trailer break: ‘Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail’

Remember when our hero Joel Robinson riffed off an old SNL “commercial,” cracking about how the really bad movie he and the bots were watching was “a dessert topping and a floor wax”?

I wish Joel were still around to crack wise at Tyler Perry movies... because they’re dessert toppings, floor waxes, depilatory creams, and spermicides all at the same time. I’m continually stunned how Perry’s bizarre insistence on making movies that are tonally all over the place -- it’s a serious drama! it’s a slapstick comedy! -- manage to cohere together without disintegrating under the weight of their own preposterousness, never mind that people actually go see them.

And if this trailer is any accurate representation of the film, it looks like we’re in for another one.

This February, believe in forgiveness, believe in a 40-year-old man in a old-lady fatsuit, and believe that they can steal their best joke from Fried Green Tomatoes.

Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail opens in the U.S. on February 20; no U.K. release date has been announced yet.