Meet The Browns (2008)
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 56
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 38
Angela Bassett's considerable charms can't compensate for Meet the Browns' incessant melodrama and scattered narrative threads.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 12
Angela Bassett's considerable charms can't compensate for Meet the Browns' incessant melodrama and scattered narrative threads.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 199,296
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Movie Info
Prolific playwright Tyler Perry adapts his popular stage play of the same name in this family-oriented comedy concerning a desperate mother who connects with the family she never knew. Brenda is a single Chicago mother of three who has been struggling for years to keep her kids off of the streets. Suddenly let go from her job with no warning to speak of, the eternally optimistic mother begins to experience a suffocating sense of hopelessness for the very first time in her life. When Brenda
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Cast
-
Angela Bassett
Brenda -
Rick Fox
Harry -
Margaret Avery
Sarah -
Frankie Faison
L.B -
Jenifer Lewis
Vera -
Lance Gross
Michael -
Sofía Vergara
Cheryl -
Lamman Rucker
Will -
Tamela Mann
Cora Brown -
David Mann
LeRoy Brown -
Irma P. Hall
Mildred -
Tyler Perry
Joe/Madea -
Phillip Van Lear
Michael Sr. -
LaVan Davis
Bus Driver -
Mia Butler
Woman -
Wes Kennemore
Carnival Worker -
Mariana Tolbert
Lena -
Chloe Bailey
Tosha -
Olumiji Olawumi
Gang Member #1 -
Tory O. Davis
Man -
Mark Russell Gray
Officer -
LaNisa Renee Frederick
Bus Passenger -
Jonathan Slocumb
Pastor -
Robert C. Goodwin
Postman -
Allen Edge
Samuel -
Keith Kupferer
Supervisor -
Jacqueline Williams
Worker -
Phil Ridarelli
Power Company Worker -
David Kronenwetter
News Reporter -
Roy McCrerey
NBA Coach -
Shawn Shepard
Doctor -
Tom Clark
Press Member #1 -
Tasia Grant
Press Member #2 -
Michael Cole
Richard -
Adrienne Reynolds
Waitress -
Penny Slusher
Woman
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Meet The Browns Trailer & Photos
All Critics (56) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (40) | DVD (7)
The importance of faith, church, kin, staying off drugs, sharing food, repenting from sin, forgiving sinners, appreciating a good black man, rejecting a bad one, and honoring black matriarchy is enumerated with typical, reassuring Perry broadness.
Top CriticUnlike Diary, the drama here is buoyant enough to handle the contrast of its too-silly slapstick.
Meet the Browns is packed with raucous dinner-table banter and broad double takes; sometimes the gags are funny, but usually they're just trying too hard.
To appreciate Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, there's really only one requirement: Loosen up.
There are a few laughs and some touching moments, but nothing you couldn't get by watching episodes of Good Times and Little House on the Prairie back to back.
Whatever progress the man was making, Browns is a Madea-sized big fat step backward.
Of the many talented black actresses given a rare chance to shine thanks to Perry's films, [Angela Bassett] is possibly the most talented.
After taking some steps toward maturity and shades of grey in his last film, Perry takes a step backward, retreating to broad schtick and black-and-white formula.
Moral: guns, basketball = interesting; hospital beds, recovery time = dull, and therefore unnecessary.
Feels as if Perry bought the rights to a Lifetime made-for-TV drama and as an afterthought added the zaniest elements from his 2004 play.
The inner-city melodrama is as sticky as ever, but the downhome Georgia comedy is genuinely funny.
Master of disguise Perry's tangled web of narrative threads range from poignant to positively awful.
Master of disguise Perry's tangled web of narrative threads range from poignant to positively awful.
Though too laced with silly slapstick to measure up to the best of Perry's previous offerings, this flick is still hilarious enough in spots to be well worth watching.
On top of everything else, the direction is sloppy, the script is forced, and the whole thing feels like a bad hallmark film.
Enjoyable movie about a nice family that contains some quirky characters
perhaps Perry's time in the limelight may be shorter than he -- or his fans -- think.
Tyler Perry continues his exploration of the sense and sensbility of the African-American community with this fun-loving celebration of the possibility of second chances.
Oh my, what magic Angela Bassett can work!
...[the] latest sausage from writer-director Tyler Perry...
By refusing to really get his hands dirty or to show the truth of the matter, Perry's work appears shallow and uninformed, thus begging the question: Is his work honest?
The filmmaking is often sloppy [and] the plot has some elements that are ridiculous ... but Meet the Browns does have a major plus in Angela Bassett.
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Foreign Titles
- Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (DE)
- Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (UK)
