...this is not a family reunion I would want to visit each and every year.
Video:
"Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" is tossed onto DVD with the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and presented in anamorphic widescreen. The picture quality of this DVD release is detailed and colorful, although colors lacked some of the oomph that could have made the visual presentation of this film top shelf material. There are some very nice patterns and textures on display during this film and the exterior scenes look quite good. Comedies aren´t always the most visual films, but "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" looked pretty good. Except maybe for Mo´Nique, but that is a different story. Colors had a slight golden tint to them for much of the film, but aside from that they were nicely saturated and looked quite strong. The source materials were clean and black levels were strong. While I didn´t feel this was the best looking DVD I´ve ever seen, I felt it is well above average.
Audio:
The DVD arrives with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. This was one of those film where I actually listened to the French mix a little bit for the pure hilarity of it and I found myself remembering a few things from spending about twenty minutes with the optional mix. Returning to the English language track, "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" is a typical comedy; it features strong dialogue with a little music to help drive home its story, but it doesn´t have a lot of ambient sound information to fully use the rear surrounds and the .1 LFE channel only erupts during a few musical selections where a thumping bass track is present. A comedy relies heavily upon the spoken word and dialogue is clear and intelligible. Subtitles are provided in English, Spanish and French.
Extras:
A few meaty pieces of bonus material are included with the DVD release of "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins." An Alternate Opening (3:09) opens up the supplements and is worth looking at if you enjoyed the film. Following up the different opening sequence are a series of Deleted and Extended Scenes (22:09) that are lumped together in one collection and cannot be selected separately. They too are funny if you thought the movie was a good time. The Outtakes (18:45) get pretty funny as Lawrence and Cedric the Entertainer are given a little more leeway for their comedy and move past the PG-13 rating of the film with more appropriate adult humor for the actor´s talents. The supplements Bringing the Family Together (12:19) and On Location: Getting Down and Dirty (7:02) are making-of featurettes that are promotional, but relatively informative. They too are entertaining for fans of the film.
A second menu page features a trio of additional materials. The Going Home: Real Stories of the Cast (5:38) is overly short and combines footage from the film as well as some short words from Martin Lawrence, Mo´Niqu, Mike Epps and others about their actual journeys home to their families. This could have been a pretty good supplement if it was given just a little more length, but I felt that Mike Epps was a little high on himself, but you have to love Michael Clarke Duncan. The Joe "We´re Family" Music Video (4:11) is worth checking out once. Finally, the Feature Commentary with Director Malcolm D. Lee was unique in the director welcomed us reviewers to his commentary. He is an affable person and gets into some nice details about the film and delivers a personable, if not sometimes dry, commentary.
Closing:
I really wanted to give "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" a chance to entertain me and there were a few things I did enjoy about the picture. The characters of Papa Jenkins, Lucinda and Clyde were well done, but Roscoe, Bianca, Reggie and Betty Jenkins did nothing to pull me into the film. I wanted to see the main character get his comeuppance for being such a jerk at times and although I was happy to see him finally get the girl, I wasn´t overly thrilled with the character of Roscoe Jenkins. The film suffers from trying to fit adult content into a PG-13 rating and it doesn´t succeed in delivering laughs with watered down sensibilities. The DVD combines an excellent picture with a decent soundtrack and some good supplements. If you are a Martin Lawrence fan, this is a good package, but the film is far from being one of the actor´s better outings.
"Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" is tossed onto DVD with the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and presented in anamorphic widescreen. The picture quality of this DVD release is detailed and colorful, although colors lacked some of the oomph that could have made the visual presentation of this film top shelf material. There are some very nice patterns and textures on display during this film and the exterior scenes look quite good. Comedies aren´t always the most visual films, but "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" looked pretty good. Except maybe for Mo´Nique, but that is a different story. Colors had a slight golden tint to them for much of the film, but aside from that they were nicely saturated and looked quite strong. The source materials were clean and black levels were strong. While I didn´t feel this was the best looking DVD I´ve ever seen, I felt it is well above average.
Audio:
The DVD arrives with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. This was one of those film where I actually listened to the French mix a little bit for the pure hilarity of it and I found myself remembering a few things from spending about twenty minutes with the optional mix. Returning to the English language track, "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" is a typical comedy; it features strong dialogue with a little music to help drive home its story, but it doesn´t have a lot of ambient sound information to fully use the rear surrounds and the .1 LFE channel only erupts during a few musical selections where a thumping bass track is present. A comedy relies heavily upon the spoken word and dialogue is clear and intelligible. Subtitles are provided in English, Spanish and French.
Extras:
A few meaty pieces of bonus material are included with the DVD release of "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins." An Alternate Opening (3:09) opens up the supplements and is worth looking at if you enjoyed the film. Following up the different opening sequence are a series of Deleted and Extended Scenes (22:09) that are lumped together in one collection and cannot be selected separately. They too are funny if you thought the movie was a good time. The Outtakes (18:45) get pretty funny as Lawrence and Cedric the Entertainer are given a little more leeway for their comedy and move past the PG-13 rating of the film with more appropriate adult humor for the actor´s talents. The supplements Bringing the Family Together (12:19) and On Location: Getting Down and Dirty (7:02) are making-of featurettes that are promotional, but relatively informative. They too are entertaining for fans of the film.
A second menu page features a trio of additional materials. The Going Home: Real Stories of the Cast (5:38) is overly short and combines footage from the film as well as some short words from Martin Lawrence, Mo´Niqu, Mike Epps and others about their actual journeys home to their families. This could have been a pretty good supplement if it was given just a little more length, but I felt that Mike Epps was a little high on himself, but you have to love Michael Clarke Duncan. The Joe "We´re Family" Music Video (4:11) is worth checking out once. Finally, the Feature Commentary with Director Malcolm D. Lee was unique in the director welcomed us reviewers to his commentary. He is an affable person and gets into some nice details about the film and delivers a personable, if not sometimes dry, commentary.
Closing:
I really wanted to give "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" a chance to entertain me and there were a few things I did enjoy about the picture. The characters of Papa Jenkins, Lucinda and Clyde were well done, but Roscoe, Bianca, Reggie and Betty Jenkins did nothing to pull me into the film. I wanted to see the main character get his comeuppance for being such a jerk at times and although I was happy to see him finally get the girl, I wasn´t overly thrilled with the character of Roscoe Jenkins. The film suffers from trying to fit adult content into a PG-13 rating and it doesn´t succeed in delivering laughs with watered down sensibilities. The DVD combines an excellent picture with a decent soundtrack and some good supplements. If you are a Martin Lawrence fan, this is a good package, but the film is far from being one of the actor´s better outings.
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[release]24081[/release]