TYLER PERRY’S MEET THE BROWNS is a loud, uncouth, in-your-face and somewhat entertaining family (MADEA’S FAMILY REUNION style) comedy drama totally unashamed of using clichés, politically incorrectness and a Hollywood ending.  And that is mentioning the good points of Tyler Perry’s new film. 

The story is a take-off of MADEA’D FAMILY REUNION.  Here, single mother, Brenda (the excellent Angela Bassett) is a long lost relative of the MADEA (Tyler Perry in drag) clan.  She attends her father’s (whom she had never met) funeral.  In the process she MEETS THE BROWNS and falls for local hunk, Harry (Ricky Fox).  All the proceedings give writer/director Perry to work in comedy, drama, romance and quite a bit of vulgarity to satisfy the masses.  One cannot complain that Tyler Perry does not know his target audience.  Example, he says a character – the most obnoxious Vera (Jenifer Lewis) mouthing off uncontrollably only to have her pushed into an open grave to the cheers of the audience.

Perry’s films always run into the problems of blending in seriousness and comedy.  In MEET THE BROWNS, the transition is less noticeable – partly for the reason that the film is a dramatic comedy.  Perry’s preachiness is still overdone.  The line by Brenda: “No son of mine is ever going to sell drugs!” would have been sufficient for many directors to hit the point home.  But Perry goes on to have the son shot by a rival gang on the local turf to grind the point in.  At least, Perry has a really good cause here to carry across to his audience.

As far as working his audience, Perry knows how to do it.  He has the audience at the promo screening cheering the heroine on or booing her ex off.  When Perry appears in a cameo (as Madea) in a short 5-minute scene, the audience (me included) was howling.  Of the supporting cast, Sofia Vergara (as Brenda’s bi-polar best friend) and Jenifer Lewis (as Vera, the nasty) stand out.

A Tyler Perry movie should be rated compared to other Tyler Perry movies.  As such, it gets three stars.  Just don’t expect too much but some laughs and a forgettable but nevertheless hilarious good time.  Perry’s favorite line in the film – it is mouthed by more than one character in the film – is: “You think I’m crazy?” Obviously Tyler Perry isn’t.  His films have all been money-makers despite poor reviews by most critics.