Review of Meet the Blacks (2016) by Jeff B — 06 Apr 2016

Wayans more racist than it needs to be, Meet the Blacks makes a case for a purge of horrible spoof comedies before they hit the production stage. It's hard to actually term this flick an out-and-out spoof as it seems more like a sidequel to The Purge and its sequel, Anarchy. It employs the same concept, execution, and, like those thrillers, offers very few laughs. Also, instead of murderous thugs, Epps and company face off with creditors, repo men, and drug dealers. Honestly, the movie is less of a spoof and more of a fish-out-of-water comedy, with the latter half of that description used lightly. While it's somewhat refreshing to see a movie unafraid to tackle stereotypes in our overly PC society, one could just imagine the furor that would arise if the flick reversed the premise and was titled Meet the Whites. An equal opportunity offender, Meet the Blacks at least throws every ethnicity and race under the short bus.

In this R-rated comedy, Carl Black (Epps) gets the opportunity to move his family out of Chicago in hope of a better life, but their arrival in Beverly Hills is timed with that city's annual purge, where all crime is legal for twelve hours.

The fact that one of this so-called comedy's best gags features George Lopez as a U.S. president named El Bama, however, pretty much means that it's too inconsequential to raise a fuss. He and Mike Tyson get off easy, spending as little time as possible on screen. Subjected to shtick baser and lewder than a Your-Momma-So-Fat joke, it's moviegoers who suffer through the painful full sentence.

Bottom line: Beverly Hills Crap.