by Karyn L. Beach

First Sunday has the distinction of being the first movie I’ve reviewed this year. The film is the screenwriting and directorial debut of playwright David E. Talbert who (like Tyler Perry) is taking his success in the theater field and parlaying it into films.

Durrell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan) are two life-long friends who can’t catch a break … and both of them could really use one. Durrell’s baby’s mother (Regina Hall) is about to relocate to Atlanta and take his son (C.J. Sanders) with him. The only thing that can convince her to stay is getting the  $17,000 she needs to save her fledging hair salon. Meanwhile LeeJohn gets wrapped up in a scheme involving a bunch of pimped out wheelchairs and ends up owing a bunch of Jamacians a whole lot of money.

After following a beautiful woman (Malinda Williams) into a church they come up with a plan to get all the money they need: rob the church. The congregation has raised an impressive amount of money in their building fund although they are split on whether they should use it on their existing church (and stay in the community) or use it to build a new church in the suburbs.

When the robbery goes wrong, Durrell and LeeJohn end up with a church full of hostages including the pastor (Chi McBride), the choir director (Katt Williams), an ambitious deacon (Michael Beach),and several stalwart church ladies (Olivia Cole and Loretta Devine).

The biggest laughs are, as I feared, in the trailer and as the trailer suggest, most of the big laughs come from Katt Williams and Tracy Morgan. I went in expecting to laugh a lot more. There just weren’t a lot of laugh out loud moments.

Then again, like his plays, Talbert is providing his audience with a mixture of comedy and drama. Tracy Morgan’s LeeJohn especially has a nice character arc. We really get to see the growth in his character and he even gets to show a little bit of range in his acting.

Talbert has something to say about fatherhood and redemption and community. I respect the fact that he got his points across primarily through the script and didn’t resort to beating us over the head with speeches and pontification too much (there is a speech at the end by one of the church ladies, Olivia Cole). Having said that, I think First Sunday would play better on the small screen.