Mr. T on Martin (1996)

 

It's Halloween and Martin comes home excited that he's found a house to buy. Gina is cautious but Martin is sure she'll love it because it's a giant mansion that's selling for only $50,000. There's no time to waste so the two, and all their friends, dressed in their Halloween costumes, ditch the Halloween party they were going to go to and check out the house instead.

The seller of the house is Mr. Jenkins.

And holy crap, it's Mr. T with a normal haircut and a long beard! It took 16 years but we've finally reached his first role playing an average person with a normal haircut! "Normal" - but not for long.

So, they give Mr. Jenkins the down payment and he gives them the keys. It's an interesting transaction - what about the inspection, what about the realtors, what about signing legal documents for 8 hours straight? No? Just cash for a key, huh? What about all the furniture, paintings and decorations in the house? I guess they come with it? Okay, well that's convenient because they can hang out in the mansion for Halloween night. And wouldn't you know it, haunted happenings are afoot and Martin's friends start disappearing one-by-one.... by a mummy!

Eventually the haunted mummy comes after Martin but Martin defeats him and is able to free his friends. When they unmask the mummy, it turns out to be Mr. Jenkins who has been selling this house "for over a year. He takes people's down payments and then scares them off." Except what about the part where he scares people by kidnapping them and locking them in a secret passage? The police knew about that but let it continue? Are the victims dead? The police just let them die?

I still like "Martin." It is mostly a basic run-of-the-mill sitcom but Martin Lawrence's physical comedy and wacky other characters do elevate the material, raising it above the vast wasteland of average sitcoms.