Tyler Perry Recounts Child Abuse

The famed producer behind the popular Madea movies, #1 box-office dramedies and stage plays opens up about the painful abuse he experienced as a child to his father. Tyler Perry, born Emmitt Perry, Jr., changed his name to distance himself from his father.

Perry recounted a few of those disturbing revelations on his web site's blog after realizing an upcoming movie he's working on conjured up some of the raw emotions from his past. "I'm tired of holding this in," Perry wrote on his site,"so I've decided to give some away."

One night when his mother was gone, Perry stated, his drunken father "got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat me until the skin was coming off my back."

Perry also wrote that his father, a construction worker, constantly used profane insults at him and belittled him until he turned 19.

Perry has since forgiving his father from his abuse. Attempts to reach his father for comment, according to CNN, were unsuccessful.

Not as publicized as the physical and verbal abuse, Perry also spoke about child molestation horrors he received from a neighborhood woman at the age of 10. He also spoke of a church-goer who molested him as a kid. The man died broke, according to Perry's statements, and Perry was asked by the family to help pay for the funeral. "I quickly said no, but I wish I would have said yes. There is something so powerful to me in burying the man that molested me," Perry wrote. "I would have dug the grave myself."

Precious, a movie about an illiterate, obese Harlem girl who is abused, hits theaters this fall. The movie, also starring Mariah Carey, will be produced by Perry along with talk show mogul and internationally-known philanthropist Oprah Winfrey.

[TALKIN' ABOUT IT]

Tyler Perry recounts childhood abuse on Web site [CNN]

'Madea' actor-director Tyler Perry reveals history of childhood abuse, molestation on Web site [NY Daily News.com]

Tyler Perry's Messages [Official Web site]

Meet The Browns' Opens At #2

Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns, featuring Angela Bassett, Rick Fox and gospel singers David & Tamela Mann (of Kirk Franklin fame and from Tyler Perry's plays), opened on Easter weekend at number two - packing in $20 million. The animated family film Dr. Seuess' Horton Hears A Who remained at number one - taking in $5 million more than Perry's film.

The film, an adaption of the Perry's play with the same name, tells the story of a single mother, Brenda, living in an inner city and her struggle to make ends meet raising three children. She, played by Angela Bassett, looses confidence in her life after she is laid off from her job, but later receives a letter from her family in Georgia (a crucial and popular destination for Perry's plays) announcing the death of her family - a man she's never met.

Typically, Perry has kept his fanbase satisfied in his movies and continues to receive support from them with the release of this movie. But critics are not as satisfied with the film.

"The latest product in the inexhaustible auteur's seemingly inexhaustible assembly line of black-themed films, Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns" is a decided step back after his more sophisticated recent efforts." - Hollywood Reporter

"Bassett looks fantastic, but this isn't her best work, mostly because of a clumsy script that makes her character a contradiction - a pushover when it comes to her abusive ex-husband and then way too steely when dealing with a new romance." - San Francisco Chronicle

"...a holding-pattern movie for a filmmaker whose skills and ambition seemed to be growing, movie by movie, even if the films all fit the same pandering, female-empowerment formula. Whatever progress the man was making, ''Browns'' is a Madea-sized big fat step backward. It's a sloppy, slapdash dramedy based on Perry's play (and video of that play) of the same title." - The Morning Call

"Maybe it's time for Tyler Perry to take a vacation. After all, it's got to be exhausting to preside over an expanding empire of plays, books, DVDs, television, and film, all churned out at a rapid-fire rate. Eventually something's got to give, and the slapdash feel of "Meet the Browns" hints that he might need to give himself a break." - NY Daily News

"There's a nice little movie in Meet the Browns somewhere, the story of a dedicated single mom working to better her life. But it's obscured by way too many distractions." - Arizona Republic

""Meet the Browns" is saddled with the usual quotient of phony snafus and entanglements that are easily untangled. While Bassett is usually an asset to any movie she's in, it's hard to work up much empathy for her character, who doesn't know a knight in shining armor or a fixer-upper dreamhouse when they are staring her square in the face." - Newsday

"When Perry shoehorns in an unexplained, unmotivated and absurd police chase with Madea (the grandmotherly character Perry plays in drag) solely to promote his next film, "Madea Goes to Jail" in September, you can't help but wish he'd hire somebody else to polish his mediocre stage scripts before he films them. And you'd hope that someday he'll care less about his "Tyler Perry" brand, pandering to his base audience and padding his bank account." - Orlando Sentinel

"As long as Perry continues to be more concerned with flaunting his success and popularity as a sign of his abilities rather than developing his muse and talent, he will likely continue to make money hand over fist but also leave behind disposable artifacts such as "Meet the Browns," full of empty platitudes and self-serving righteousness." - Los Angeles Times

And the list of unsatisfied professionals reviewers continue to pour in. Unfortunately, PRAYZEHYMNOnline.com only covers reviews gospel music...for now.

[MEETING THE BROWNS ONCE AGAIN]
Meet The Browns (Official Website)

Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns (Rotten Tomatoes.com)