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(About Our Ads) "TYLER PERRY'S MEET THE BROWNS" (2008) (Angela Bassett, Rick Fox) (PG-13) If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button. Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film. QUICK TAKE: Dramedy: A single mom takes her family to attend the funeral of the father she never knew and ends up meeting his family. PLOT: It's tough making ends meet for Brenda (ANGELA BASSETT), a single mom trying to raise her three kids -- talented high school basketball player Michael (LANCE GROSS) and his younger sisters Tosha (CHLOE BAILEY) and Lena (MARIANA TOLBERT) -- in the Chicago projects where they live. Michael's biological father, Michael, Sr. (PHILLIP EDWARD VAN LEAR), a construction worker, is of no help as he refuses to pay child support. Things get worse for Brenda and her outspoken friend and coworker, Cheryl (SOFIA VERGARA), when the plant they work in abruptly shuts down, and then when the electric company shuts off Brenda's power. Even so, she tries to be the best mom she can, even when there's barely enough food to get by and no money for daycare. All of which means she doesn't want Michael hanging out with his drug dealer friend Calvin (KRISTOPHER LOFTON), and blows off former pro basketball player and current scout Harry (RICK FOX) when he comes knocking, interested in Michael and his on-court talent. Brenda's life would seem to hit its nadir when she receives news that her father has passed away. Yet, the fact that she never knew or even met the man results in that development not even making her top list of lifelong disappointments. Even so, Cheryl convinces her that she should go to the funeral in the off chance that something was left for her in the will. Thus, Brenda packs up the kids and heads for a small town in Georgia where they meet her father's other family, the Browns. They include her half-siblings Sarah (MARGARET AVERY) and her husband L.B. (FRANKIE FAISON); rancorous, highly opinionated and functioning alcoholic Vera (JENIFER LEWIS) and her gynecologist son Will (LAMMAN RUCKER); the outrageous in dress and behavior LeRoy Brown (DAVID MANN) who's prone to spewing one malapropism after another; and his widowed, single mom daughter, Cora (TAMELA MANN). To her surprise, Brenda also runs into Harry once again, as he knows the family and lives nearby. Cautious about all men after being burned too many times in her life, she blows off his romantic overtures, but reluctantly allows him to help mentor Michael's basketball future. From that point on, Brenda tries to do what's right for her kids, all while dealing with an extended family she never knew she had. OUR TAKE: 3.5 out of 10 Our new reviewing policy for films that aren't shown in advance to critics is that we'll only provide a paragraph or two about the film's artistic merits or, more accurately, lack thereof. After all, life is too short to spend any more effort than that on a movie that even the releasing studio knows isn't any good (which is why they hid it from reviewers before its release). Tyler Perry keeps making what's essentially the same movie over and over again (this one based on his own stage play of the same name). Yet, while his prior efforts at least got technically better from one to the next, this one's a step in the wrong direction. Choppy editing, scattershot storytelling, irritating characters (David Mann should meet Larry the Cable Guy and they could duke it out mano a malapropism), and uneven performances (including from the talented Angela Bassett who's directed into a corner from which she bravely tries to extract herself, but to no avail) ultimately undermine the film's predictable, positive messages and plucky characters. The film rates as a 3.5 out of 10. Reviewed March 21, 2008 / Posted March 21, 2008