Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Meet the Browns - DVD Review

TYLER PERRY'S MEET THE BROWNS (**) - Starring Angela Bassett, Rick Fox, Margaret Avery, Frankie Faison, David Mann, Jenifer Lewis, Tyler Perry and Sofia Vergara.
Written & directed by Tyler Perry.

Never seen a Tyler Perry movie. Thought I'd give one a try, seeing as how Angela Bassett is headlining, and she mysteriously doesn't get to act much these days.

It's a weird mix, and my understanding is that it's par for the course for it to veer with little warning between preachy melodrama and slapstick comedy. Bassett plays a single mother down on her luck who finds out her long-lost father has died. She packs her family up on the bus and heads down, ony to learn her new extendeds are the wacky Browns.

Some actors are going for realism, some are going for play-to-the-balcony dinner theater, and one (Rick Fox) can't act. Bassett seems more comfortable in the dramatic scenes; in the comedy, she's the straight observer, looking around for an exit while the queens in the cast strut and fan themselves while singing, "Lo'd have mercy!"

It did nothing to make me want to see another Tyler Perry movie. Buuut it was better than Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.

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