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Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008)

tomatometer

22

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Reviews Counted: 81
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 63

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins has moments of comic inspiration -- and long stretches of overdone slapstick.

33

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 27
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 18

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins has moments of comic inspiration -- and long stretches of overdone slapstick.

audience

64

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 187,708

My Rating

Movie Info

A single father who has just found success as the host of an outrageous television talk show begins to question his path in life when he returns home to attend his parents' 50th wedding anniversary party in the company of his famous fiancée -- a reality television star -- in this crisis-of-conscience comedy starring Martin Lawrence. RJ Stevens (Lawrence) is a television talk-show sensation who has transcended his modest Southern beginnings to become the most popular self-help guru ever to grace

PG-13, 1 hr. 54 min.

Comedy

Malcolm D. Lee

Jun 17, 2008

$42.2M

Universal Pictures

Cast

All Critics (81) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (65) | DVD (5)

Actors such as Michael Clarke Duncan, Mo'Nique, Mike Epps and Cedric the Entertainer have been persuaded by writer-director Malcolm D. Lee to do crass routines that should have gone out with minstrel shows.

February 22, 2008 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is a loud, stupid, cliché-riddled mess.

February 11, 2008 Comments (2)
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A talented comedian, Lawrence has leaned all too easily on formula for his successful films. Imagine if he would test his flair against original and fresh premises, instead of the tried and trite.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There's little to distinguish this oddly mean-spirited comedy.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: USA Today | Comment
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins reinforces the sense that movies are not about real life but about other movies.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The message - stay true to your roots - is solid, and [director] Lee gives his outstanding comic cast some sharp one-liners, but he undermines the effort with crass humor, mugging and slapstick.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Like a lot of Hollywood filler, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins' mandate seems to be to entertain and satisfy as many people as possible by sticking to a tested and proven formula, the result of which is it does neither particularly well.

March 7, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
ComingSoon.net

Good cast can't save stereotype-laden comedy.

December 31, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Easily Lawrence's best starring role. But keep in mind that's only compared to his other movies.

July 22, 2008 Full Review | Comment
Sin Magazine

An impressively pointless minstrel show.

June 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Mount Desert Islander | Comment
Mount Desert Islander

All this said, there's a not bad movie inside of Welcome Home, visible in the quiet center provided by Margaret Avery.

March 21, 2008 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment
PopMatters

For all the comedians, there just aren't enough jokes unless you are shooting for the revolting variety.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Daily Herald (IL) | Comment
Daily Herald (IL)

Uneven, tasteless and just not all that funny, 'Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins' is another non-stellar vehicle for Martin Lawrence.

February 24, 2008 Full Review | Comment
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

If Lee had actually directed his performers ... Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins probably would have been a better movie. But frantic flailing isn't consistent forward motion.

February 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinematical | Comment
Cinematical

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins feels like a rudimentary retread of previously outrageous "black attack" farces... needlessly cluttered, unfocused and pointless...

February 19, 2008 Full Review | Comment
World Voice News

a cast full of talented comedians and a director who obviously doesn't mind watching his cast go way over the top in search of raucous and randy laughs

February 13, 2008 Comment

Crosses the worst of Tyler Perry's 'old-fashioned values' preachiness (minus the religious stuff) with the leering crudity of the standard Martin Lawrence vehicle.

February 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Comment
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

I laughed harder watching Norbit.

February 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Seacoast Newspapers (NH/Maine) | Comment

Great laughs with a great cast

February 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Gazette (MD) | Comment

Ugh. Just ugh.

February 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | Comment
Mark Reviews Movies

Not even a soulful soliloquy before the closing credits about the importance of family could undo the damage already inflicted by this impressively pointless minstrel show.

February 9, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

Going home is no vacation. The movie is funny and it's a nice family film. The story was nice and simple. Nice cast of actors and all were in sync which was a plus. Good movie to watch on TV or Rent.A single father who has just found success as the host of an outrageous television talk show begins to question his path

February 4, 2008
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Manu Gino

Super Reviewer

Predictable. Guy wearing white suit drinking beetroot juice. Hmmm..wonder what might happen. Don't even start me on the "evil" girlfriemd. (We know she's evil because she doesn't want to "ruin" her figure having kids, and doesn't enjoy being around her partners quite uncouth family and - shock ,horror - wants nice

February 4, 2008
romy861

Super Reviewer

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