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.
Comment
02/22/08
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008)
35
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:9
Rotten:17
Average Rating:4.8/10
Consensus: Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins has moments of comic inspiration -- and long stretches of overdone slapstick.
Theatrical Release:Feb 8, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $42,168,445
Synopsis: Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence (BAD BOYS, BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE) aims for the heartstrings and funny bones in WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS, a raucous helping of family soul food. Lawrence plays R.J.... [More]
Starring: Martin Lawrence, Margaret Avery, Joy Bryant, Louis C.K.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
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Reviews for Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
Top CriticThis is a loud, stupid, cliché-riddled mess.
02/11/08
Top CriticA 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.
02/08/08
Top CriticThere's little to distinguish this oddly mean-spirited comedy.
02/08/08
Top CriticWelcome Home Roscoe Jenkins reinforces the sense that movies are not about real life but about other movies.
02/08/08
Top CriticThe 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.
02/08/08
Top CriticPossible signs of the apocalypse: a rain of fire, return of the Messiah, my enjoy ing a Martin Lawrence comedy.
02/08/08
Top CriticIt's a cut above other films of its type because every scene is packed with...touches that suggest that the film’s writer and director, Malcolm D. Lee, is working overtime to smuggle life into formula.
02/08/08
Top CriticSpiking sentimental family values with crude hilarity isn't the recipe for an award winner.
02/08/08
Top CriticModestly budgeted and massively dumb, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins belongs to the sassy sistas and blinged-out playas school of comedy (maybe it's a preschool, come to think of it).
02/08/08
Top CriticWriter-director Malcolm D. Lee sets out to prove that you can go home again, but the lesson apparently is that it's going to be painful for everyone involved (audiences included).
02/08/08
Top CriticLawrence [has] rarely been more appealing. That's partly because this latest incarnation of his usual persona is more vulnerable and likeable, but mostly it's a relief not to see him strain so hard to Bogart all the jokes.
02/08/08
Top CriticA large, talented cast is mostly wasted in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, one of those movies Hollywood cranks out to celebrate the down-home charms of small town life by exposing the vapidity of showbiz and celebrity.
02/08/08
Top CriticThe 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.
02/08/08
Top CriticThe movie hurts.
02/08/08
Top CriticTruth be told, everyone and everything about Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins is pretty unlikable.
02/08/08
Top CriticThere are a lot of outrageous, raunchy, and insulting comments from caricatured family members, but, surprisingly, considering that most of them are played by stand-up comics, very few actual jokes.
02/07/08
Top CriticA few laughs and a lot of hyperbolic shtick make this a little better than formulaic before the standard-issue resolution.
02/07/08
Top CriticA frenzied comedy promoting the family values of loud, obnoxious and mean.
02/07/08
Top CriticWriter/director Malcolm D. Lee delivers a relatable comedy that drops viewers off in this family that just happens to be African-American.
02/07/08
Top CriticLatest News for Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
June 16, 2008:
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This week in DVD news, that long-awaited Kill Bill double-volume set may finally be on its way and Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier promises enough leftover Hulk... More...
February 14, 2008:
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The annual convergence of the Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day holidays has lead to a unique situation this year as studios are all releasing their wide openers on Thursday... More...
February 10, 2008:
An impressively pointless minstrel show! 
More...
February 07, 2008:
Critics Consensus: Gold is a Fool's Paradise, Roscoe is Not Welcome
This week at the movies, we've got treasure hunters (Fool's Gold, starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson), awkward reunions (Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, starring Martin... More...
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