Madea's Witness Protection

Madea's Witness Protection is a 2012 American comedy film directed, written, and produced by Tyler Perry. This was the fourteenth film in the Tyler Perry film franchise and the seventh in the Madea franchise. It is the fourth Tyler Perry film not adapted from a play, alongside The Family That Preys, Daddy's Little Girls, and Good Deeds, as well as the first Madea film not adapted from a play.

George Needleman (Levy), a high level CFO in New York City, promises his son that he will take him to his Saturday afternoon baseball game after he gets back from the office. He gets to his office and arrives to a harrowing scene; his co-workers are shredding documents and are in a state of chaos. He sees his boss (Arnold), who informs him that his company is a Ponzi scheme run by the mob. He is being accused of spearheading the scheme and laundering funds and has to enter his family into a witness protection program. The program relocates them to a refuge where no one will think to look for them: Madea and Joe's house in Georgia.

Meanwhile, Jake (Miller) - whose ailing father (Amos) is a church pastor who has put him in charge of the church's mortgage fund - stages a robbery (which is unsuccessful). Jake, who has a criminal past but whose father trusts that he has turned over a new leaf, is trying to recover church funds that he has invested in Needleman's company without his father's knowledge or consent, only to lose the entire investment in the Ponzi scheme.

The Needhams' first meeting with Madea and joe is awkward and bodes poorly for how everyone will get along. However, over time, Madea (Perry) helps Kate (Richards) and Cindy (Campbell) relate better to each other and to other family members, while Joe (Perry) and Kate help George become more confident, more in touch with his surroundings and people around him, and more effective in channeling his emotions.

Barbara (Roberts) displays dual sensibilities about "colored people". On one hand, she mistakes Madea for a domestic named Sadie, treats "Sadie" imperiously, and threatens to get her fired. On the other hand, she recognizes Joe as a man she slept with years ago, and relates to him seductively; she also enjoys Negro spirituals and repeatedly asks to be taken to the African American church down the street from Madea's house.

Pastor Nelson's sermon inspires George to recognize a pattern in his company's records that explains where 10% of the stolen funds have been stashed. After church, watching Whoopi Goldberg's Oda Mae Brown character in Ghost inspires George to involve Madea in a plan to redivert funds from the "stashed" accounts back to the charities whose investments were stolen in the Ponzi scheme. The plan requires George (who disguises himself to avoid detection by the Malone mob "family"), Jake, and Madea (who assumes the identity of an upscale woman named Precious Jackson) to travel to New York City, and for "Precious" to meet with a bank manager to transfer funds from the laundered accounts to the legitimate charities. Madea successfully accomplishes her mission, although she improvises both an expansion of her assumed identity (by pretending to be the oldest Jackson sister) and of the accounts to which "Precious's" funds are transferred.

When George and Jake begin to share their plan with Brian (Perry), he cuts them off and advises them it is illegal. However, after they pull off the caper, Brian informs George that his cooperation with the authorities and his successful efforts to return the charities' funds have given Brian leverage to sentence George to probation and waive a trial and jail time.
Kate points out to Brian that the situation has strengthened their relationship and their family, and that it is a blessing in disguise. Upon leaving Madea's house, Cindy and Howie ask if they can come back to visit.

Before returning to New York, the Needhams visit Pastor Nelson's church one last time. The Pastor and Jake burn the mortgage papers and the entire congregation celebrates the mortgage's being paid off, and the Needhams enjoy the Negro spirituals. Madea also enjoys the spiritual music from her front porch, albeit in a more secular way.