Napoleon is credited with saying, "No man is a hero to his valet." Roscoe Jenkins says, "No man is a hero to his dad." Whatever our achievements or status, those who know us best do not see us as larger-than-life figures.
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins stars Martin Lawrence as a Dr. Phil-style self-help guru. When playing a know-it-all who gets his comeuppance, as he does here, Lawrence has few peers. He is as attached to his certainty as Jack Benny was to his billfold.
Still, Roscoe Jenkins labors too hard to wring too-few chuckles, as this pop psychologist, helpless on the occasion of his folks' golden anniversary, gets belittled by parents and ridiculed by siblings. Just like when he was a kid.
Some movies straddle two genres. This film written and directed by Malcolm Lee (maker of the far superior The Best Man) is a Twister game, hands and feet everywhere.
With adult siblings reverting to childish competition, Roscoe Jenkins haselements of the family-reunion farce. With the ultra-successful Roscoe bringing his fiancée (Joy Bryant), a reality-TV star, home for inspection, it likewise has themes of the meet-the-parents comedy. And with the psychologist who is clueless about his own life, we have a physician-heal-thyself film.
As if that weren't enough, Lee additionally crowds his three-ring circus with jugglers, clowns and dancing elephants in the persons of Michael Clarke Duncan, Mo'Nique and Cedric the Entertainer as Roscoe's siblings and cousin.
As a rule I don't mind broad humor. But the widescreen isn't ample enough to fit the jokes here.
As Roscoe's parents, Margaret Avery and James Earl Jones emerge with drawers undropped and dignity intact.
