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First Sunday (2008)

Director: David E. Talbert

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From Time Out London

Grafting moral uplift on to a slapstick caper with mixed results, this nevertheless captures some of the giddy eccentricity of the Ealing comedies it haphazardly resembles. The sketchy story concerns two Baltimore fuck-ups, Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), who attempt a nighttime robbery of a flush church. They’re foiled when the place turns out to be occupied by various congregants, including a hinky deacon, a pastor’s daughter and a fey, snappy choir director who wouldn’t be out of place on ‘Project Runway’.

Fate and faith intervene, naturally, and while David E Talbert is too invested in the story’s pathos to find an enduring comic groove (benignly bitchy motormouth Katt Williams is the most consistently funny element here, and even he occasionally stumbles), it’s refreshing to see churchgoers portrayed with earthiness and a sense of whimsy rather than as fundamentalist nutjobs or untarnished saints—up until the final act, that is.

Author: Mark Holcomb 2008-03-25 11:30:39

Time Out London Issue 1962 March 27 - April 2