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rating)
Rated PG-13; running time of 120 minutes
Genre:Musical Comedy
Written by: Elizabeth Hunter and Saladin K. Patterson
Directed by: Jonathan Lynn
Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Beyoncé Knowles, Mike Epps, LaTanya Richardson, Wendell Pierce, Steve Harvey
WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW.
The Digest
Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is a junior ad executive who has a money problems. He is ducking and dodging creditors. He uses one card to pay off the other. It is for this reason he desperately sells out the black community by convincing his client to pander liquor to the inner city. This gamble pays of and he is promoted - for a minute. As a rising star in the company his background is thoroughly checked out and it is discovered that he has lied about his entire background. On top of that, his last living relative, Aunt Sally (Anne Nesby) has passed away and he has to go back home to rural Georgia to bury her and listen to the reading of her will.
At the reading of her will, it seems that all his problems are over. Aunt Sally leaves him all of her stock worth $150,000.00 all he has to do is direct the church choir to a win at The Gospel Explosion. This seems easy enough except for the fact that Paulina Pritchett (LaTanya Richardson) has always wanted to direct the choir and is jealous because she can't and is thwarting him at every turn. This is compounded by the fact that she is the sister of the pastor and has him wrapped around her finger andhe follows her lead, even if it means running Darrin's mother out of church which she did 20 years earlier.
The other notable problem is that they don't have much of a choir. So before he can win the contest he has to build a choir and he starts with the beautiful Lily (Beyoncé Knowles) who has 2 strikes against her as far as the church is concerned. She sings vampy secular music and she is an unwed mother. Will Darrin have enough patience to see this task through or will he just cast it aside and fight for his former job?
The Dish
I understand why critics are being so hard on this movie, but I don't understand their primary reason. I guess it's all about expectations. With the exception of a few folks, the acting experience of the cast is very minimal. I didn't expect to go in and see the best acting I've ever seen. Of those with experience; Cuba is inconsistent so I was prepared for that. Mike Epps and Steve Harvey are clowns, so I expected them to make me laugh - they did. I was pleasantly surprised with LaTanya Richardson, she seemed to channeled Cruella Deville and Nurse Ratchett and it was extremely funny to me. Beyoncé is still learning the ropes, but I'm still mildly impressed. I was a little disappointed in Melba Moore’s performance since she is a stage actress. She turned in a very under whelming and lukewarm performance.
However. I do agree that this movie some fails. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to use inexperienced talent, you need to make up for it in story and plot. If we are going to quietly suffer through sub-par acting shouldn't we at least be entitled to a decent story? I don't think that is too much to ask for. The music while awesome, just wasn't enough to make up for the lack of a decent plot.
The Directive
See it for the music, take Grandma, but catch a matinee.
I wish the writers had been tempted to write a better story.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2003
EMAIL: thediva@3blackchicks.com
ICQ: 8690410
http://www.3blackchicks.com/
