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Bookmark this pageFirst Sunday (2008)
Director: David E. Talbert
Movie review
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
Time Out London Issue 1962 March 27 - April 2
Cast & crew
Director: David E. Talbert
Cast: Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Malinda Williams, Katt Williams, Michael Beach full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 98 mins
UK Release: Mar 28 2008
US Release: Jan 11 2008
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