First Sunday - Review

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Rated: PG-13

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Release Date: 2008-01-11

Starring: Ice Cube, Katt Williams, Tracy Morgan, Loretta Devine, Michael Beach, Keith David, Regina Hall, Malinda Williams, Clifton Powell, Nick Turturro, Chi McBride

Directed by David E. Talbert

Produced by David E. Talbert, David McIlvain, Tim Story, Ice Cube, Matt Alvarez

Written by David E. Talbert

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Josh Tyler : 2008-01-10 23:56:14

First Sunday is a piece of crap, but a well meaning one. It avoids the pathetic stereotypes usually germane to most throwaway ethnocentric comedies and tries its damndest to say something smart and uplifting about the basic goodness of man and the positive influence religion done right can have over people. Ah if only they’d had a halfways decent script. Or a real director. Or a barely mediocre editor. Alas the film has none of those things, just some good intentions and a talented cast left wandering aimlessly around in front of an altar; like a jilted bridegroom who woke up this morning, put on his tux, and drove to church with every expectation that the day would go much better than it has.

Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan star as a pair of ghetto-dwelling losers down on their luck and desperate. The film opens with them being sentenced to 5,000 hours of community service for some bizarre misunderstanding with the cops. They spend about 30 seconds picking up trash off the street, but the movie soon drops that red herring of a plot and launches them towards a caper to steal from god. The local church has done well in donations, and our deeply in-debt, lovable losers decide they have no choice but to rob it.

They break in, but things go wrong, and soon they’re trapped in the church with the pastor, his parishioners, and a choir. That sounds like a pretty good plot for a formula comedy, forcing two thugs to interact with the black community’s equivalent of the church lady could I suppose, be sort of funny. In First Sunday though, it’s not. It’s all so muddled, as if the movie doesn’t know what to do with itself. Characters wander around muttering dialogue to themselves, as if the actors playing them aren’t really sure they’re supposed to be saying it. The camera can’t seem to settle on anyone, and it bounces around from one closeup to another, with each scene quickly devolving into a series of random asides from people who have absolutely nothing to do with anything that’s going on. Worst of all is the film’s editing, which is amateurish to say the least, filled with splices and jarring cuts which make the whole thing look like it was put together by a group of first graders attacking the film with a dozen pairs of left-handed safety scissors.

Still it’s not an evil movie. It’s not as if First Sunday sets out to be awful, it simply is. If it’s any consolation to anyone, I think that it is possible to make a good movie with the characters and actors contained within it. This isn’t a good movie, but I could see it happening, if someone with a little talent wrote these people into a completely different script and then spent the money necessary to film it, instead of cutting and pasting Polaroid photos onto construction paper and then waving it in front of a projector. But then it’s January, I suppose it was too much to expect any better.

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Mr X
August 29, 2008 at 06:34

This movie can be described with an eight letter word ; Horrible.

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Brownout
January 27, 2008 at 02:55

The script was the biggest problem with this movie. It was so sad to see such a talented cast of actors waste their time and energy on the script of this film. Ice Cube and Tracey Morgan were terrible in their roles. Ice Cube has no comic timing whatsoever. He should focus on dramatic or action role -- and pleae tell me to stop frowning almost all the time. Tracey Morgan's character simply appeared as ignorant and not funny. Katt (the N word racist) Williams offers some witty dialogue every now and then throughout the film. Thank God, he wasn't permitted to say the N word. Thank God for Loretta Divine. I think this actress can make the dullest scenes come to life, even with a lousy script.

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Kimmy C
January 20, 2008 at 02:23

I disagree with ever word you spewed out for the world to see. I definitely recommend this movie. I was laughing throughout the whole film. No one came into the movie theatre with the intention of seeing an Oscar nominated film. We all came to watch the movie in hopes of our sides-splitting with laughter. And, they've managed to do that. Kat Williams and Traci Morgan are excellent comedians. Traci Morgan was brilliant when he had to switch from being funny to serious in those touchy-feely moments. And after all your rant, you still haven't told us WHY you didn't like the movie. The script was phemonal. And you apparently have a problem with the setting. There are many great films who are set in one place. And this film happened to be in a church(with some scenes going into Durell's ex-girlfriend's house, the diner, and court) The reasons why you dislike the movie are weak. I honestly believe this film is the best comedy I have seen in a long time. Watch First Sunday! (Esp. if you're African American) You won't regret it.

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The Infamous Jay T
January 18, 2008 at 19:52

I thought that the movie was horrible, well I take that back I wouldn't say completley horrible but it could have been much better. The general idea was good after I sat back in thought about it. Now don't get me wrong it wasnt't the worse film in history. But... it was pretty close.. The casting was great, but I feel as though they gave the wrong people the wrong part. One Traci shouldn't be the co star, his voice is annyoing and he wasn't funny. Kat Williams who I think is hilarious should have got the co star role if not the lead role! I'm tired of Ice Cube in his roles in days of the week movies. I feel as thoe it's time for more people to shine, because he always get's the lead role but when you think about the movie he's not the one who you think about. Kat Williams definitely needs to be in a movie as a lead role. I personaly think he is hella funny and I look up to him. :) Maybe just me... Rickey Smiley (Birmingham's very own) with his twenty seconds of camara time I felt that he would have broke threw in shined like he should. But, I'm not sure hollywood is so funny with casting great casting thoe guys. Bad lines just switch the roles more. But overall I give the movie a 4 acting a 2 Kat Williams really made the movie for me! In others agree in the theater but that could be just me. :)

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Vada
January 14, 2008 at 13:16

I have to say that I truly enjoyed the film. I laughed all the way through the movie. Katt Williams and Tracy Morgan were very funny. Ice Cube had a couple of times when he was funny, but in many of his films he doesn't play a comedic role. I think it could have been a few improvements but overall it was a good movie. I think I would give it 4 stars

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Laura
January 13, 2008 at 13:42

Wow! It's so weird that I really liked this movie and it seemed like everyone else in the show liked it too. We laughed all the way through it. I mean this wasn't a brilliant film, but that's not what they were going for either. They were just going for funny and I think they pulled it off. Now Ice Cube wasn't very funny, but Tracy Morgan and Katt Williams were. Katt Williams was very funny and I really enjoyed him. I am telling everybody I know to see this film and I even did a video review for expo TV and it's on my web-site also to see.
If your not sure to see this movie or not, I'd say this. If you want to go see a movie to laugh and not take live so serious then go see it. If you want a movie that you can believe to be true then maybe you shouldn't see this.
Bottom Line, I laughed a lot and really enjoyed this movie.

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_ram-jaane\'
January 12, 2008 at 14:57

Awesome. I read the first line and thought, that clarifies what I thought :)

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