| Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Tyler Perry |
| Produced by | Tyler Perry Reuben Cannon |
| Written by | Tyler Perry |
| Based on | Meet the Browns by Tyler Perry |
| Starring | Angela Bassett Rick Fox Lance Gross David Mann Jenifer Lewis Sofia Vergara Tamela Mann Margaret Avery Frankie Faison Tyler Perry |
| Music by | Aaron Zigman |
| Cinematography | Sandi Sissel |
| Editing by | Maysie Hoy |
| Studio | Tyler Perry Studios |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
| Release date(s) | March 21, 2008 |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[1] |
| Box office | $41,975,388 |
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is a 2008 romantic comedy-drama film released by Lionsgate on March 21, 2008. The film was based on the play of the same name by Tyler Perry.
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Brenda (Angela Bassett) is a hard-working single mother living with one son and two daughters in Chicago, Illinois. After she drops off her children at school, she and her friend, Cheryl (Sofia Vergara), are on the bus on their way to work when Brenda finds a letter with tickets to Atlanta, Georgia requesting her attendance at the funeral service of her late father, Pop Brown. When they get to their workplace, they find that their jobs have been shut down. After Michael's (Lance Gross) basketball game, Brenda and her children are approached by Calvin, a young drug dealer, who is Michael's best friend, invites him to a party. Brenda intervenes for Michael. Brenda apparently has known Calvin for a long time and she knows the real reason for why he sells drugs: he is doing this to cope with the death of his mother.
Afterwards, Brenda warns Michael about Calvin and his lifestyle. They are later approached by Harry (Rick Fox), a basketball recruiter who invites Micheal to try out for professional basketball, but Brenda being protective tells him that school comes first. After that, she goes to her ex-husband, Michael Sr, at work asking for financial aid, but he is reluctant. Later, Brenda and the children travel by bus to Atlanta, where they meet Mr. Brown (David Mann) and his daughter, Cora (Tamela Mann). They go to LB (Frankie Faison) and Sarah's (Margaret Avery) home. After meeting his sister, Vera (Jenifer Lewis), Brenda has a tough time fitting in with the Brown family. That same day, Brenda finds Michael and Harry outside shooting hoops, and at the dinner table, LB informs his family that Brenda is Pop Brown's daughter by another woman, as he was a pimp in Chicago before moving to Atlanta. After hearing the news, the family are unwilling to believe the truth about their late father.
After the funeral, LB reads Pop Brown's will to his family, and Brenda finds out he left her a shady, ruined house. Unwilling to accept it, she moves back to Chicago with an offer of money from Cora. Upon returning to Chicago, Brenda continues to look for a job while she and Harry are dating. When Michael Sr shows up, he is willing to give her money for child support if she sleeps with him. However Michael comes in the room and is furious, not only for strong-arming his mother, but for saying that Brenda should have aborted him. He leaves and gets a job selling illegal drugs for Calvin, who he known since the 2nd grade. He later comes home and Brenda tells him to leave as she wants no part of his selling drugs. However, when he explains that he was only trying to sell drugs to help support the family and give her a break, she refrains from throwing him out, telling him to go to bed. The next night, Michael tells Calvin that he won't deal drugs for him, and when rival drug dealers get involved, Michael ends up shot in the back and collapsed onto the sidewalk. Brenda hears the news while she and Harry are out on a date, and she goes to visit Michael in the hospital. Michael's doctor tells Brenda that he will be fine and he was lucky because the bullet passed his internal organs.
After Michael's recovery, Harry helps him to improve his basketball skills. After they leave their past behind them, Harry takes them back to Georgia. Later that same day, Brenda eavesdrops on Vera in the kitchen telling Cora that Michael is a "goldmine" to Harry so he can pay off his gambling debts. Brenda and Harry later argue and break up, but another basketball recruiter tells her that Harry's debts are paid. She realizes she lost a good man. After a basketball press conference, Michael and Brenda drive to the basketball gym where Harry is practicing so she can apologizes to him. Harry reveals the main reason why he helped out her and Michael all this time was because he loved her. Brenda confesses that she loves him too but she is afraid to accept him because he was too perfect for her. Harry asks her to let him be that perfect man for her. the film ends with the two getting married with the Browns at their wedding.
Earlier in the film, when Mr. Brown is panicking to Cora, they both turned on the news which they saw Madea and Uncle Joe (Tyler Perry) in a high-speed car chase. During the chase, Madea called Cora and Mr. Brown that she is chased by the police. She was told to pull over, but refused as she continues to outrun several police cars and two helicopters. The chase came to an end as Madea ran out of gas, followed by being surrounded by the police. After the chase, Joe made his run from the scene. Shortly after, Madea got out of her car and then fought with a police officer. During the short fight, the officers finally handcuffed her and then placed her in the police car. These events led up to the film's sequel, Madea Goes To Jail.
Meet the Browns completed filming on October 26, 2007. Director Tyler Perry makes a brief but comical memorable cameo appearance as his world famous gun-toting granny "Madea" and her grouchy brother Joe.
Meet the Browns currently airs on TBS starring David Mann and Tamela Mann. The show's plot is different from the play and movie. Mr. Brown has opened up a senior citizens' home with the help of Cora, his nephew Will and his wife Sasha. Storylines involve the various zany residents of the home. The series, however, is a spin-off of the film, the stageplay and three episodes of House of Payne where Mann guest-starred as Mr. Brown, who learns that his deceased father states in his will that he wants him to open a senior citizens' home. Brown enlists the help of the Paynes, Cora and Will. The other characters from the play and film are neither mentioned nor seen. However, Brown's sister Vera made a guest appearance in the third season of the series.
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. As of March 29, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 31% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 48 reviews.[2] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 7 reviews.[3] For a while, Meet the Browns remained in IMDb's bottom 100, but was recently voted out of the list.
In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated $20 million in 2,006 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office[4] behind Horton Hears a Who!. Although the film ranked second at the box office, it ranked first in average gross per theater, grossing $9,977 per theater compared to Horton's $6,336 per theater. When the film ended its run at the box office, it had grossed $41,975,388 over its $20 million budget, making the film a success.[5]
The soundtrack was released by Atlantic Records on March 18, 2008.
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns was sold in 1-disc and 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray on July 1, 2008. DVD sales have so far gathered $17,810,803 in revenue.[7]
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