MARTIN LAWRENCE - MOVIE REVIEWS: WELCOME HOME, ROSCOE JENKINS

MOVIE REVIEWS: WELCOME HOME, ROSCOE JENKINS

Like most of Martin Lawrence's films, Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins is receiving mixed notices from critics. But Kyle Smith of the New York Post, who has never given a Lawrence film a positive review, comments, "Bouncing off the subterranean floor of my expectations, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins turns out to be formulaic and broad but also skillfully paced and big-hearted." On the other hand, Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times writes somewhat grudgingly, "Drawn in extremely broad strokes with an enthusiastic cast vying for most-over-the-top honors, this rude family comedy throws so many jokes and gags at the screen, a few are bound to stick." The film is expected to perform strongly in African-American communities, but Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe, one of the country's few black movie critics, remarks: "This is one of those your-roots-are-showing family circuses where just about everybody seems like a clown." Desson Thomson in the Washington Post finds much to like about the movie but overall also regards it as formulaic. "A wickedly talented comedian, Lawrence has leaned all too easily on the tried and trite," he writes.

08/02/2008