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Movies / On DVD / First Sunday
First Sunday

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First Sunday (2008)

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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.

Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

Genre: Comedies

US 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

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for First Sunday

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
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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.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment 1 Comment
01/11/08
Dezhda Gaubert
Dezhda Gaubert
E! Online

A cringe-inducing, cinematic tribute to the Golden Age of Minstrelsy!

Full Review Source: AALBC.com | comment 1 Comment
01/12/08
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
AALBC.com

Ice Cube is now Public Enemy Number Fun, although First Sunday is only fun if you're in dire need of a modernist urban take on the strain of comedy Abbott and Costello used to practice, which, let's be honest, wasn't that funny to begin with.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment 1 Comment
02/01/08
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

Shrug off the recycled script and the movie's trite if uplifting, message and recognize the signs of stardom to come. It won't be too many Sundays before David E. Talbert finds his funny film niche and Katt Williams becomes a top billed star.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment 1 Comment
01/10/08
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

Tired, unfunny comedy with Ice Cube as a bungling crook.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
03/28/08
Sun Online

In First Sunday, Ice Cube departs a bit from the upright-citizen persona, playing a man driven to crime by desperate circumstances.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/10/08
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The missing-church-funds subplot will be easily figured out by any four year old, but it winds up being a McGuffin anyway.

Full Review Source: MSNBC | comment Comment
05/01/08
Alonso Duralde
Alonso Duralde
MSNBC

Talbert's unable to pin down exactly what kind of movie he wants to make, a slapstick sermon or an urban tragicomedy?

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
01/29/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
01/10/08
Andrea Gronvall
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader

...didn't pry so much as a giggle from my lips until 42 minutes in...

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
01/10/08
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

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.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/10/08
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

First Sunday isn’t the most refined moviemaking you’ll ever see, but it gives 2008 cinema a perfectly humane start.

Full Review Source: New York Press | comment Comment
01/16/08
Armond White
Armond White
New York Press

This movie fails as a comedy, a drama, a morality play, and as a coherent motion picture. Awful stuff!

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
08/26/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: FromTheBalcony | comment Comment
01/10/08
Bill Clark
Bill Clark
FromTheBalcony

Everything here is overly simplified for easy digestion -- dialogue, jokes, characterization, storyline, and payoff

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/10/08
Bill Gibron
Bill Gibron
Filmcritic.com

A near-claustrophobic comedy that manages to be both predictable and preachy.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/07/08
Brian Lowry
Brian Lowry
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
01/10/08
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com

First Sunday is a movie about forgiveness that asks its audience to forgive too much -- with regard to both its characters and its makers.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
01/11/08
Chris Kaltenbach
Chris Kaltenbach
Baltimore Sun

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.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
01/17/08
Chris Nashawaty
Chris Nashawaty
Entertainment Weekly

With plot holes the size of boulders, it's a bad effort at wacky humor and schmaltzy redemption that plods and preaches gratingly.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
01/11/08
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
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