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Meet the Blacks

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Meet the Blacks
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDeon Taylor
Written by
  • Deon Taylor
  • Nicole DeMasi
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJohn T. Connor
Edited by
  • Suzanne Hines
  • Patrick McMahon
Music byRZA
Production
company
Hidden Empire Film Group
Distributed byFreestyle Releasing
Release date
  • April 1, 2016 (2016-04-01)
Running time
93 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$900,000[2]
Box office$9.1 million[3]

Meet the Blacks is a 2016 American black comedy horror film directed by Deon Taylor, written by Taylor and Nicole DeMasi, and is a parody of the 2013 film The Purge. It stars Mike Epps, Gary Owen, Zulay Henao, Lil Duval, Bresha Webb, George Lopez and Mike Tyson. This was Charlie Murphy's last film role before his death from leukemia in 2017 as well as the final role for Paul Mooney who died in 2021.

The film was released on April 1, 2016, by Freestyle Releasing. Although the film received generally negative reviews from critics,[4][5] it was a box-office success, grossing over $9 million on its $900,000 budget. A sequel, titled The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2, was released on June 11, 2021.

Premise

Carl Black and his family are getting out of Chicago. After having stolen a lot of money from a famed criminal drug king, Key Flo (Charlie Murphy), and believing that he will be imprisoned for the next five to six years, Carl Black (Mike Epps) leaves the hustling lifestyle behind for something better. Carl, his new wife Lorena (Zulay Henao), son Carl's Jr. (Alex Henderson), daughter Allie Black (Bresha Webb) and cousin Cronut (Lil Duval) pack up and move to Beverly Hills. Turns out, Carl could not have picked a worse time to move. They arrive right around the time of the annual purge and all Carl's personal issues intertwine while all crime is legal for twelve hours.

Cast

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, early tracking suggested the film would gross $4–5 million from 1,115 theaters in its opening weekend, and was released alongside God's Not Dead 2.[6] In its opening weekend the film grossed $4.1 million, finishing 8th at the box office.[7]

Streaming

In January 2021, it ranked fifth on a list of the most streamed films on Hulu.[8]

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 17%, based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 3.30/10.[9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 26 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[10] The Herald & Review named Meet the Blacks the fifth worst film released in 2016.[11]

The Guardian gave the three out of five stars writing, "While there is a whiff of social commentary in this low-budget spoof of the 2013 horror The Purge, only a comic performance from Bresha Webb provides any impact", saying that her performance was "so unpredictable and versatile it virtually makes up for the film’s many dull patches."[12]

The Truckee Sun gave the film an F, writing, "Given the family's chaotic and disagreeable state, we have every reason to hope they are purged along with this movie that ought to have been killed months before it reached any cinema."[13] The Citizen Times wrote, "In the hands of gifted performers, this open approach has the power to inspire in-the-moment hilarity often greater than the best lines and gags cooked up by the film’s creators, but no individuals who fit that description are present here."[14] The Arkansas Times wrote, "Movies don't come much worse than Meet the Blacks, and when they do, they tend to go straight to video. At this quality level they tend to slink beneath the classification of movie per se, because technically they're just some dude screwing around with a camera and his buddies so he can get better at Final Cut. There are many markers of the overall badness of Meet the Blacks, but none perhaps more damning than George Lopez playing a character named President El Bama, maybe the funniest thing in this film's 90-minute run time."[15]

Substream Magazine described the film as "criminally bad [...] an alleged horror-comedy that fails spectacularly at being either one of those things. Carried by a funny, yet uninspired Mike Epps, the films [sic] tries to reinvent the parody genre with a lazy and uninspired take on The Purge franchise that is dead on arrival."[16] The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a wrongheaded, utterly incompetent and nearly laugh-free satire".[17]

Common Sense Media called it "nearly unwatchable [...] crass and forgettable".[18] Christy Lemire, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave one out of four stars, saying "every once in a while it seems to be trying, slightly, to make a vague point about racial prejudices and tensions. Mostly, though, Meet the Blacks is too scatterbrained to be so self-aware."[19] The A.V. Club said the film "may not actually qualify as one after all. It’s more like an extremely confusing and sloppily written chunk of Purge fan-fiction—a tortured use of another movie’s absurd mythology to help make muddled quasi-satirical points, while indulging the apparently fail-safe punchline of saying the word “purge” about once a minute."[20]

Sequel

Main article: The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2

In October 2017, a sequel was confirmed to be released in February 2020, called The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2, with Mike Epps reprising his role.[21] The sequel was released on June 11, 2021.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Meet The Blacks". AMC Theatres. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  2. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (June 11, 2021). "Deon Taylor's So Happy To Be Back With 'Meet The Blacks', Ellen Burstyn Flies In 'Queen Bees' – Specialty Preview". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  3. ^ "Meet the Blacks (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  4. ^ Pedersen, Erik (2016-01-08). "'Meet The Blacks' Heads To Theaters Via Freestyle; Horror Comedy Stars Mike Epps". Deadline. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  5. ^ "Trailer: Mike Epps, Paul Mooney, Charlie Murphy Comedy-Thriller 'Meet the Blacks'". Blogs.indiewire.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
  6. ^ "Independent Comedy Out Performs Richard Linklater Film". Box Office Mojo. 2016-04-03. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  7. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for April 1-3, 2016". Box Office Mojo. 2016-04-03. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  8. ^ "Meet the Blacks #5 on Hulu".
  9. ^ "Meet the Blacks (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  10. ^ "Meet the Blacks reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  11. ^ "The 50 worst movies released in 2016". 15 December 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  12. ^ Hoffman, Jordan (1 April 2016). "Meet the Blacks review – an angry and unapologetically gutter-mouthed comedy". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  13. ^ "Meet the Blacks movie review: 'F' is for failure for this film". 6 April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  14. ^ "Movie review: 'Meet the Blacks' idiotic 'Purge' parody". amp.citizen-times.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  15. ^ "'Meet the Blacks' spoofs 'The Purge' with unfortunate results". Arkansas Times. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  16. ^ Shotwell, James (4 April 2016). "'Meet The Blacks' is criminally bad - Substream Magazine". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  17. ^ "'Meet the Blacks': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  18. ^ "Meet the Blacks - Movie Review". 3 April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  19. ^ Ebert, Roger. "Reviews - Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  20. ^ "Meet The Blacks writes some weird-ass Purge fan-fiction". film.avclub.com. April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  21. ^ "Mike Epps, Katt Williams Team for Horror Comedy 'The House Next Door'". The Hollywood Reporter. 13 October 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  22. ^ "'The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2' Arrives in Theaters June 11th". 6 May 2021.
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