Martin Lawrence. Love him. Same goes for Cedric the Entertainer. There’s a sweetness to both performers that endures even when onscreen shenanigans have them acting crazy, naughty, both. Casting them in a family comedy should deliver a romp, not invite a rant. So what the heck happened to writer- director Malcolm D. Lee’s “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins”?
RJ Stevens (Lawrence) is at the top of his game. His talk show is a ratings bonanza. His recent engagement to Bianca Kittles, a “Survivor”-type winner who’s all about “alliances,” has made him one half of an L.A. power couple.
**RATING | Family Comedy
But when Stevens (nee Roscoe Jenkins) visits his people in the small Southern town of Dry Springs after a nine-year hiatus, he’s reminded that all he’s achieved is nothing a trip home can’t cure.
Along for the self-help guru’s journey of enforced self-discovery are Jenkins’ son Jamaal, Bianca (Joy Bryant, vibrantly game in her first comedic role) and her dog.
Waiting to greet or cut him down to size are Mamma Jenkins (Margaret Avery) and Roscoe’s disapproving father, played with a posture that still issues a challenge by James Earl Jones. There are also siblings: Otis (Michael Clarke Duncan), the backwater’s hulking but kind sheriff, and Sister Betty. It’s not immediately clear what she does. You can be sure, played broadly by Mo’nique, whatever it is, it’s gonna be loud.
When Roscoe was a kid, his family took in Clyde. Their bitter rivalry, fostered by Pappa Jenkins, continues to this day and throughout the movie. Clyde (Cedric the Entertainer) arrives with Roscoe’s childhood love, Lucinda (Nicole Ari Parker, giving a nicely attuned turn).
There are laughs. Anyone who loves sweet tea gets the gag when vegan Bianca chokes on Betty’s brew.
But more often, the movie ditches clever for crass: Mo’nique and Mike Epps, as opportunistic cousin Reggie, provide most of the downhome and dirty entendres.
Less ‘nique would have fixed much of what ails this movie.
Writer-director Lee has done better by audiences and his gift for wry observation: “The Best Man,” “Undercover Brother,” even the nostalgia-driven “Roll Bounce.” Here he seems to have ripped a page from Tyler Perry’s redemption playbook. Only he flipped the script to make it less sacred, more profane. Much more.
Behold this year’s front-runner for The Norbit. This newly minted award (named for last year’s desperately crude Eddie Murphy comedy), recognizes a movie for pulling off a PG-13 rating when it deserves an R.
Were this critic as suspicious as Dave Chappelle’s Conspiracy Brother, I’d wonder why the MPAA gave “Superbad” an R but this film, pitched at the urban market, a broader rating.
Instead, we’ll just ask, what good is an intergenerational comedy if you can’t take your aging parents and shouldn’t take the kids?
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com
“Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins”
PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and some drug references. 1 hour and 56 minutes. Written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee. Photography by Greg Gardiner. Starring Martin Lawrence, Margaret Avery, Joy Bryant, Louis C.K., Michael Clarke Duncan, Mike Epps, Mo’nique, Nicole Ari Parker, Cedric the Entertainer and James Earl Jones. Opens today at area theaters.
