The indifferent gospel music that permeates the movie never solidifies with the dramatic might that the genre is known for...
The Fighting Temptations (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:105
Fresh:44
Rotten:61
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The music is the only saving grace in this predictable and eager-to-please comedy.
Theatrical Release:Sep 19, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $30,213,026
Synopsis: Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) has just lost his job with a New York advertising firm and bill collectors are chasing him all over the city. But just when he thinks his luck has completely run... Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) has just lost his job with a New York advertising firm and bill collectors are chasing him all over the city. But just when he thinks his luck has completely run out, Darrin discovers he's the only surviving relative of his Aunt Sally who has just left him $150,000.00. Traveling back to his small hometown of Montecarlo, Georgia, to attend the funeral and collect his inheritance, Darrin soon discovers that Sally's written a tiny catch into her will. Her last wish is that her beloved nephew create a choir, enter it in the annual Gospel Explosion and bring home a victory. Between the bickering and the difficulties finding talented singers in the community, not to mention that his heart just isn't into the whole thing, Darrin has his work cut out for him... until he meets Lilly (Beyonce Knowles). A beautiful jazz singer with a voice to match, Lilly awakens feelings in Darrin he didn't know he had. Suddenly, collecting the money or heading back to New York City aren't important anymore, and he realizes that Aunt Sally left him something much more than an inheritance. -- © Paramount Pictures [More]
Starring: Cuba Gooding, Beyonce Knowles, Mike Epps, Latanya Richardson
Starring: Cuba Gooding, Beyonce Knowles, Mike Epps, Latanya Richardson, Steve Harvey, T-Bone, Wendell Pierce, Rue McClanahan
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Screenwriter: Elizabeth Hunter, Saladin K. Patterson
Producer: David Gale, Loretha C. Jones, Jeff Pollack
Composer: Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, James "Big Jim" Wright
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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Reviews for The Fighting Temptations
Although there are plenty of positive, feel-good elements to this movie, they are outweighed by missed opportunities to do something more valuable.
...the plot's stupid, the writing's bad, the acting is barely professional, but the movie isn't evil.
You might think this prodigal would learn to take responsibility for his lies ... or humbly accept the consequences of his crimes and change. Nope.
As a romantic comedy...neither exceptional nor groundbreaking. But as a musical, the movie bursts with foot-stomping, arm-swaying, finger-snapping gospel music.
The Fighting Temptations is a movie that will soften even the most cynical moviegoer. You can see most of it coming a mile away, and it still works.
Down-home, good-natured sense of humor, but a sitcom-ish sentimentality often veering between Sunday sermonizing and silliness.
All about the music, and you'd have to be truly tone-deaf not to respond to its soaring harmonies and spirited spirituality.
It feels more like an artificial fable than a story we can sink our teeth into.
Cuba Gooding Jr. [is] so animated a performer that he even appears to be overacting on this movie's poster.
Latest News for The Fighting Temptations
June 14, 2005:
In Other News...the Wayans Bros., Destiny's Child, and Katie Holmes
Watch out, Warner Bros., there might soon be a new WB studio in town -- as in, Wayans Brothers. More...
April 29, 2003:
Bad Cuba Gooding Jr. press be damned! Snow Dogs tallied $81 million, and starring opposite one of the world's biggest pop stars can't hurt. ![]()
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