaining the dignity to avoid starring in his projects—land here, relying on their charisma to carry them through this flaming garbage, is enough to make me contact my psychiatrist and get me back on antidepressants.
Offering fewer laughs and brain cells than the ones found in the movies it tries to parody, Johnny Macks’ Not Another Church Movie's spineless, mindless, and ultimately soulless existence is exceedingly worse than watching any movie Tyler Perry has ever made. Featuring the most talented Black performers from my youth and an Oscar winner, wasted in this cheap grade school-made trash, this insult to spoof movies sits as one of the most mind-numbing experiences of the year.
Rating: 1/5 | 25%
