I wasn’t surprised to enjoy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, which I saw (and paid for) over the weekend. Even if I haven’t really been a fan of Martin Lawrence since his sitcom went off the air, I could tell the movie would be a stupid good time. I’m a not-at-all-secret fan of Mo’Nique (I was really disappointed that Phat Girlz was so tame), and I’ll watch James Earl Jones anytime, especially as a father figure (from Darth Vader to King Jaffe Joffer to Papa Jenkins). I was, however, surprised to like it as much as I did. And apparently I wasn’t the only film writer to think so.

For the New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, “it’s a cut above other films of its type.” Jonathan Rosenbaum didn’t quite recommend the movie, but did call it, “a little better than formulaic,” while Slant’s Nick Schager said, “it’s not half bad,” Entertainment Weekly’s Clark Collis called it, “a decent enough way to spend two hours,” and Newsday’s Gene Seymour said it, “grows on you.” Meanwhile Kyle Smith of the New York Post took the words out of my mouth laptop by calling the movie a sure sign of the apocalypse due its being a Martin Lawrence movie he enjoyed. OK, so they aren’t tremendous raves, but considering the movie’s low, 31% critical rating on RottenTomatoes.com, I have to give these guys credit for not simply brushing this one off. …Read more