Lawrence's family comedy misses its chance

Martin Lawrence is at his best playing the smooth, confident showman, taking charge with a cocky grin. That's what he does as TV self-help guru Dr. R.J. Stevens, a tele-therapist in the Dr. Phil mode, with a dash of Jerry Springer.

Yet when this urban media celebrity returns to his small town -- and the sassy, disparaging, bullying forge of his extended family -- he is just Roscoe Jenkins, little brother and perennial loser. His clan resembles bird species that home in on the weakest of the flock and peck them to death.

"Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" is one of those family reunion comedies centered on the oddball who returns home to show off his success, but the film doesn't play to its strengths. Lawrence never finds the balance between the poised personality he dons for his TV role and the picked-on little brother who falls right back into old patterns of humiliation and retaliation

The film squanders James Earl Jones in an underwritten role as Roscoe's unimpressed papa. And Malcolm D. Lee directs in the semaphore approach to comic performance: playing every gesture big enough to be seen from miles away.

Better are Cedric the Entertainer as the competitive cousin who riles up Roscoe with constant insults and Mike Epps as a shameless moocher. It's harder to know what to make of Mo'Nique as the big sister who seems to feed off Roscoe's failures and humiliations. If the film's message is about embracing your family dysfunction, this family offers plenty to overcome.

Be warned that what looks to be a family comedy pushes its PG-13 rating to the edge with blatant sexual references and creatively crude sexual metaphors. They are among the funniest scenes of an often tired comedy, but parents might not find them teen-appropriate.