SHORT REVIEW: First Sunday

First Sunday (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 36 mins

Cast:

Ice Cube
Katt Williams
Tracy Morgan

Critical consensus:

*1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

Coming Soon?

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

**1/2 out of *****

The premise:

Durell and LeeJohn are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. When told they have one week to pay a $17,000 debt or Durell will lose his son, they come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church. Instead, they end up spending the night in the presence of the Lord and are forced to deal with much more than they bargained for.

MY REVIEW

First Sunday should have been a terrible movie. Unfortunately, I found myself oddly entertained. The movie kind of ends up being a slightly heartwharming story. It is obviously cliched though. We have two "thug" characters played by Ice Cube (Friday, Anaconda) and Tracy Morgan (Little Man, TV's 30 Rock) who live a life of crime, robbing whoever they can. They find themselves robbing a church of all places, because they found out they have earned over $200,000 in charity. With some crazy antics, they sneak in at night, but unbeknownst to them, the staff is there. The cooky, eccentric staff that makes up the odd cast. We have Loretta Devine, Chi McBride, Malinda Williams, Olivia Cole, Michael Beach and the most eccentric one of them all and probably the best performance of them all, comedian Katt Williams. Now all these characters start off scared by these thugs, then grow tired of them in comedic fashion. Then they get Tracy Morgan to open up and make him realize this isn't what he wants to do. Then they begin to feel bad for Ice Cube because of his problems with his ex and his son. Now they all know that what these guys are doing is wrong. However, they are in God's house, and they are God's people and they forgive these men and help them escape.

I probably just ruined the movie, but you have to expect the story to end up like that anyway. This is a comedy, not a suspense thriller. Yes, it has a happy ending. The reason why I'm not hating this movie is because while it was cliched, it did have vague attempts at trying to be different. Usually in a movie like this where the bad guys end up in court, there is some big heroic speech that moves everyone and they get set free. In the final court scene you see hints of this happening but all speeches are cut short. These men are released for other reasons. The performances are average but no one is "bad". Katt Williams kind of suprised me actually. He was witty and funny and I couldn't tell if he was bad because he was playing himself, or if he was really good because he was just playing an oddball character. I'm going with the latter because I've never seen his standup. I don't honestly recommend this movie as a must see, but hey, if you are ever bored and have nothing else to watch, this isn't such a bad choice.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIE AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• Best Breakthrough Performance (Katt Williams)

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: First Sunday

*This is the 64th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.