First Sunday: Critic Reviews

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.

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

With his movie debut, Talbert plays to his established audience, the redemption message riding roughshod over everything, even such trifling concerns as character consistency and continuity.

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

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.

A sorry excuse for a ghetto SOS.

Morgan butchers me every time with that overemphatic- delivery thing that makes incidental lines multiplex-leveling funny.

Though Ice Cube and Morgan should make an ideal team, neither seems particularly comfortable grappling with Talbert's amateurish script.

It has the slapstick of a The Three Stooges short without the comic timing, the characters of "Hot Ghetto Mess" without the irony, and the stereotypes of Amos 'n' Andy without the wit.

The movie's total lack of focus and its unimpressive script should render it totally unwatchable. Weirdly, that doesn't quite happen.

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.

This anemic vehicle for Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan to mug and jive through is just weak, weak stuff.

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.

Your enjoyment of this movie may depend on the Tracy Morgan factor. Rarely has there been a comic who can switch from funny to unbearably grating with such speed.

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

Ice Cube goes cold in First Sunday, a heist comedy in which the audience gets robbed.

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.

While we can't presume to know the Lord's mind, somewhere in the footnotes to the Ten Commandments there must be a rule about not using insipid piety to excuse incompetent comedy.

The movie is designed to be uplifting and inspirational, but everything about it is tired and listless. It doesn't so much make you feel the spirit as drain it out of you.

While not all of the jokes work (in fact, some of them misfire badly), there are enough low-key chuckles to retain a light tone.

It plods along at a sluggard's pace through a weak premise with crude execution and even cruder characters to arrive at an unearned sentimental ending.

Perhaps moviegoers demand simplicity and cheap laughs more than ever during tough times, but this must be discouraging to aspiring African-American comedians and writers.

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