Rating summary
| Movie |  | 1.5 |
| Video |  | 4.0 |
| Audio |  | 4.5 |
| Extras |  | 2.0 |
| Overall | | 1.5 |
Meet the Blacks Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 10, 2016
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.
There evidently
is an audience for fare like
Meet the Blacks, at least as evidenced by the enthusiastic user review already added
to this title
by one
of our members, but my hunch is unless you’re amused by near constant use of the “n” word and similarly nonstop blue dialogue that seeks to
evoke
laughs through shock, much of
Meet the Blacks’ “comedy” may fail to really resonate. The film lurches pretty unevenly from vignette to
vignette, and kind of like any given episode of
Saturday Night Live, occasionally the “skits” do have a laugh or two (Carl, Jr.'s delusion that
he's a vampire has a couple of decent bits), but this is a largely
wasted
effort that never mines sufficient comedy gold to support an already pretty flimsy premise.
Lest those who agree more with the user review than my assessment think I'm off my rocker (get in line on that one), my colleague Brian Orndorf
was
evidently even less swayed by the film than I was. You can read Brian's pretty withering take on it
here.
Meet the Blacks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
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.
Meet the Blacks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- The Making of Meet the Blacks (1080p; 14:52)
- "Hit the Gas" Music Video (1080p; 6:00)
- Behind the Scenes of "Hit the Gas" (1080p; 5:01)
- Don't Hate Wiring! Parody Commercial (1080p; 00:38)
- Outtakes (1080p; 00:50)
Meet the Blacks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
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.
