"C" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

"Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" is a "been there-done that" movie. Fragmented and surprisingly poorly edited, it is a pale imitation of his prior films.

Much like Martin Lawrence's "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" (2008), "Meet the Browns" centers around a family fleeing a large metropolis to find salvation with dysfunctional relatives in a small southern community. It is not an exaggeration to say that the conceit of both films lies with the notion that you can only connect with your inner goodness by living in rural America. In that sense, both films play out as an African American version of Eddie Albert-Eva Gabor's late TV series "Green Acres."

In this case, Angela Bassett (one of the few real bright spots of this movie) plays a single mother of three children who is on the verge of destitution while living in the projects in Chicago. Receiving notice that the father she never knew has died and his will is being probated in Georgia, she eventually hops a bus with her children to go pay her respects.

From there you pretty much know what is going to happen. Enter a handsome local hunk (played without distinction by the former NBA star Rick Fox); he takes an interest in her athletically talented son; she inherits a completely rundown house; she rejects the hunk; she falls in love with the hunk and everyone lives happily ever after in the . . . . . . You get the idea.

Hopefully, Mr. Perry will soon rediscover the edginess of his far superior "Madea's Family Reunion" (2006) and "Why Did I Get Married" (2007). What is truly unfortunate is that there is a moving story found at the heart of this unnecessarily sappy fairytale.

As always, Mr. Perry is able to identify with the struggles of African American women as they almost single handedly try to hold their families together. There are some terrific scenes with Ms. Bassett as she tries to both stay employed while keeping her children from falling through the trap door that represents life on the streets. This is Tyler Perry at his best.

In addition, there are two wonderful performances by Ms. Jenifer Lewis as Ms. Bassett's Hispanic friend Vera and Frankie Faison as Ms. Bassett's borderline insane cousin living in Georgia. Ms. Lewis, who bears a striking resemblance to Catherine Zeta-Jones, has a brassy, hard-edged sexuality that enables her to steal every scene she is in, while Mr. Faison plays the clownish relative role to great effect.

The problem with this movie is not that Mr. Perry has lost his touch as much as his interest. I hate to say it, but it is almost as if he decided to put together another feel good film more for the money than the message. It's hard to come to any other conclusion, particularly when you see the inexplicable cameo where he appears as Madea in a nonsensical O.J. car chase scene involving the local police.

On the other hand, while this movie is more disappointing than it is non-entertaining, be sure you stick around for the closing credits. There are some extended outtakes with Mr. Faison where he recreates a scene in the film where he is preaching from the pulpit at his father's funeral. The good news is that these scenes are laugh-out-loud hysterical, while the bad news, in the words of my foreign exchange student, "Z" is, "Why did we have to wait this long to see something really funny?"