Summary:
Cuba Gooding Jr, plays Darren, a morally vacant advertising executive
swimming in credit card debt in upscale New York,
travels back to his small southern town in Alabama to attend his aunt's
funeral--and more so, to cash in on an inheritance. However, soon thereafter, he
discovers that in order to collect, he must first lead the local church gospel
choir to success at a southern competition. Darren embarks
on the abysmal challenge of turning the choir of lackluster
parishioners into Gospel gold. In order to rejuvenate the locals, he
searches for the best voices in town and finds them in the most unconventional places: the county jail, the barbershop, an R&B dance club,
and several points in between. Along the way, he works to win the heart of Terri
(Beyonce Knowles), a beautiful single mother with a voice of satin, who turns his mission
around.
Review:
The movie begins with a beautiful gospel opening in the ideal Baptist
church. It's the church everybody dreams of attending. Great gospel singing,
high energy, and an eccentric minister.
Many African American comedies have a lot of cameos from high profile
black actors. Unfortunately in the process these comedies lose focus and
distract audiences from the actual plot. But, there are other films which do
a good job of incorporating cameos by accentuating their real-life talents.
For instance, Barbershop did a good job of scripting Cedric the
Entertainer as the crazy barber using his talents as a comedian. The
Fighting Temptations does a good job of scripting Faith Evans, Beyonce,
and Eddie Levert as singers in this movie. It might be due to type-casting
but its more convincing when talented people play roles utilizing their
real-life talents. Oh yeah who knew that Cuba Gooding Jr is an excellent
break dancer.
The best thing about this movie is that the music only gets better as the
movie continues. Through little innovative twists (rap, soul R&B, etc)
the melodies and variations produce "cool" songs. With Beyonce
playing the lead the film tries to platform Beyonce's mainstream
success into box office dollars. Unfortunately the problem with that is,
music is a preference. Some people prefer alternative music, rap, R&B,
etc. But if you enjoy gospel music with a small influences of R&B and
rap this a movie which will sing to your soul and make you laugh along the
way.
See this movie if you're a fan of:
Barbershop (2002)
Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
Beyonce Knowles (Singer/Actress, Goldmember)
Cuba Gooding Jr (Actor, Radio, Snow Dogs, Men of Honor, Pearl Harbor)
Jonathan Lynn (Director, The Whole Nine Yards, Distinguished Gentlemen)
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