PopcornReel.com Film Review: "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" (Universal Pictures)

The belly laughs that ambush the first 20 minutes or so of Malcolm D. Lee's new comedy quickly give way to tiresome gags and devices audiences will be accustomed to, in "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins", which opened today across the U.S. and Canada, courtesy of Universal Pictures. Mr. Lee's film showcases talented performers in Cedric The Entertainer, Mo'Nique and Michael Clarke Duncan, but only James Earl Jones, Margaret Avery and Joy Bryant -- all of whom don't specialize in comedy -- perform at the top at their game, entertaining in the way they can given the poor material offered. Even stars like Mike Epps however, who scene steals to the utmost here as the wayward Reggie, grows tired.

And it is easy to forget about Martin Lawrence, who stars as RJ Stevens, a self-absorbed self-help guru, because Mr. Lee's script appears to have forgotten to build his character. There is no insight into how he becomes a doctor or self-help guru, only repeated mentions of his catch phrase "the team of me". (Teensy weensy hint: the script is very much incomplete. The director may have been expecting his cadre of comedic actors to paper over the holes of his gaping script with their ability to readily draw laughs from the audience.) While it is true that while watching a comedy about a goofy, eccentric family you can be forgiven for always expecting meticulous story structure -- the average filmgoer in need of a laugh just couldn't care less -- there is a point at which what could have been a farcical, coherent comedy becomes a rambunctious, unruly and noisy exercise in unnecessary foul-mouthed vulgarity for a PG-13, unhygienic ways and not-so-infrequent use of the n-word.

That said, RJ is introduced to us on his Hollywood television talk show ala Ellen Degeneres, greeting his audience with all the fun and joy he has in his heart. From there he is catapulted along with his producer girlfriend (Ms. Bryant) to South Carolina, where he is in town to reunite with his family after a 9-year absence and attend his parents' (Mr. Jones and Ms. Avery) 50th wedding anniversary. Predictably, his wildly energetic girlfriend gets a glimpse of the family Jenkins, and RJ is reminded why he hasn't visited for nine years. Part of the reason is that his long-lost childhood sweetheart Lucinda (Nicole Ari Parker) has been snapped up by his ultra-competitive cousin Clyde (Cedric), who never fails to remind RJ that between them he's second best. (On a subliminal level Mr. Lee's film does what so many other similar films by black filmmakers in Hollywood tend to do: in the which-one-of-the-two-competing-black women-will-win-the-leading man sweepstakes, the darker-hued woman will inevitably lose out. See, ahem, "Norbit", with Thandie Newton, for one. This dark-light woman conversation commences during a signature unscripted scene in "Jungle Fever", directed by Malcolm Lee's cousin.)

As some of the back story goes, RJ's son Jamaal (Damani Roberts) has been abandoned by his mother -- and the script treats him like product placement -- appearing and disappearing on cue to "fit" the story's convenience. "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" isn't quite in the ambit of "Norbit", but how many wild and crazy families on celluloid have to be so over-the-top as to be unreal? And virtually every single member of that family? After a while, it's not comedy that Mr. Lee -- who disappoints profoundly with this effort after marginally better films like "Undercover Brother" and superior work like "The Best Man" -- is reaching for, it's catastrophe.

"Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for crude and sexual content, language and some drug references. The film's duration is one hour and 54 minutes.

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