Movie Review: Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008) 

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee 

Written by Malcolm D. Lee 

Starring Martin Lawrence, Joy Bryant, Michael Clarke Duncan, Cedric the Entertainer, James Earl Jones

Release Date February 8th, 2008

Published February 9th, 2008

Martin Lawrence's dimming star power gets no boost from his latest strained effort, the alleged family comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. In Welcome Home Martin Lawrence plays Dr. RJ Stevens, a Jerry Springer-esque character with a hint of Dr. Phil. His high profile talk show has made him a celebrity but it is his new alliance with fiancée, and Survivor TV show winner, Bianca (Joy Bryant) that has secured his status as a top Hollywood player. However, no matter how much success Dr. Stevens accumulates he remains Roscoe Jenkins when he returns home to his parents house in the deep south.

It is Papa and Mama Jenkins (James Earl Jones and Margeret Avery) 50th Anniversary and though Roscoe hasn't been home in nine years his fiancée see's an opportunity for great TV. They, along with his 9 year old son Jamaal (Damani Roberts) will return home and film the whole event for the Dr. Stevens' show. Returning home of course offers other challenges like the family's many athletic competitions where Roscoe was repeatedly victimized by his cousin Clyde (Cedric The Entertainer). One of the most successful used car salesmen in the south, Clyde relishes the opportunity to once again show up his cousin, even going as far as bringing along Roscoe's childhood crush Lucinda (Nicole Ari Parker) as his date. She maintains that they are just friends.

Then there are Roscoe's immediate family. His brother Otis (Michael Clarke Duncan) a former all American linebacker now a small town sheriff and his sister Betty (Monique) a prison 'counselor' whose personal life is spotted with a number of criminal dalliances. Then there is cousin Reggie (Mike Epps) whose ability to find money without ever having a job is legendary in the family. Reggie brings along his dog who tormented Roscoe throughout his childhood and now turns his eyes towards Bianca's toy pup in one of this films many objectionable subplots.

If from this description you can't figure out the exact trajectory of this plot then you really haven't seen many movies. As predictable as the sunrise, Roscoe rekindles his romance with Lucinda as Bianca becomes more and more a victim of Roscoe's family. The film's perspective is that being rich and successful is bad and being down home and 'real' is all there is to life. Not a bad perspective but a limiting one. Roscoe isn't such a bad guy or even an unreasonable guy. His perspective is shaped by years of what he feels were slights from his father who seemed to give favor to Clyde and Roscoe's older siblings, though he gave his name to Roscoe.

Naturally, earning daddy's love is a major theme that plays out for Roscoe on two fronts. There is his trying to impress Papa Jenkins and his dealing with his own son, at first advising him on the importance of winning at all cost and eventually trying to let him be a kid. This subplot is part of director Malcom Lee's attempt at depth an attempt he undercuts every other turn of the plot. How seriously can you take any movie that takes such delight in the sex lives of dogs. Indeed, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins has a number of jokes aimed at one giant dog attempting to mount a tiny toy pooch. Why is this funny?

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins has yet another plot piece that has become popular in comedies that aren't all that funny. Mike Epps joins the cast in what has come to be called the Wanda Sykes role. It is Epps' job to enter scenes that are flailing for a joke and make a humorous observation and then exit the scene. Unfortunately, where Sykes' non-sequiter observations Monster In Law and Evan Almighty could fool people into thinking the movie was funny, Epps' more heavy handed approach lacks the same zing and ability to pull the wool over our eyes.

Malcolm Lee is not an untalented director but certainly undisciplined. A better director drops the dog jokes better utilizes Mike Epps talent for the one liner and is bolder than falling back on non-sequiters. If the script isn't strong enough without Mike Epps' character having to try to rescue every scene with one liners then go back to the drawing board, flesh out your characters and find some truth to bring forth from these characters. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins is undercooked and underserves it's audience with warm over homilies about family life in the south and a struggling Martin Lawrence.

Movie Review Roll Bounce

Roll Bounce (2005) 

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee 

Written by Norman Vance Jr. 

Starring Bow Wow, Chi McBride, Mike Epps, Meagan Good, Nick Cannon

Release Date September 23rd, 2005

Published September 23rd, 2005

In preparing my review of the new roller-disco flick Roll Bounce I came across an article in the New York Post about roller skating movies of the past and it mentioned a true forgotten classic, Skatetown U.S.A. This 70's gem starred Scott Baio, Patrick Swayze, Ron Palillo (Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter") and former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick. The film is about rival roller disco gangs competing in a skating tournament set to disco rhythms. I thought I only dreamed of this movie.

Maybe someday someone will look back on Roll Bounce and be as nostalgic, or sarcastic take your pick, as I am for Skatetown U.S.A but without the perspective of time, Roll Bounce is a relatively relatively unmemorable 70's throwback that needed more of a sense of humor about its subject as opposed to trying to ring actual tension out of a movie about roller skating.

Rapper Bow Wow stars in Roll Bounce as Xavier or X to his crew of rolling skating friends including Junior (Brandon T. Jackson), Boo (Marcus T. Paulk), Naps (Rick Gonzalez) and Mixed Mike (Khleo Thomas). Together the boys spend every summer at the roller rink where they perform choreographed routines for fun. The fun stops, however, when the local rink is closed down and the boys are forced to go to the upscale rink on the other side of town where skating is a competition not a pastime.

The boys are harassed by the locals as they attempt their routines and get shown up pretty fierce in their first visit. However, you just know that when the time comes, as in the 500 hundred dollar cash prize skating competition, the guys will be more than ready.

Parallel to the skating story is the story of X's home life where he and his sister and his father (Chi McBride) are coping with the loss of their mother. Not only that but dad has also just lost his high paying gig as an airplane designer and has not told his son. The family drama is a tad bit cheesy in a movie as gregarious and loose as Roll Bounce and the father son tension only serves to weigh the film down when it should roll with the skating.

Roller skating is a goofy subject for a movie and the last thing any movie should try and do is take it seriously. Yet that is what director Malcolm D. Lee and writer Norman Vance Jr. try to do. They try to make you care about the outcome of this superfluous, overblown and rather ridiculous competition. Don't get me wrong, the action on skates is impressive but it's also quite goofy.

Juxtapose the roller disco of Roll Bounce with the disco of Saturday Night Fever and they may look similar in their weightlessness. However, where Fever earned its melodramatic side by delivering a complex and fascinating lead character, Roll Bounce never establishes X as either fascinating or complex. X is a nice, kind of goofy kid who's a great dancer on skates. The detail of X attempting to cope with his mother's death seems tacked on to give him a dramatic weight and works only to take us away from the more genial and fun story of the roller disco.

Malcolm Lee is a terrific director as he showed in the friendly comedy The Best Man and the awesomely funny 70's send up Undercover Brother. One is left to wonder where that sense of humor is in Roll Bounce. There are occasional funny moments but the film goes for very long stretches without laughs. Lee and writer Norman Vance too often get bogged down in trying to create a family drama and trying to make you care about roller skating that they forget that their real subjects are fun and nostalgia.

Both Lee and Vance could use a refresher in how to write female characters. None of the women in Roll Bounce are anything more than minor characters. Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Goode and "The Bernie Mac Show"'s Kellita Smith each play a different variation of a love interest for the main characters and they are defined by being the love interest and nothing more. None of the women take part in the skating and are left in another typically female role as a cheerleader.

When Roll Bounce is in its retro groove with its killer soundtrack of seventies classics, Bee Gees, Chic, Kool and The Gang and such, it's an enjoyable little throwback. However, when Malcolm Lee attempts to shoehorn in the family drama the movie becomes bogged down and the good time vibe comes to a complete halt.

Roll Bounce does manage to find entertaining moments that showcase these young actors' talent for having a good time. The skating is pure kitsch and when the actors are allowed to take part in that kitsch spirit the film comes alive. That spirit is captured by Nick Cannon's cameo as a seventies style ladies man and Wesley Johnson as the skating rink superstar called Sweetness who enters the rink with his own 70's style theme music and two female valets on his arms like some roller skating pimp.

The retro good time vibe is there in spirit in Roll Bounce but it is too often undermined by forced melodramatics. Still if you were a fan of great disco, roller skating, or high camp you may find something to really enjoy in this inoffensive retro retread.

Me? I'm going on Ebay to find a copy of Skatetown, USA.