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Ever since Durell (Ice Cube) was a kid, he’s been in some kind of trouble. He may have been a smart and resourceful kid, but he always ended up involved in some kind of scheme with his best friend, LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan). Now, he can’t even get a job—and unless he can somehow get his hands on $17,000, his ex is going to pack up and move his son to Atlanta.
Since LeeJohn is also in debt (following yet another scam gone wrong), he’s looking to make a quick buck, too—and when they stumble into the neighborhood church one Sunday morning, LeeJohn gets another brilliant idea. But when Durell and LeeJohn try to rob the church, they find an empty safe and a church full of bickering staff members.
Though First Sunday does have a few funny moments, they’re few and far between. Mostly, it relies on bad stereotypes, unfunny one-liners, and constant bickering for its [cheap] laughs. There isn’t much of a story at all, so most of the movie is just chatty, self-conscious padding—and that makes the whole thing feel like a skit that’s gone on way too long. After a while, you just want everyone to stop yelling at each other and get on with the story already—but, unfortunately, they never do.
Ice Cube is about as solid as he can be as Durell, the reluctant crook with a heart of gold. But it’s not all that easy to like a character who’s supposed to be smart guy and a devoted father—but who’s still so easily persuaded to do just one more job with a dim-witted friend who probably wouldn’t know a good decision if it kicked him in the head. And are we really supposed to feel bad for a couple of guys who keep avoiding jail time by looking pathetic and playing up on their unfortunate childhood, only to head back out to the streets to rob a church? It doesn’t help, either, that Morgan is all over the place as LeeJohn—sometimes playing his character as an idiotic, overgrown juvenile delinquent, while other times playing him like a poor, misguided little boy who never even had a birthday party.
It’s hard to tell what writer/director David E. Talbert was shooting for when he set out to make First Sunday. Was it supposed to be wild and crazy comedy? Because, thanks to all the yelling, it’s definitely wild and crazy—but it’s not all that funny. Was it supposed to be a light comedy with a heartwarming message about God’s love and forgiveness? Because the message is pretty fuzzy—and I think that warming feeling in my heart was actually more of a burn.
With more bickering than an episode of Springer and a whole cast of actors trying really, really hard to be funny but rarely succeeding, First Sunday is pretty rough—even for a brainless January comedy. Since paying to see it will only encourage filmmakers to crank out more movies just like it (movies that I’ll then be forced to watch), I’m begging you to skip it.
