4.6 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
After Carl Black (Mike Epps) comes into some unexpected funds, he takes his family and leaves the hustling lifestyle behind for something better. Carl, his new wife Lorena (Zulay Henao), son Carl Jr., daughter Allie Black (Bresha Webb) and cousin Cronut (Lil Duval) pack up and move to Beverly Hills. Turns out, Carl couldn't have picked a worse time to move. They arrive right around the time of the annual purge, when all crime is legal for twelve hours.
Starring: Mike Epps, Charlie Murphy (VIII), Paul Mooney, Zulay Henao, George LopezComedy | 100% |
Horror | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
The Purge would seem to offer boundless opportunities for parody treatment, and that evidently is what Mike Epps sought to do with Meet the Blacks, an intentionally provocative supposed comedy that posits the comedian as a paterfamlias who more or less steals a bunch of mob money and hightails it out of Chicago with his family to the ostensibly greener pastures of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately for Carl Black (Epps) and brood, it turns out The Purge is on the schedule and not even the high falutin’ types that frequent Rodeo Drive and vicinity can protect the Black family from the maelstrom.
Meet the Blacks is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. There's no technical data online that I could find about this shoot, but this sports a generally very sharp and well detailed appearance that looks digitally captured. Detail levels pop best in the bright southern California sunshine, as should be expected, but they remain commendably high even in the long dark night of "the purge", sequences that tend to be minimally lit at best and which at least occasionally take place in near darkness, though there are understandable deficits in detail levels in the darkest moments. Fine detail is excellent in close-ups, and contrast is consistently maintained throughout the presentation.
Meet the Blacks' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 gets a decent workout when the film's score is pumping out generous doses of low end activity, and a couple of raucous sequences once the purge gets underway provide good surround activity. Dialogue is cleanly presented and everything is well prioritized, though the film's tendency to throw simultaneous dialogue at the wall in order to see what sticks makes catching everything that's said a little bit of a challenge at times.
Fans of Epps or other players in this film may find enough (if just barely) to warrant checking this out, but the comedy is hit or miss at best and that simply may not be enough, especially given the obvious talent involved and the ripe pickings that ridiculous premises like The Purge offer. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.
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