Starring: Mike Epps, Zulay Henao, Bresha Webb, Lil Duval, Andrew Bachelor, Charlie Murphy, Lavell Crawford, Alex Henderson, Mike Tyson, DeRay Davis, and George Lopez
Directed By: Deon Taylor

Plot: A parody of The Purge where a black family moves into a Beverly Hills mansion, thinking they are safe and that rich white people don’t Purge. They’re wrong. They definitely purge black people out of their neighborhood.

What Works: This is definitely a film that critics feel like they have to bash. It has a metacritic of 26, Rotten Tomatoes of 13, and IMDB users at 3.1. I could write about how this film is just so stupid, and a waste of film, but I’d be lying. Is it a great film? Fuck no. Did it make me laugh? Yes. A few times. There seems to be very little actual script, and most of it just feels like Mike Epps improving his way through a film, but he’s pretty quippy with one liners. It’s a straightforward Purge parody too, instead of trying to rope in a bunch of other films like a Scary Movie film, or one of those abortions made by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg. Seriously, those two are AWFUL filmmakers. Despite what you may have assumed, Meet The Blacks is NOT the worst film of the year. It helps that your expectations are already really low, and it actually somewhat surpasses your low expectations.

What Doesn’t Work: These are terrible actors. A few times, they try to act dramatic, and it doesn’t work. The cameos by Crawford and Tyson were both a waste of time. Was that Perez Hilton in the film? What the fuck? Actually, every time a new face popped up in the house, I groaned. If this film had just been about the white people in the neighborhood trying to exterminate the only black family, it would have been a lot funnier, as those scenes were the funnier scenes in the film. Everytime a black actor popped up in a cameo, that scene didn’t work for me. The exception would be Andrew Bachelor, who was directly parodying a role from The Purge. I don’t count his role as a “pop up”.

Final Word: I have seen worse films in my life. Many more. I’ve seen worse films this year. A few more. I wouldn’t recommend this, but if you must, you’ll probably laugh a few times. You might hate yourself after for laughing, but Epps can be legitimately hilarious when he wants to be. He saves this film from dying a dismal death.

Final Grade: C-