Many of the messages say versions of the same thing: White critics don’t get it. We don’t know who Tyler Perry is, we have never heard of the millions of dollars his plays have grossed all over America, in theaters, churches, school halls and on DVD, and – most of all – we don’t know that characters like his Madea are based on strong black women the writers are all familiar with.

To back up a second: “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” which opened Friday and will win the box office contest this week with an estimated gross over $25 million, is a movie starring Kimberly Elise as Helen, the wife of a rich African-American attorney (Steve Harris). After 18 years of marriage and verbal abuse, he dumps her for another woman (Lisa Marcos) who has two kids – all the more painful, because her miscarriages were caused by his mistreatment.

The movie, up to this point, is a strong family drama that had engaged my sympathy. Then Helen flees into the arms of her grandmother, Madea, played in drag by playwright Tyler Perry, who (I quote myself) “is built along the lines of a linebacker … a tall, lantern-jawed, smooth-skinned, balloon-breasted gargoyle with a bad wig, who likes to wave a loaded gun and shoot test rounds into the ceiling.” Madea visits the cheating husband’s house to destroy his furniture with a chain-saw.

I ended: “I've been reviewing movies for a long time, and I can't think of one that more dramatically shoots itself in the foot.”

Other critics agreed with me. At rottentomatoes.com, where only 23 of 78 critics liked the film, we read:

* "This isn't a situation in which the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. It's more like they're not even part of the same body." -- Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

* "A crudely made hodgepodge of rank clichés that veers between shrill melodrama, glossy soap opera, and broad, sitcom-level comedy." -- Timothy Knight, Reel.com

* "Stay clear of this mess." -- Lou Lumenick, New York Post