Starring Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood, and Lynn Whitfield. Rating unavailable.

What do you call a film that's part R&B-frothed African-American soap opera and part cross- dressing, fart-happy slapstick involving a 6-5 old "woman" with pendulous breasts and an aggressive attitude? Crazy? Madea's Family Reunion, sequel to 2005's sleeper hit Diary of a Mad Black Woman-about a granny whose idea of revenge goes way beyond smacking people on the head with an umbrella-is more incredibly bizarre than crazy. And if writer-director-star Tyler Perry is crazy, well, let's just say he's crazy like a fox.

Anyone who accidentally saw Diary of a Mad Black Woman knows Perry's formula. In that film, a pretty woman dumped by her husband for a "ho" runs to grandmother Madea, resulting in chainsaw-wielding payback. Here, a beautiful young woman, Lisa (Rochelle Aytes), is being beaten by lawyer fiance Carlos (Blair Underwood). Money-hungry mother Victoria (Lynn Whitfield, channelling Joan Collins's Dynasty bitch) instructs: "You must stop doing what you're doing to make him angry. Be a good wife." But since the third incongruous element burning in Perry's busy brain involves self-empowerment, especially of the female kind, the last whack-I mean, word-goes to Madea. That hulking feminist is nasty-handy with a leather strap, a frying pan, and a pot of scalding grits.

Perry reaped riches writing, directing, and starring in stage plays (both films originated on-stage) targeting African-American audiences-apparently, churchgoers who prefer their God-will-provide soppiness and childhood-abuse catharsis leavened with insane campiness and dirty old men. (Besides Madea, Perry also plays gassy husband Joe and lawyer Brian.) The movie's tag lines say: "Learn dignity. Demand respect. Come as you are. Leave different." You can't say the guy isn't ambitious, and, in his strange way, sincere. At the weirdly inspiring reunion (there's no real story, just theme scenes), a soulful Maya Angelou and Cicely Tyson pop up with wise words for the booty-shaking generation. These matriarchs don't need to open a can of whup-ass to wield power. Either way, Perry knows how to play to the ladies: the film's single mother who finds God also finds a husband so handsome he's a living Ken doll.