The Damn Dirty DVD Review: Meet the Browns
Posted by Ron Martin on 08.23.2008
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns makes the transition from stage to movie. Angela Bassett and Rick Fox play the leads, but the Browns steal the show. How does this clash of north and south cultures play out on the little screen?
Written by Tyler Perry
Directed by Tyler Perry
Starring:
Angela Bassett - Brenda Brown Lance Goss - Michael Brown Rick Fox - Harry David Mann - Leroy Brown Tamela J Mann - Cora Brown Sofia Vergara - Cheryl Frankie Faison - L.B. Brown Margaret Avery - Sarah Brown Jenifer Lewis - Vera Tyler Perry - Madea/Joe
Brenda Brown is a single mother of three living in “the hood” in Chicago. On the same day she receives a letter about the death of the father she never met, she loses her job. Her future in doubt, she takes her kids to Georgia to meet a family she never knew about, The Browns. At the reading of her father’s will, she inherits rental property that isn’t fit to rent to the varmints that inhabit the land it’s build on. The whole time she is courted by Harry, a former professional basketball player working with her son on his basketball skills. Eventually, Brenda moves to Georgia permanently, her son signs a multimillion dollar basketball contract, she marries Harry and everyone lives happily ever after.
Meet the Browns is really two different movies; the sadness and depression of Chicago and the happiness and family of Georgia. The Chicago half of the movie drags on with Angela Bassett constantly in tears. One thing I can say for the woman, she can turn on the waterworks. Award shows like that. It gets a bit irritating in an hour and forty minute movie. Aside from that, Bassett does a fine job in the role the way it was written. Unfortunately, the problem happens to be the way it was written. Brenda is a walking contradiction. One gets the impression that she’s suppose to be a strong woman in the way she holds off the advances of men and stands up for decisions she’s made. The problem is in one scene she’ll evilly stare down a person who might take offense that she had three kids with three men, but in the next she refuses to go to the Child Welfare office and get papers to serve to Michael’s deadbeat dad. If she has three kids (of which Michael is the oldest at 17), then why is she only bothering Michael’s dad for money? What about the other two deadbeat dads? In the beginning she is a strong role model who refuses to take handouts. By the end of the movie she is living completely off a family that she has met once until Michael signs his contract. Does she have a twin or did Tyler Perry just write whatever was more suited to the moment rather than actually create a character? I think I know the answer to that one.
The one really good part about Chicago is the mad ramblings of Sofia Vergara. I don’t know if you noticed, but she isn’t so hard to look at either. Yes, please.
Harry is the one thing that connects the two worlds for Brenda and her family. Rick Fox as Harry was a very pleasant surprise. I expected stilted acting with even worse attempts at movement. What I got was some decent facial expressions and acting good enough to make me forget he was a former basketball player. Don’t get me wrong, Rick Fox isn’t winning any academy awards anytime soon, but he was good enough to be carried by Bassett in their scenes together, and that’s a compliment for a guy who wasn’t an actor just a few years ago. Harry lost his career and family to gambling years ago. This point is constantly bludgeoned into the viewers head when Michael randomly spits out “You wanna play for money?” for no reason other than to give Harry a reason to say “I don’t gamble.”
When the movie moves to Georgia, things pick up. David Mann and Jenifer Lewis light up the screen as Leroy Brown and Vera, respectively. They still every scene they are involved in, especially their father’s funeral and when their father is outed as a pimp at the dinner table. Lewis has perfected the sassy, holier-than-thou sister. Mann continues his role from the play that this movie was loosely based on. He is the whacked out brother/son/father who wears loud clothes and has a louder personality. Admitted, the role isn’t an overly difficult one to play, but if not pulled off correctly, can ruin the film. That’s a lot of pressure, but Mann pulls it off with flying colors. The rest of the Brown family performs their functions well, with solid acting all around.
Parts of the movie are near unbelievable, but even if you can buy the fact that a father would leave a house to a daughter that he never met while giving the children he raised far less there are far more issues with this script. As I mentioned before, Brenda, who was so strong as to not take a handout but ends up living entirely off her family near the end of the movie. It’s also disheartening that the movie completely plays into the stereotype that the only way to get out of the ghetto for young black men is to be good at basketball while the ones that aren’t are doomed to life as a hoodrat. Add to that the extremely one dimensional character of Michael’s father and you have a recipe for barely passable writing. You can figure out the entire movie within the first five minutes of the film. At no point is the viewer dissuaded from thinking otherwise. The ride is too smooth without any major twists and turns.
Then there’s Madea. I realize that Madea is Tyler Perry’s money character but her cameo appearance in this movie reeks of being stuck in just to get her in there. You can take her scene out and it would not affect the movie in any way. Cut the strings, Tyler. Sometimes, Madea isn’t needed.
Special Features
Meet the Manns Featurette – This is a small piece on David and Tamela Mann, husband and wife who strangely play father and daughter in the movie. While David steals the movie, this segment is pretty forgivable. They just go about how they met and fell in love, which is okay, but runs a little long.
Angela and Rick: Meet the Lovebirds -- Pretty much the same segment as above, but with Angela Bassett and Rick Fox. Only their not married in real life. A cool story about how Tyler Perry was trying to cast the Harry role and almost literally ran over Rick Fox while he was thinking about it, but other than that – pretty mundane stuff.
The Browns are Born: The Story of Meet the Browns: There is some good stuff in this section featuring video from the play Meet the Browns with some of David Mann’s wacky improv hijinks on stage. Several cast members from the play give their thoughts.
Jenifer Lewis: Unleashed -- Nothing much different this time. The subject at hand is Jenifer Lewis who does an excellent job as Vera. She is amusing, but this is no different than the others.
Disc 2: Digital Copy -- There’s actually an entire second disc just for computers and the like with the movie on it that will not function with a regular DVD player. It’s a cheap and cool way to give more value to the CD.
The 411: The movie is entertaining enough if you turn your brain completely off while watching it. There's too much character contradiction and storyline flaws to keep it from being a really good movie, but there are a few scenes that save it from being a terrible movie. It's worth a rental if you like Perry's work or your stuck for a movie you haven't already seen.
