Supposedly a bid for a summer hit, “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection” is a surprisingly slapdash* and half-hearted effort from the prolific* writer-director-actor, lacking energy, structure or common sense.

    Perry returns to his signature character of Madea, the say-anything elderly aunt who likes handguns* and strict moralizing. Here he is tasked with protecting the family of accountant George Needleman (Eugene Levy) who is caught up in the federal investigation* of a Ponzi scheme.

    Perry has said the idea for the film came from a dinner-table conversation about what might happen if Bernie Madoff was under house arrest with Madea, but the setup is undermined by Perry’s decision to make Levy’s character an unlucky guy.

    Though the film is being sold partly on the premise* that Madea goes to New York City, this occupies only a few minutes of the Georgia-set (and shot) story.

    The witness protection storyline — that Levy’s family is being hunted by a mob* family named Malone — is ultimately abandoned. And why are prosecutors* in Atlanta pursuing a Wall Street case and a New York crime syndicate* anyway?

    With an accountant named Needleman and a banker named Goldberg, one might assume the film would explore relations between African Americans and Jews, but that subject is apparently too difficult for Perry.

    For years, Needleman, the gentle CFO of a Wall Street investment bank, has been living with his head in the clouds. His frustrated* second wife, Kate, has reached her limit taking care of his old mother, Barbara. His teenage daughter, Cindy, is spoiled* beyond hope and his 7-year-old son, Howie, wishes his father were around more.

    But Needleman is finally forced to wake up when he learns that his firm, Lockwise Industries, has been operating a mob-backed Ponzi scheme — and that he’s been set up as the fall guy.

    Facing criminal charges and death threats from the mob, Needleman and his entire family are put under witness protection in the safest place that Brian, a federal prosecutor from Atlanta, can think of — his Aunt Madea’s house down south.

    For anyone entering the filmmaker’s comedic* world for the first time, “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection” would make a terrible introduction. His characters’ charms may be thin, but they do exist.(SD-Agencies)