Tyler Perry’s Meet The
Browns
(Lionsgate Blu-ray and DVD)
Picture:
B+/B Sound: B+/B Extras: B Film: D
Tyler
Perry has been on a comedy roll over the past few years and we have continued
to enjoy his work as seen here (http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6267/Tyler+Perry). Unfortunately his latest film Meet the Browns is where that streak
ends with a horrible thud, or maybe that’s “dud”. Whatever the case may be this turkey doesn’t
even come close to the wit and charm that was mustered together in his previous
outings and in many cases doesn’t even resemble his earlier work, which is a
real shame.
The
storyline is simple and it’s amazing that it could be executed so poorly, but
here goes – a single mom takes her family to Georgia for never known the man,
so the film is dedicated to her getting to know him via his family and their
time together during the funeral and the events the follow. How can you mess this up? I have no idea, but the film never knows
whether to be a romantic comedy or just a comedy or perhaps a drama with
comedic elements and that’s exactly what ends up killing this film. The tone is never clear and the characters
are never developed in clever ways like Perry’s other work where we begin to
identify and love the characters. Here
we could care less and quite truthfully, the cast seems to feel the same. Not only that, but the film is also highly
predictable that you could write out the next 5 scenes before you even see them
and that makes for a downright unfulfilling film and Perry’s worst effort
yet. Hopefully this is not the beginning
of a streak, but rather a small setback that will soon be forgotten.
The 1.78
X 1 anamorphic image on both the Blu-ray and DVD are acceptable, although the
color range, fidelity, and overall clarity are winners on the Blu-ray, whereas
the DVD brings out a rather flat expression of an already flat storyline. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is also very basic and
compressed, but the Blu-ray shines through with a mix that is more spacious and
vivid in it’s sonic properties, which is no surprise to those who are familiar
with the capabilities of DTS-HD 7.1 mixes.
Unfortunately the presentation of this film on ANY format can’t save the
fact that it’s a poor production.
Despite
being a critical failure the Blu-ray and DVD sets feature a ton of extras
including a digital copy of the film on a separate disc, several interesting
featurettes (including one on the music of the film), music videos, and a few
other perks that will likely entice some into checking out this film, however I
can only say that taking this journey is one where meeting the Browns is one you
wish you would have skipped.
- Nate Goss
