In First Sunday, Ice Cube departs a bit from the upright-citizen persona, playing a man driven to crime by desperate circumstances.
First Sunday (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:10
Rotten:63
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: First Sunday may have its heart in the right place, but its funny bone is dislocated.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for language, some sexual humor, and brief drug references.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jan 11, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $37,931,869
Synopsis: David E. Talbert makes his directorial debut with this comedy about Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), childhood friends with a knack for getting into trouble. Despite his continual bad... David E. Talbert makes his directorial debut with this comedy about Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), childhood friends with a knack for getting into trouble. Despite his continual bad decisions, Durell gets one thing right: he's a good father to his adolescent son. When he learns that the boy's mother, his ex-girlfriend, Omunique (Regina Hall), needs $17,000 to buy her beauty shop or she'll leave Baltimore and move to Atlanta, he's determined to get her the money to keep his son in his life. Meanwhile, LeeJohn needs big money fast to pay off some bad guys. Durell and LeeJohn decide that the collection plate of their local church holds the answer to their money woes. But their attempt to rob the church is foiled in progress: the money is already missing, and the would-be burglars didn't realize there would be people at the church. Finding themselves with a group of parishioners and choir members at their mercy, Durell and LeeJohn have to make some decisions about exactly what kind of men they want to be. FIRST SUNDAY also makes a statement about the role of the church in urban areas and its importance within the community. Keith David is Deacon Randy, who has grandiose plans for moving the church to a "less urban" neighborhood. Chi McBride stars as Pastor Mitchell, and Malinda Williams is his strong-willed daughter, Tianna, who wants First Hope Community Church to stay right where it is and expand its services. Loretta Devine is Sister Doris, the parish secretary and foster mother with a heart of gold. Ice Cube and Morgan have good rapport as the bickering buddies, with Morgan's silliness providing loads of comic relief, but Katt Williams is the scene-stealer as Rickey, the flamboyant choir director with something to say about everything and everyone. [More]
Starring: Ice Cube, Katt Williams, Tracy Morgan, Loretta Devine
Starring: Ice Cube, Katt Williams, Tracy Morgan, Loretta Devine, Michael Beach, Keith David, Regina Hall, Malinda Williams, Chi McBride
Director: David E. Talbert
Director: David E. Talbert
Screenwriter: David E. Talbert
Producer: David E. Talbert, David McIlvain, Tim Story, Ice Cube, Matt Alvarez
Composer: Stanley Clarke
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Release:
May 6, 2008
Reviews for First Sunday
This heist comedy has a hackneyed introduction, and its feel-good ending lacks credibility, but the big, funny chunk in the middle marks writer-director-producer David E. Talbert as a talent to watch.
As tired as First Sunday is, and as shamelessly as it grovels for laughs, there's a hint of sweetness, and [director] Talbert clearly has a feel for Baltimore, where most of it was affectionately shot.
First Sunday isn’t the most refined moviemaking you’ll ever see, but it gives 2008 cinema a perfectly humane start.
First Sunday is harmless, church-approved optimism with just enough bawdy behavior to keep general audiences attentive to the lessons on right and wrong and urban fatherhood participation. It's medicine, but it's far more agreeable than I expected.
The film, written and directed by urban theater circuit playwright David E. Talbert, is far from polished, but it has a rambunctious energy that's hard to resist.
If there's a God, First Sunday will be the last of its kind for Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, who deserve better than this wannabe screwball comedy about small-time crooks knocking over a church.
Cube's maudlin, overly precious relationship with his son hits a few sour notes, but Morgan's rubbery, half-crazy Leejohn always drags the film back into its manic, cartoony groove.
Morgan butchers me every time with that overemphatic- delivery thing that makes incidental lines multiplex-leveling funny.
Devilish satire outing felons who come in gaudy three piece suits too, a sweltering church 'hotter than Satan's toenails' and Sunday sermon sidebars that all the rest makes go down easy.
The missing-church-funds subplot will be easily figured out by any four year old, but it winds up being a McGuffin anyway.
Talbert's unable to pin down exactly what kind of movie he wants to make, a slapstick sermon or an urban tragicomedy?
...didn't pry so much as a giggle from my lips until 42 minutes in...
This movie fails as a comedy, a drama, a morality play, and as a coherent motion picture. Awful stuff!
In addition to the faulty premise, which effortlessly lends itself to writer / director David E. Talbert's preachy agenda, the movie just plain isn't funny.
Everything here is overly simplified for easy digestion -- dialogue, jokes, characterization, storyline, and payoff
A near-claustrophobic comedy that manages to be both predictable and preachy.
First Sunday is a movie about forgiveness that asks its audience to forgive too much -- with regard to both its characters and its makers.
If Tyler Perry ever wanted to turn Dog Day Afternoon into a treacly after-school special, it would probably end up looking a lot like this.
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