Best Movie Bet: Meet The Browns

We all respect Tyler Perry… but damn!!! The playwright-turned-filmmaker has churned out more movies in the last few years than some directors have in their whole career.

Meet the Browns
Tyler Perry took a break from playing his signature character Madea in 2007, but the muumuu-wearing, gun-carrying grandmother is back in the writer/director’s latest family melodrama, Meet the Browns. Madea isn’t the star of the picture though; that would be Angela Bassett, who plays a single mother with three rebellious kids and a negative balance in her savings account. One day she discovers a surprise waiting for her in the mailbox–a letter informing her that the father she never met has passed away. Hoping there might be some cash waiting for her in his will, she heads down to Georgia to attend the funeral only to be greeted with a mixture of suspicion and hostility from the rest of his family. Other folks in the small town are more welcoming, including a handsome local boy (played by Rick Fox) who attempts to sweep the cynical out-of-towner off her feet. Sofia Vergara, Irma P. Hall and Frankie Faison co-star and, along with Madea, Perry reprises his role as crass Uncle Joe. Check out Giant’s review to find out whether Meet the Browns is another Why Did I Get Married? or Daddy’s Little Girls.

Also In Theaters

Drillbit Taylor
Owen Wilson emerges from his post-suicide attempt hibernation with this Judd Apatow-produced comedy about a fifth-rate bodyguard who is hired by three teenage dorks to protect them from local bullies. In other words, it’s Superbad meets The Bodyguard minus Whitney Huston. Apatow’s better half Leslie Mann stars as Drillbit’s love interest and Comedy Central Roast staple Lisa Lampanelli turns up as the mother of one of the boys.

Shutter
Joshua Jackson seemed to vanish off the face of the Earth after Dawson’s Creek ended, but our beloved Pacey Witter has finally turned up again as the star of this Tokyo-set horror movie. Directed by Masayuki Ochiai, the film follows a recently married couple on their honeymoon in Japan. But the good times come to an end when Benjamin (Jackson) and Jane (Rachel Taylor) notice frightning images turning up in all of their pictures, images that seem to foreshadow the death of the people they photograph. Sounds like a job for James Van Der Beek!

The Grand
One week before the poker-themed thriller 21 arrives in theaters, he’s a more comic take on the popular spectator sport. An ensemble improv comedy along the lines of Waiting for Guffman, The Grand stars Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell and David Cross as top poker players competing in a major Vegas tournament. Although it’s not quite up to the level of a Christopher Guest picture, the cast is consistently funny and director Zak Penn wisely lets them stand back and do their thing. My one complaint is that the final round of the tournament is played a little too straight–the rest of the comedy is so broad, it’s weird to suddenly be put in the position of having to care about who wins. At least I can say I was surprised by the final outcome.