FIRST SUNDAY directed by David E Talbert. 98 minutes. Rating: NN
This preachy urban comedy mishandles its social rehabilitation message while sneaking in a crude transvestite joke here and more fat jokes there. Ice Cube lends his customary growl to the role of a downtrodden ex-convict who dares to rob a church and then holds its congregation hostage with the aid of his over-the-top sidekick (Tracy Morgan).
The few laughs earned by bit players like Katt Williams’s chichi choir leader do not redeem this movie’s convoluted and illogical plot turns. Only in First Sunday can a weak-willed outsider like Cube’s pistol-packing sacrilegious collection-grabber be hastily handed both divine and legal forgiveness. This is that leap-of-faith kind of movie.
