Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011/Blu-ray)/Laugh To Keep From Crying (DVD)/Meet The Browns – Season One (2011/DVD/Tyler Perry/Lionsgate)
Picture:
B-/C+/C+ Sound: B-/C+/C+ Extras: C+/C-/D Main Programs: C+
If the
recent spat between Spike Lee and Tyler Perry is any indication, Perry’s
success and work is getting under the skin of more than a few people. It is said you cannot argue with success, but
sometimes that success comes from repetition and Lee is not the only one to
comment though his comments are usually negative without better ideas. With Perry, you get (usually) comedy works
with or without Medea. Here are three
types of his comedies now available.
Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011) is his latest feature film
playing Madea and it is about the title character doing things that are bad
from anyone else but excused because Madea is a sort of “agent of God” by
default and with plenty more faults than most.
Can she bring together two families out of control? Depends how crazy she gets, but the crazier
the better. I love the Brady Bunch poster and cover ad
campaign (guess that makes Madea the anti-Alice, the maid played by Ann B.
Davis on the show) and the result is another competent and consistent, if
sometimes predictable romp. Extras include
Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices, and four featurettes: Ties That Bind, “Byreeen”: The Baby Mama From Hell, Madea’s Family Tree and Brown
Calls Maury.
Laugh To Keep From Crying (DVD) is the latest of Perry’s
stage plays that happen to be the starting ground for just about all of his
works and they also tend to be musicals extensively. You can read more about them at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6267/Tyler+Perry+%E2%80%93+The+Plays
In this
one, another mix of crisis and potential relationships as the characters (in
gospel music style) go through another long melodrama (this is 140 minutes),
but their faith can save them. I have to
say it is not easy to do this as a musical and they are musicals more so than
say, old Elvis Presley films, but the songs are not memorable in the long run
though work in the context of the narrative when they happen. Cast & Audience interviews are the only
extra.
Finally
we have Meet The Browns – Season One
(2011) which is actually a spin-off from one of those stage musicals that also
became a feature film release, which you can read more about at the Play review
above and at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7260/Tyler+Perry%E2%80%99s+Meet+The
Perry’s
second hit series after House Of Payne,
it is more of the same, a sitcom that has more of the same humor and is even
shot to look and feel like the previous show.
If you love the older show, you’ll at least like this one. If not, you will not be as impressed. There are no extras over the three DVDs that
hold all 20 episodes.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Family
was shot in HD and can look good, but has its share of motion blur, soft shots
and even an overcast look. This is
basically what I was expecting since he switched to HD and from the previous
Perry’s feature film Blu-rays such as this set I covered a while ago:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10566/Tyler+Perry+Blu-ray+Wave+(Diary+O
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the DVD releases are even softer with the same blur
from HD shooting. Still, they are at
least clean and color is consistent, though the range is not what I would have
liked.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix on Family is towards the front speakers, but this is a mix that i9s
really pushing it for a dialogue/joke based release, though it does benefit the
music and sound effects. The DVDs have
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes at best, but they are not as much multi-channel presentations
as they are expanding the sound recorded and the recording is not bad.
- Nicholas Sheffo