Tyler Perry's Madea on the Run (The Play)

If you were to look at any Tyler Perry project, you would see the name Tyler Perry under each production job for that film. You're about to see a Tyler Perry film, produced by Tyler Perry, written by Tyler Perry with music by Tyler Perry, and starring - you guessed it - Tyler Perry. That's just how Tyler Perry gets the job done. He either likes total creative control or nobody will work with him. I like to believe it's a little bit of both. Regardless if you love or hate Tyler Perry movies, the guy turns out more projects than Woody Allen on his best year, and make significantly more money than a lot of the movies that get released. Tyler Perry cares nothing for critics or what people say about his films.

Tyler Perry has a fairly big audience who eat every Tyler Perry project up and ask for seconds. There is just no end to Tyler Perry or his 'Madea' franchise of films and stage plays, which brings us to 'Madea on the Run', in which Tyler Perry has a hand in almost every technical role on stage, as well as setting himself as the star 'Madea'. Yes that's right, the 'Madea' character started out on stage and transitioned to film, but Tyler Perry still loves the theatre, so we still have 'Madea' touring the country with numerous stage plays. In 2015, we got 'Madea on the Run', which is another outing of Madea in trouble with the law. The play doesn't exactly focus on Madea though, but rather a family that has several issues that are in every other 'Madea' film, including cheating spouses, drugs, abuse, and more.

Madea herself doesn't show up well into the play where her and Aunt Bam go on long rants about teaching lessons to kids and things they have a disdain for in life. In addition to that, there are some terrible gospel songs, sung by the cast interjected here, just for the hell of it. All of them are written by Tyler Perry of course. Like the rest of the Madea films, Madea herself fixes all of the problems by the end in her own unique and special way. None of it's original or fresh really, but it gets the job done and manages to crack a few smiles, even if you've seen the same thing over and over  before. Madea breaks the fourth wall here as well, by yelling at the audience for getting up out of their seats or coming in late, but dives right back into her rants, which can last beyond 10 minutes.

There really isn't any rhyme or reason here to the story at least, other than Madea is on the run from the police, hides out at Aunt Bam's house, and fixes the problems of her family before she hightails it out of there. This is a tried and true formula that continues to be a financial success, which is beyond me, but if you're a fan of the 'Madea' franchise, you'll enjoy this for the most part.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Madea on the Run' comes with a 50GB Blu-ray Disc from Lionsgate that is Region A Locked. There is an insert for a digital download code included. The disc is houses in an eco-friendly, hard, blue plastic case with a cardboard sleeve. A few trailers play before menu start up.

'Madea on the Run' comes with a 1080p HD transfer presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This is a live stage performance so there isn't anything filmic here. Wide shots tend to look soft, but that might be due to the lighting in the theatre at the time. Closeups of the actor's show great, vivid detail that is sharp throughout.

Individual hairs, makeup blemishes and even the wireless mics show up with this HD detail. The set and props also look great here. Colors pop off screen and are well saturated with lifelike quality. Nothing is ever subdued or vague. Black levels are deep and inky and the skin tones are natural. There were no video compression issues or video noise to speak of.

This release comes with a lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track and sounds very good for a stage play. Dialogue is crystal clear and easy to follow throughout with some decent directionality in the front speakers. The rear speakers kick into gear during the musical numbers, but that's about it. There is a small bit of bass throughout during the music pieces as well, which never go into rocky territory. Lastly, there are no pops, cracks, hiss, or shrills here.

None.

'Madea on the Run' is business as usual when it comes to the Tyler Perry franchise of Madea. Long rants, gospel music numbers, and Madea fixing problems are present here on stage. The video and audio presentations are both good, but there are no extras on this release. If you're a fan of Madea, give it a rent.