Is there a pie in the world without one of Ice Cube’s fingers in it? The man’s just unstoppable, he’s a rapper, a song writer, an actor as well as a movie writer/producer/director who also has his own film company! Thankfully in First Sunday he didn’t take on too much, he was only acting and producing! Written and directed by David E. Talbert (Love on Layaway & The fabric of a Man), the film is billed as a comedy/crime caper and tells the story of two men trying to catch a break.
The film opens with Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan) working in a TV repair shop. Durell seems to have a knack for repairing broken electricals, but LeeJohn’s talents seem to lie elsewhere (more in trying to steal the TVs that come in!). After LeeJohn manages to get the pair fired, Durell finds it hard to find another job due to a history of minor crime, a past that he’s trying to put behind him. When his ex-girlfriend tells him she needs $17,000 to pay her salon rent a year in advance, or she’s taking his son and moving to Atlanta desperation sets in.
Unfortunately LeeJohn hasn’t finished getting the pair into trouble. He manages to get a job, form some unsavory characters, shipping some pimped up wheelchairs across town. In true Leejohn style he manages to thoroughly mess this up as well and manages to get the pair arrested. A somewhat lenient judge decides not to send them to jail, but to give them 5000 hours of community service instead. Whilst serving this community service the pair follow an extremely attractive young lady into a nearby church. When it’s announced that the church has managed to raise over $230,000 it gives Leejohn the idea to rob it.
As ever, LeeJohn’s idea isn’t the best thought out and during their late night robbery it turns out that the Church isn’t empty. Before they can get the safe open and scarper with the loot, someone walks in and they’re forced to hold the senior members of the church, as well as some of the choir, hostage. What should have been a smash and grab has now become a bit more complicated and gets further complicated when they eventually get the safe open to find that one of the hostages has beaten them to it and already pinched the cash! The only thing for it is to try and figure out who stole the cash, find where they hid it and escape. Will they find the cash? Will they steal from God? You’ll just have to watch the film to find out!
This film, whilst entertaining, isn’t without its problems. If we focus in on the main characters, Ice Cube plays it very straight, but then let’s face it he’s not got a great acting range and always plays it straight, whilst his friend LeeJohn is a complete idiot (but you can’t blame Tracy Morgan for this, the character is written as an idiot). The problem that I had with it was that Durell was actually a sensible guy, you just couldn’t see how these two remained friends, particularly after LeeJohn gets them in trouble time after time after time. Durell even listens to LeeJohn’s stupid Church robbing plan after all that and goes along with it! These two are the main characters and are fleshed out pretty well, Ice Cube’s acting, whilst not great at the comedy bits, is good enough to make you sympathise with him. He really does love his son and will do anything to prevent loosing him. It isn’t until half way through the film that we’re really introduced to the rest of the cast, when Durell and LeeJohn take the church members hostage. As such these characters aren’t as well defined as our main protagonists, but notable characters are the very understanding and calm pastor (Chi McBride) and his daughter Tianna (Malinda Williams) the church Deacon (Michael Beach) and the choir leader Ricky (Katt Williams).
The main plot is an interesting one, we have a couple of well developed characters (even if one is a complete idiot) and I’m not going to give it away, but the film has a very nice feel good ending (I’m a sucker for a feel good ending!). To pitch the film as light entertainment I could believe, to pitch it as a comedy is stretching it a bit. I can’t actually remember any laugh out loud moments, I can remember a couple of chuckles and maybe a few smiles, but that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong, I found the film entertaining, but if you’re expecting to be rolling on the floor you’re going to be sadly disappointed. I’d have completely slated the film as a comedy if it weren’t for the performance of Katt Williams. His choir master steals the show in the comedy stakes and the chuckles I mentioned were all for him.
As a Blu Ray this was a pretty strong release. The picture was clear and crisp (due to a 1080p AVC MPEG-4 transfer), colours were consistently good and blacks were pretty strong throughout. Sound-wise the UK release gets the English TrueHD track that the US release has, as well as a Spanish TrueHD track and Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Russian 5.1 tracks. Extras are the same as the DVD, but there are quite a few of them. Ones of note are a nice commentary from writer/director David E. Talbert, deleted scenes with commentary, blooper reel (I do like a good blooper reel! Unfortunately this is no Jackie Chan blooper reel!) and the Katt Williams Outtakes (as well as the blooper reel).
All in all I found the film entertaining. I was disappointed until about half way through as I was maybe expecting a laugh out loud comedy. Once I’d resolved the fact that it just wasn’t going to happen, I started to enjoy the film for what it is. The film is worth watching to see the journey taken by Durell, just try not to let the LeeJohn character annoy you too much!
First Sunday is out on DVD and Blu Ray from July 21st.