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Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
TagsDr. Tom, Movie Review, Rosoce Jenkins |
After "Black Knight," I could've sworn that Martin Lawrence's only purpose on this planet was to keep the n-word alive, but I'm happily mistaken.
Past is the day of the token goofy black guy showing geeky white folks how to git down and par-taay while he makes a big "freak" out of the tight-assed white daddy's girl who just needed some good black cock to see what life's about. From the preview of "Roscoe Jenkins," one can gather the low-brow crap that suffices as the main fuel for so many so-called comedies nowadays -- a fat chick beats a little guy up, a fat chick gets caught naked in the shower (ewwww! ha-ha-ha! soooo groooooosssss!), and some character makes an exaggerated grossed-out face to make sure the audience takes their cue on when to laugh. And don't fret, there's a jubilant bundle of that in here, smothered on top of a generally sappy tone for a flick that's about family and meant to be seen with family. However, something happened about halfway through this flick that caught me off guard -- I caught myself not being bored. Granted, the yelling and stomping of laughter from the mainly black audience (as much this film's demographic as "Dan in Real Life"'s was Whitey) throughout some less-than-funny opening moments provided a fun and let's-not-take-this-one-too-seriously vibe, but as the story and multiple characters stayed on track and didn't do anything out of character or story (no matter how off-the-wall), I was sucked in enough to be actually accepting of the movie's fake reality, and ended up giving a rat's ass what happened to Roscoe Jenkins, his family, and the rest of the plot. The flick follows RJ Stevens (Lawrence, copping a slicker and dare-say whiter name than Roscoe Jenkins), a successful talk show host who is about to wed Bianca, the hot young vixen who has just won "Survivor" by using the plays of RJ's book, "The ME Team," as he makes a trip from LA to the South for his parents' 50th anniversary.
While he's really only doing this to please his son Jamaal, a 10-year-old on an all-white soccer team who yearns to get to know his family (and, without the movie shoving it in our face, probably his roots), RJ figures he can make the best of things by bringing a camera crew down to film him being amongst his fam to show what a true success story he is for rising above this place. The actual camera crew never makes it down, part of the domino line that is RJ's failed plans on this outing, and he is left to do nothing but actually spend time with his family, which includes his pissed-off father (James Earl Jones), his behemoth- loudmouth sister (Mo'Nique), his equally intimidating brother (Michael Clarke Duncan), his conniving god-brother who's always out to top him (Cedric the Entertainer), and his mooching cousin (a standout Mike Epps). From there, it's a pretty basic tale -- RJ goes back reluctantly with his new life and bride to find that his real name, real self, and true love, are back home where the heart is. It's a tale we've been told a million times, and almost every character portrays some black stereotype, yet somehow, in this kooky, low-brow comedy, enough humanity shines through each character to the point where you can't help but find yourself enjoying the fact that, no matter how many fart jokes and fat jokes, this thing really does have a heart. While so many flicks that rely on low-brow humor present nothing more than a cheap, packaged "heart" to try and con their audience with (everything Adam Sandler shits out, for example), this one has an actual heart under all the big stars and the Hollywood money it so willfully rips on. Not to mention, it celebrates and pokes fun at the stereotypes of its characters, bringing a universal "hey, that's family" message while not dodging in the slightest that this one's a BLACK family. While allegedly written in a brainier fashion, "Dan in Real Life" didn't even have the sense to see how plainly WHITE its characters were, which made it come off as a kooky white flick for white people from the same kind of white family as white Dan's, while this little comedy that uses gags like people getting skunked in the face and screaming ends up as a movie for everyone that happens to be about a black family. No, it's not witty, and no, it's not looking for an Oscar -- this is a straight family flick. And once you're stuck in it, you may end up even laughing at some of the low-brow crap you never thought you would. Watch out for an awkwardly-graphic-for-PG-13 dog sex scene. God damn me, it's funny. (four bongs)
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