Grade (D+)
An endless barrage of jokes with some that land and tons that do not.
“MEET THE BLACKS” stars; Mike Epps, Zulay Henao, Bresha Webb and Alex Henderson. It’s directed by Deon Taylor and follows Carl played by Epps who seizes an opportunity to move his family out to Beverly Hills from Chicago to give them a better life. The only problem is his past finds him, and on the eve of the annual Purge, a 12 hour span where all crime is legal, he will have no help in protecting his family.
These slapstick parodies are a double edged blade for me. One the one hand, I do enjoy some good slapstick humor but on the other hand they rarely pan out to be enjoyable films. The Wayan’s have had a run of parodies that have all failed to deliver enjoyable films, while all having some moments of isolated humor. The problem with these films is they are not designed in my opinion to sustain a full run-time.
The stories rarely have any character development nor a detailed script and forcing the humor over an hour-plus time-frame is nearly impossible to do without giving the viewer good amounts of fatigue. “Meet the Blacks” was another example of this. A movie that had some laughable moments, but too much extremely forced humor to try and fill the time, and with so many laughs not landing the pace slows down dramatically.
I did laugh a few times throughout but I also rolled my eyes many more times. Epps had his moments but he used a lot of his old lines I’ve heard before so they naturally do not land with the same impact. The story was fun at times but with too many stupid scenes added as filler it wasn’t a fun film to sit through.
If you do like slapstick humor and enjoy the parodies that pop in and out of theaters you will find some enjoyment in this one but for me it was a long one to sit through and wore me out with endless waves of jokes that hit like a shovel to the head. Luckily however, with some good cameos it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
Time: 94 min
MPAA Rating: R (For pervasive language, some sexual material, violence and drug use)