Release Date:  February 8, 2008
Rating:  PG-13 (for crude and sexual content, language and some drug references)
Genre:  Comedy
Run Time:  114 min.
Director:  Malcolm D. Lee
Actors:  Martin Lawrence, Nicole Ari Parker, Michael Clarke Duncan, Joy Bryant, Mo’Nique, Cedric the Entertainer, James Earl Jones

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The following review contains discussion of adult subject matter that is not appropriate for young readers.  Parents, please exercise caution.

Welcome back, Martin Lawrence. You were down and nearly out several years ago, troubled by domestic disputes and drug problems. But you’ve been in several hit films since then and are now starring in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, a tale of a talk-show host who returns to his childhood home in Georgia to celebrate his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.

That’s a safe choice for someone looking to burnish his long-ago tainted stardom. Too bad that your new movie generates too many cheap laughs with scenes of wild, out-of-wedlock sex—and worse, a scene of dog copulation. It also pays lip service to religion, using faith mainly as a setup for stupid gags. I’m afraid your attempts to reinvent yourself as a more family-friendly comedian, the same way Eddie Murphy resurrected his career with the Doctor Doolittle and Nutty Professor movies after his own personal indiscretions, are on shaky ground.

Roscoe Jenkins (Lawrence) is best known as R.J. Stevens, host of a Jerry Springer-style talk show with bleeped dialogue, melees among the guests and whooping audience members. R.J.’s philosophy is “rely on yourself,” but his self-confidence spills over into chauvinism, as he confides in others that they should “never let a woman tell you what to do.”

This character trait is dropped as soon as it serves its purpose: A shot of R.J. having sex with his fiancée, Bianca (Joy Bryant), who has her way with him in bed, making R.J. look much more submissive than his guy-talk lets on. They refer to their amorous utterances as “speaking in tongues.”

The couple returns to R.J.’s family home to celebrate his parents’ golden wedding anniversary, bringing R.J.’s son along with them. But the family refuses to cater to R.J.’s metropolitan ways, snubbing his gift of a flat-screen TV, referring to him by his family name, Roscoe, and tempting him with Southern barbecue rather than the skinless, boneless chicken to which he’s grown accustomed. Meanwhile, a childhood rivalry with his cousin, Clyde (Cedric the Entertainer), is rekindled, as is a romance with the woman (Nicole Ari Parker) Clyde wooed away from Roscoe years earlier.