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Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns
Lionsgate

6.2 based on 14 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 20 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

FILM:

• Daddy's Little Girls
• Madea's Family Reunion
• The Family That Preys
• Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?

• Internet Movie Database
• View The Trailer
• Official Studio Site

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for drug content, language including sexual references, thematic elements and brief violence

Starring Tyler Perry, David Mann, Tamela Mann, Angela Bassett, Lance Gross, Chloe Bailey, Mariana Tolbert, and Rick Fox

A single mother living in inner-city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. But when she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time--until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral. But nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand-new romance that just might change her life. (Lionsgate)

GENRE(S):	Comedy  |  Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Tyler Perry
DIRECTED BY:	Tyler Perry
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 1, 2008  Theatrical: March 21, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

67

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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.

63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The women of Perry's army will come out feeling they've been well-served, and for the rest of us there's Bassett, getting her groove back after a spate of less than worthy roles. Perry's getting his groove, too - I give him two more films and an A-list cameraman.

60

The New York Times A.O. Scott

What he serves up -- a mixture of moralism and forgiveness, semibawdy humor and cautionary drama, mockery and affection -- may sometimes lack coherence, but never integrity.

60

Variety Joe Leydon

Often plays more like "Tyler Perry's Greatest Hits" as it recycles various elements from the writer-director's earlier works.

50

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Many of the cast members originated their roles onstage, and the ensemble scenes capture the spirited sense of fun that is Perry's trademark.

50

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Features a fine performance by Angela Bassett, but her work is the sole subtle element.

50

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The playwright, actor, director and drag queen (yes, his bewigged and be wild Madea makes a brief and totally gratuitous appearance in his new film) knows how to give human dimension, and a dimension of humor, to the cliches and stereotypes.

50

Village Voice Aaron Hillis

Surprisingly half-decent--surprising because Perry’s not about to switch up his hardly revelatory but consistently bankable box-office signature:

50

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

Even his brief appearance onscreen as his most popular character, Madea, the sassy, tough-talking grandma, feels like a calculated addition rather than an organic necessity.

50

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Meet the Browns, like the rest of Tyler Perry's movies and plays, will find its audience. His talent lies in knowing what people will buy. He's a marketer, not a filmmaker.

50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson

Perry's methods are never subtle, but no contemporary filmmaker works harder to make sure ribs are tickled and tears are jerked.

33

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Browns is ultimately a victim of its creator's success: What once felt novel now feels well-worn, following the success of Perry's films and imitators like "First Sunday."

30

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Perry tosses everything at his disposal into his movie gumbo, even a completely gratuitous appearance by his signature, self-performed, alter-ego in drag Madea – most likely to set up the premise for his next film "Madea Goes to Jail."

25

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alonso M. gave it a0:
Jordan, Jamie and Diva Dude down there are obviously the same person or Mr. Perry. I have never been able to sit through one of this man's movies. Why? Because they've already been made! Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Love Jones, The Inkwell, How Stella Got Her Groove Back...I could go on forever but the point is, his movies don't deserve the popularity they get. The only reason they're popular is because his target audience either doesn't want to go to the video store or has lost their memory.

Chad S. gave it a3:
Filmmaker Tyler Perry is the Kurt Cobain of American cinema. Like "Nevermind", Perry's films perform beyond the niche market it was intended for. 2002 became the year "black film" broke, when "Diary of a Mad, Black Woman" grossed over fifty-million dollars, a then-unprecednted sum for a black independent film. Perry's movies are mainstream, but make no mistake about it, "Meet the Browns" is a "cult film" at its core, like Nirvana was an "alternative" band, who suddenly became wildly popular. While other indies enjoy wide-release success, the Perry oeuvre differs in this very important respect: The audience that Perry caters to is often a disenfranchised one. We're talking about African-American women. "Meet the Browns" is a black chick-flick. In the last six years, Perry has created his own private Hollywood by being a blaxploitation director who makes respectable films for a middle-brow audience. With "Meet the Browns", Perry alienates the fanbase, in a scene, in which the oldest son of the family patriarch refers to his father's women as "hos", in a naked attempt to be all things to all people. Being black himself, Brown should realize that no respectable "gangsta" would be caught dead at "Meet the Browns", so why rankle the converted with a street lexicon? In another scene, Madea is being chased by a convoy of police squad vehicles and excitedly proclaims, "I'm going to be on "Cops"!" This is Chapelle-lite. This is like Wayne Brady's performance as a gangbanger on "The Dave Chapelle Show". Perry is satirizing his own "vanilla" image by being an outlaw. But gangsta rap and incarceration infringes on the fantasy aspect of a single mother of three who goes to Georgia and lives happily-ever-after. That's not what the audience paid for.

Cornelia G. gave it a4:
Same story, same characters, same lines, same settings, same lessons, different movie. Tyler's got to be more talented than he's delivering or is he?

Terrad gave it a2:
This movie was TERRIBLE. It was not very funny, and there was a lot of over-acting. I would wait for video...and then I still wouldn't rent it.

Jordan gave it a10:
I thought it was great. Great story, not overdone. Good job, Tyler Perry.

Jamie J. gave it a10:
Lots of down home southern laughter.

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