User reviews

My theater that I work at got Meet the Browns, I have never ever seen a Tyler Perry movie, so this would be my first. But I didn't see it opening weekend and it took me a while to decide to see the movie, because of one thing, the rating on IMDb. Usually most of the ratings on the movies are pretty accurate. But when I finally decided to just go ahead and watch the movie, I have to say that I am very much disgusted with the rating here. I just don't understand why people are being so harsh with this movie, I felt like it was just a decent and uplifting film. I agree the stereotypes are bit much, but I've seen oh so much worse. Angela Bassett, who must of made a deal with the devil to look that good at 50, pulls in a great and heart felt performance as a mom who is just trying to do right by her kids despite the hard times she's facing.

Brenda is a single mom in Chicago who is just struggling like crazy to take care of her three kids, trying to do the right thing, she looses her job, her electricity has been shut off, she's being judged by everyone, and the dad of her son just refuses to pay any child support what so ever. But when she finds out that her dad(who she never met) died, she and the kids go down to Georgia for the funeral, and she finds out that he gave her a house, which her family and a handsome family friend pull together to put her dreams back into place and to give her star basketball son a great future.

Meet the Browns is just generally a good film, there are things that are a little off key, but it's all good. This film made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me remember how lucky I am to have family and friends who love me and how I love them as well. The ending is just such a relief and makes you think about the good things in life that make it worth living. I would recommend Meet the Browns, it's a fun film that I'm sure will make you feel good, please ignore the harsh rating, this is a totally misjudged film.

6/10

I was never "big" Tyler Perry fan, but at the same time, I've never been a "Tyler Perry Hater" either. I always give his films the benefit of the doubt, and I really enjoyed "Why Did I Get Married?" This movie though, "Meet The Browns," could have been an ABC Television Network After School Special. Everything about the storyline was cliché', formulaic, and predictable. The characters were CARICATURES of real people.

I laughed here and there in this movie, but overall, I was vastly disappointed in this effort. It's like Mr. Perry just "threw this movie together" without much thought.

Pity my poor friend who spent all day telling me how hil-lar-ious Tyler Perry movies are, tsk-tsking all day that I had not ever seen one of his movies. Chuckling about how funny this was going to be and how i was going to run right out and rent all the others. Sadly, she spent the whole rest of the evening over coffee and cannoli reflecting on how great Tyler Perry's OTHER movies were. I forgive her - we're friends.

This movie was OK - it had its funny moments and good Lord don't we ALL have those family members? I don't care if you're black, Italian, Jewish or white-bread American - we've ALL got that same cast of characters sitting around our family table.

And OK, i understand that unless i saw the other movies i would not have a clue who Madea is or why she's being chased by the police. But that's OK - i can let an inside joke slide, especially considering the huge hoot and roar that accompanied her appearance.

Overall, i understand that this was not Tyler Perry's finest hour. But i sense that he has a LOT to say about families, standing proud, sticking with convictions when the rest of the world says "settle for less" and working hard to overcome circumstances. I will go out and rent his other movies, just to get a more fair picture of this filmmaker.

After seeing last year's excellent Daddy's Little Girls and Why Did I Get Married I thought Tyler Perry had finally come into his own as a film maker. Granted Mr. Perry doesn't have the visual flair of Spike Lee,John Singleton or the underrated Ernest Dickerson but what he does have is heart. Sadly even an A-list actress couldn't save Meet The Browns from being a trite affair that may hugely disappoint Perry's fans. For starters Mr. Perry needs to fire the editor of this film. Maysie Hoy who edited Perry's two previous films comes of as a first timer here which is ironic because she's been doing movies since 1992 and has worked with talented directors such as Robert Altman (The Player)and Theodore Witcher (Love Jones). I counted at least three scenes which didn't transition well at all and did nothing to progress the story. As for the script it seems as Perry wrote this script on a whim; and the film was just made to cash in on his success because it lacks the heart of Daddy's Little Girls and Why Did I Get Married. As for the acting Margaret Avery who was excellent in The Color Purple & the recent Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins gives a paper thin performance as does Lamman Rucker who was excellent in Why Did I Get Married. As for Angela Bassest she's good as always and plays the mother role very well, I'm anxious to see what she bring Notorious next year. I would say two of the strongest performances in the film come from Lance Gross as Angela and much to my surprise Rick Fox as her would be suitor. The big question though is how well does David Mann's Leroy Brown translate to film ? In my opinion not as well as Madea and some of his jokes seemed forced and unneeded. As for the big screen return of Madea it's unwelcome at best and she hasn't been missed. Tyler Perry has the potential to be one of the strongest black filmmaker in Hollywood, he knows a good story, has a knack for finding talent hence Lammon Rucker and Lance Goss who will both go on to do great things. But with his latest Perry sticks to a formula that he successfully broke out with two back to back winning film released last year. Here's hoping his next film The Family That Preys gets him back on track.

I was SO upset when I saw this movie because it's like Tyler took three of his plays (Meet the Browns, What's Done in the Dark, and Madea Goes to Jail) and used the SAME LINES in most cases. It's like you knew where the story was gonna go in the first 15 minutes of the film. Angela Bassett wore the same 4.5" shoes throughout the whole movie because Rick Fox is so tall and she is only 5'4". I thought it was a bad casting choice to cast two people with such a HUGE height difference opposite each other. I think Tyler is fresh out of creative ideas because he has used ideas from all his plays in the three movies that he has done. So, I can't see his next movie being great. I am not knocking the black cinema hustle, because I am black, but he could have done better to represent black America and made more of an effort. I will say that David Mann certainly brought on the FUNNY (as he always does in the play), but the outtakes were so much funnier than the movie to me. So, stick around after it ends.

Meet the Browns (2008) is a movie I recently rewatched for the first time in a long time on Tubi. The storyline follows a single mother with three kids that recently lost her job. She gets an unexpected inheritance in the south and decides she may as well see what she received. Her and her children get to know an entire new side of their family and she may find love in the process.

This movie is directed by and stars Tyler Perry (I Can Do Bad All By Myself) and also stars Angela Bassett (Strange Days), David Mann (Madea Goes to Jail), Lance Gross (House of Payne), Rick Fox (He Got Game), Frankie Faison (Coming to America) and Margaret Avery (The Color Purple).

This is an underrated Tyler Perry movie that gets over criticized. The cast is outstanding and the chemistry is solid throughout. The characters are very fun and Mann delivers an entertaining performance. The dialogue is hilarious and there's some good zings. I really enjoyed the storyline being a healthy mix of romance and comedy. There's a dinner scene in here that's legendary. There's also uncertainty and doubt as the story unfolds and I enjoyed the unpredictable nature of the relationships.

Overall this is a worthwhile Tyler Perry picture that I would strongly recommend. I would score this a 6.5-7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

I have seen all of Tyler Perry's movies (that I know about) and have enjoyed them all...until now. Angela Bassett was very good in her role and I enjoyed the young man who played her son, but the rest of the relatives were WAY too over the top! One of the things I like about Mr. Perry's movies is the likable, believable characters...but Leroy and Vera? COME ON! Especially painful was the speech by Leroy in the church. I laughed very little in this movie, which surprised me. I was also expecting to see more Madea (my favorite character of Mr. Perry's), not the ridiculous 15 second scene they had with her. Unfortunately, if I was asked to recommend this movie to anyone, I would have to say, see something else. Sorry Tyler! I know you're an extremely talented man, but I would give this movie a "C" at best.

Yes folks, Tyler Perry is back, with all the wifebeating, moralizing, home cookin' and inappropriate jokes about drugs and assault that his target audience (y'know, churchgoin' black folk) has come to expect and cherish (albeit with diminishing returns) from his films.

Surprisingly here, he had a solid cast and a decent enough script that it could have been just as touching and funny as Madea's Family Reunion unexpectedly was, if he could just avoid the maudlin twists of melodrama, the manufactured strife that continually frustrated the film's otherwise successful attempts at ingratiation. Just when everything is going good, when you're touched even as the manipulation shows its seams, the find finds something to bring you down, be it a dredging of past, a miscommunication or even a preposterously-timed shooting, there's just something that makes you go, "Why?" Leave it be, it's working." The acting is not impeccable (that there's not a lot of subtlety or nuance involved in the proceedings goes without saying), but it has a charming down-home vibe to it; these characters feel lived in, even if they're obvious constructs. Tyler Perry's doppleganger Madea is featured on the cover and the menu screen, but really, other than a character attesting to being her daughter, Madea gets a whopping *one scene*, and it's completely, 100% superfluous to the story (she's getting chased by the cops while her flamboyant ex-husband watches on the local news), and at that, feels hideously tacked on.

One point that intrigues me about the psyche of Tyler Perry, which, as stated in the Madea's review, is full-on for all to see, is his seeming distrust of full-blooded, dark-skinned black men. In all three films I've seen, the three major, romantically-involved, dark-skinned black male characters have been: a wifebeater, a wifebeater, and a man who threatens to beat his wife when she has the audacity to request long-overdue child support. While on the flipside, the women all find true love falling into the arms of genial, light-skinned black men of more caramel complexion, and I have to wonder if somewhere in his mind, there's some deep-seated rejection as the lighter skin is somehow "better", but he can't have her fall in love with a white man. Just something to think about.

The film, like all of Perry's, is easy to watch and never becomes a chore, but where Diary of a Mad Black Woman was an ungainly monster that gave you whiplash in its genre shifts, and where Madea's Family Reunion managed to put it all together, Meet the Browns is situated right in the middle, with enough success to be pleasant, but enough mistakes to make you wish it was better.

{Grade: 6.25/10 (high C+) / #19 (of 57) of 2008}

this is the worst tyler perry movie yet! let me note that i am a huge tyler perry fan -- HUGE! but, this movie was stupid and the casting was horrible. sorry tyler -- but, i expected more. good luck on the next one! -- i'll still support it, but i feel like i wasted my money going to see this one..:( ...my favorite movies have definitely been diary of a mad black woman followed by family reunion. why did i get married was decent, but, angela bassett could not carry this movie on her own. it also didn't help that the screenplay was not very good. i didn't see this play, so, i can't say that after seeing this movie i would want to even see it.

This movie does not deserve the rating it has. Any more I can't go by the ratings here on IMDb because I must have a different taste in movies than everyone else. The acting in this was a toss up. Some of the actors/actresses were , imo, not very good. Angela Basset was terrific as well as Rick Fox. The Leroy Brown character was funny at first and then he just got annoying. Same goes for Vera. The story line was very good and very touching. I'm sure there is a lot of single parents, not just mothers, out there that have felt or do feel the same as Brenda does. I don't want to go in to the movie that much because I don't want to spoil it, but Brenda is a single mother that is struggling with money and finds out that her father that she never knew had died. She takes her kids to GA for the funeral and meets family she never knew she had. In the will he leaves a house for her that needs some TLC. Since she doesn't Have the money her new Family helps restore it without her knowing. Some of the previews may be misleading. It is not completely about basketball although it has some in it. It is a very touching story and I recommend it ton anyone. But like i said. Everyone has their own opinions on movies.

Tyler Perry is so talented. I was very disappointed with the casting of the movie. Frankie Faison, Margaret Avery, Jenifer Lewis and Angela Bassett are all well seasoned actors but their acting roles in this movie was that of an amateur. Their talents were not displayed at all. I was very disappointed in their lines, role, acting just everything. David and Tamela Mann were outstanding as always. They were the glue to hold the movie together. Jenifer Lewis was the worst. She did Vera no justice. The actress that played Vera in the play should have been cast for the movie. Actually all of the same actors should have been cast in the movies. I expected more from the movie.

For creating some of the biggest pieces of crap in the history of film. Actually, it's not even a film, it's just him -- taking a giant dump on everyone's faces when they watch this movie and making at least 50 mill. every time he does it.

Please stop watching this crap, for the love all that is good, please stop.

Note: This movie is already in the bottom 100. And his other movies are competing to get in. Every movie is the same tired old story written straight from the book, with different settings to appeal to the black community. Which they themselves should find insulting, it reeks of stereotypes and belittles the whole ethnicity.

Meet the Browns is a tolerable albeit thoroughly bland effort by Tyler Perry, that manages to touch on sensitive, vital issues in the black community but also shortchange a great deal of those involved in the community into broad forgettable caricatures. Concerning the Brown family, as the title suggests, the film follows single-mother Brenda (Angela Bassett) living in Chicago with her oldest son Michael (Lance Gross) in high school and her two young daughters.

One day, Brenda receives a death notice that states the father she has never met has died. Upon losing her job after the executives decide to pull the plug on her business's entire operation, Brenda packs up the kids and sets off for Georgia, quickly discovering the side of the family she never knew existed. Brenda is welcomed with open arms to meet a good-natured clan known as the Brown family, which also provide her with a release from Chicago's hectic environment and introduce her to the slower ways of Georgia.

Meet the Browns is sufficient for both basic cable entertainment in addition to Tyler Perry's filmography, which always seems to find ways to incorporate more and more questionable film entries in there. If anything, the basic structure I just gave you is what the film manages to set up best; what it unfortunately does is squander relationships in the film in favor of too many pale and broad plotstrands that do nothing but muddle themes. There are various characters in Meet the Browns and they're all drawn very broadly, and their problems are never narrowed down to fit something that feels more human. Perry paints in broadstrokes here when he should be refining detail.

Having said that, Meet the Browns does a nice job at telling us (or maybe reminding some) that there is a vicious cycle in the black community that is sad but true. It's the cycle of a teenager dropping out of school for momentary income to support a family but only getting wrapped up in a dirty, gritty business that seems to be trying to find new ways to kill you or finding themselves living paycheck-to-paycheck. This cycle is acknowledged when Michael, the ambitious basketball player who is in the middle of being hounded and recruited to college teams, offers to get a job while working in high school. Brenda, however, worries that his hours and paycheck will overshadow the importance of education and studies and he'll fall down this path of directionless behavior.

When Perry finds underlying issues in the black community to bring up is when he's strong; when he's busy generalizing the community is when he's weak. Perry always seems to mean well but finds ways to dilute, skew, or completely contradict his own intended message and that has been his drawback from day one. However, with Meet the Browns, he hit a goldmine in terms of popularity, eventually incorporating the film's premise and characters into Perry's second sitcom, which went on to do solid numbers on Television. People obviously see things in Meet the Browns and its comedic/dramatic leverage that I have yet to find; wouldn't be the first time.

Starring: Angela Bassett and Lance Gross. Directed by: Tyler Perry.

"Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" starts off well enough with Angela Bassett playing a strong-willed single mother struggling to raise her three children amidst poverty and unemployment on the South Side of Chicago. But the movie quickly goes off the rails when Brenda receives a letter from a distant relative in Georgia informing her that her father - who was never a part of her life to begin with - has just died. With nothing left to lose, Brenda packs up the family and heads on down to the funeral to pay her respects to a man she's never met. While there she is introduced to the "crazy" Brown clan, a collection of broad comic stereotypes that even vaudeville would have rejected as too over-the-top. As to the film itself, any hint of authenticity is instantly crushed under the weight of lowbrow buffoonery, heavy-handed plot mechanics and a fairy tale view of the real world.

Although he clearly means well, as a dramatist, Perry has never seen a shade of gray he couldn't reduce to simplistic black-and-white or a plot point he couldn't milk for all its melodramatic worth. All the men in the film, for instance, are either clowns, scumbags or knights-in-shining-armor, nothing in between. The gun shy Brenda - who has been hurt by so many men in the past that she finds it next to impossible to trust one ever again - has a certain depth to her character, but virtually everyone else becomes essentially a walking mouthpiece for what's right and wrong in the African-American community. And that simply doesn't make for very compelling drama.

Of the actors, Bassett is nicely restrained and understated as always, and Lance Gross exhibits some genuine talent as Brenda's principled teenage son, but David Mann, Jenifer Lewis, Sofia Vergara, and even Perry himself, in a pointless cameo appearance as both Medea and Uncle Joe, are allowed to spin so out of control in their various shticks that they turn whole sections of the movie into little more than a circus freak show.

Noble intentions notwithstanding, "Meet the Browns" is a true "drag" of a romantic comedy - in the most negative sense of that term.

well I am surprised with the bad vote this movie has here. It is not the best of Tyler. But certainly not a bad movie. The movie circulated around most of the same theme as all Tyler has. Hard life, bad community, good community, how to find yourself a place in this life, how to struggle and at the end to reach to your happiness. I do really like the acting from Angela Basset. It was awesome. The film is predictable but not the message. Unfortunately Madea's part is really small. It seems that they tried to hard to squeeze her inside the film. They should work harder in the script to put more part for Madea. I really miss her thought. :-D

I am not sure why Tyler Perry keeps making movies. They are always poor, over acted and riddled with clichés. They never get good reviews, users don't like them, it's in the bottom 100 of all time here on IMDb. Even Angela Bassett can't save this one. Perry's characters are almost always so exaggerated and extreme and he makes it seem just about the only thing African Americans do is argue, fight, treat women badly and act way melodramatic. The plot's of his films all have such a similar ring to them and completely lack originality. Technically the films are not very good either. The cinematography is boring, the score is mundane and the editing is crude at times. So please Mr. Perry, stop torturing us with your movies.

I give this film a 7 because as a fan of the plays, I really didn't get much of the story. Now, I watched it on YOUTUBE but the fact is that I've already seen this material so it's really like 'Great, you put a compilation of what you've already done just established more in the film' I feel that the family could have been highlighted a little more because of the fact of the Title Meet The Browns. I do feel as if this is not the worst that he's ever done, but it is one of the ones I would put down there with Diary Of A Mad Black Woman the Play.

As far as Brown, I don't think that he should be in movies. I talked to one of my directors a while ago and she said that there is a world of difference between a movie actor and a stage actor. I am not in film but I do know that in a play there is a certain suspension of reality that is expected but in a movie, it is expected to be as real as possible while being fictional enough to entertain you. This movie kinda flirts between the two, Any of the playgoers you may see some of the interplay between the plays Meet The Browns and What's Done In The Dark. This is really not what I expected, also Angela Basset does a great job that I almost believe that she's a young woman though I think they should have cast a younger actress, I think that Kimberly Elise could have played this part very convincingly The film opens up with Brenda getting her 3 kids off to work and her sidekick Cheryl making sure the bus doesn't leave without her. She makes it. Then Brenda opens some mail to see that a Father she never knew died and that she's unemployed--talk about a bad day. She comes to her son's basketball game and he shows some promise (Michael) so much so that a recruiter tries to get Brenda to sign him up, she flat out refuses.

She tries to bounce back when her lights get cut off and at one point a daycare woman played by the great Irma P Hall says 'I'm not gonna take your child in if you don't pay' but she makes a change of heart when she realizes what kind of woman she is.

Needless to say she gets down to GA and gets a house. Now, there is a lot of wackiness but if you've seen the play you know what it is ad nauseum. So, the new part is the HO scene (Youtube: Meet The Browns 5). Funeral, Brown acts a fool, etc. then the house and it looks like it should be torn down, She goes back to Chicago and then suffers seeing her child get into selling dope when his Father doesn't want anything to do with him. He gets shot and is okay and ends up being a great basketball player while attending college.

Back in GA, the house is now great and something comes to light about Rick Fox--he was a gambler and may only want to have Michael around for a pay load so he can pay them off, this is revealed to be unfounded as Rick paid them off. They make up and it's roses in GA, however, the one point that's left open is: Did Brenda get a job or does she depend on her child now? I mean, I wondered about this but Michael did say that he is going to take care of his Mom and Sisters I just thought that Brenda would get herself a good job in GA.

This was my perspective on the movie. Overall it was nice but Tyler Perry needs to stop using the old material from his plays as he did with WHY DID I GET MARRIED AND DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN AS WELL AS MADEA'S FAMILY REUNION. Those were excellent and it didn't depend so much on the plays for its material.

Thanks

I literally could not sit still for the entire two hours of this movie because it was that bad. This movie was so cliché it was driving me crazy. The mom that can't make ends meet to the deadbeat dad that doesn't care about his son. I often wonder what hell would be like, I now imagine having to watch this movie over and over again. Don't waste your time on this movie, You'll want to sue Tyler perry for your money and time back. I honestly don't understand how anyone could even remotely like this movie. I thought the entire storyline and plot was very unimaginative and extremely predictable. The humor was stupid and immature and didn't even get a smile at me, more like a wtf? was that supposed to be funny? Seriously DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!

i had this misfortune of being dragged to this movie by my aunt Flo... She thought it would cheer her up after losing her pet Pomeranian to a pack of wild coyotes.

This movie is about what you would expect from a light hearted romantic comedy, with one exception - it stars Tyler Perry!!! let's just cut to the chase, knowing that Tyler Perry was playing the part of "Medina" was disturbing to say the least. Apparently Tyler Perry enjoys dressing like and old woman and running around in support hose tossing out one-lines and acting like a fool... but for the rest of us, it's shear torture!!!! Tyler Perry as Medina is to comedy as a pack of coyotes is to a Pomeranian... i don't know what that means, but it's still funnier then this movie!