‘First Sunday’

Rating: 2/10

Starring: Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Katt Williams

The Plot:

Durell (Cube) and LeeJohn (Morgan) are two criminals who need money fast. Durell needs it to prevent his son’s mother from taking him to Atlanta and LeeJohn needs it to pay back Rastafarians. But in a desperate attempt to a rob a church for the money, they get more than they bargained for in the form of divine intervention.

The Good:

The only thing salvageable from this horrible film is Williams. As a loud and emotional church choir leader, the stand-up comedian steals the whole movie from regularly funny Morgan. Like his role in “Friday After Next,” Williams continues his streak of making a mediocre movie a little more tolerable with his performance.

The Bad:

Morgan is miscast as Ice Cube’s goofball sidekick. It’s a role that seems like it was tailored for Ice Cube’s usual partner, Mike Epps. Morgan seems oddly out of place. This is not the typical bizarre Tracy Morgan humor from “SNL” or “30 Rock.” This is the restrained and safe humor found in 2003’s short-lived sitcom “The Tracy Morgan Show.”

The Lowdown:

It’s only two weeks into 2008 and there is already a candidate for worst movie of the year. “First Sunday” is a confused, train wreck of a movie that doesn’t know whether or not it wants to be a typical ‘hood comedy in the form of “Friday” or a melodramatic heart warmer close to what Tyler Perry does. One thing is for sure: It fails on trying to be equally humorous and sentimental. Instead, it is a 90-minute commentary on the role of positivism in the ghetto.

We are introduced to the two lead characters years into their criminal careers. They’ve been doing nothing with their lives except stealing and coasting by. The characters are still jovial and irreverent even though it seems like their lives are meaningless and uneventful. Somehow, we are supposed to relate to this unlikable duo and see the logic in them robbing a church.

The filmmakers hope to rely on the audience’s naïve attitude to progress the story. We are forced to conclude that these two men are just products of their environments and we would do the same thing too. This train of thought ruins the movie’s conflict.

The dragged-out scene in the church is some of the most clichéd and unintentionally funny dialogue ever written. At one point the comedy stops, and a discussion of morality and human decency begins. Whether it be fate or faith, once the conclusion comes around, no one cares.

This is the type of movie where everyone seems to be out of their element. Ice Cube, who used to have good days just by not having to use his AK, is not convincing as a brash criminal with a soft side. Tracy Morgan is not the right choice for a part that feels like it was written for DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Part heist movie, part tearjerker, part stereotypical ‘growing up in the hood’ drama, “First Sunday” cannot do it all. Even a cameo from Tiffany “New York” Pollard cannot save this horrible mesh of overused premises.

Seeing “First Sunday” made me want to find God, but for all the wrong reasons.