First Sunday (2008)

Written and Directed by David E. Talbert

What can I say? I really have no defense for admitting to having paid for this film. It's a sad state of affairs that if I were black I would've had more reason to see this, because that is a flat-out insult to the entire African American culture in this country. However, it's sadly the truth, and people like David E. Talbert are not above luring their audience in by promising them a nearly all-black cast, a movie for "them" and then pulling the rug out from under them and insulting their intelligence. However, one has to question the intelligence of a person that pays to see this and goes on to say they really enjoyed it, or supports the genre as a whole. What bugs me is Ice Cube seems to have his mind set on helping to shape black culture, and then he does cookie cutter bullshit like act in this movie. So sad. Tracy Morgan, however, has no such pride, and that's part of what makes him hilarious to begin with.

The film centers on Durell Washington (Ice Cube) and Leejohn Jackson (Tracy Morgan) two bumbling petty criminals that try to get by on minor scams. The day of reckoning comes when one of their scams lands them in hot water with some mean Jamaicans, and in front of a judge to explain their stupidity. However, the judge is familiar with them, and goes easy: They get 5,000 hours of community service. Durell is a good man at heart, he wants to do right by his son and show him that he needs to be a good person. However, through a convenient (read: comically self-perpetuated racism) turn of events, Leejohn and Durell are fired from their jobs working at an electronics store, where Durell puts his talents for electrical repair to work, and he seemingly has a good job. However, the second his black boss smells something amiss, they are immediately fired with no chance for an explanation. Make no bones about it folks: despite the fact that this film was made by a black man, starring a primarily black cast, and will be seen by primarily black audiences, it is extremely racist. But more on that later on.

So out of work, the two idiots bungle their work for the Jamaicans, and end up in community service. Being the deviant men they are, they follow a woman with a nice posterior into a church, where they realize that the church is rich. To save his son from having to move to Atlanta with his mother, Durell hatches a plan with the dim-witted Leejohn to rob the church and save his son, and in the process pay back the Jamaicans Leejohn has pissed off by destroying their wheelchairs (don't ask).

If you've ever seen a movie (or the trailer for this one), you can guess what happens next. When they try to rob the church, it all goes horribly wrong because someone has already stolen the money from the church. What is painful about this film is the audience is just insulted beyond belief. I honestly can't believe self-respecting black people go to see rubbish like this, but in all fairness, I paid to see it, although I just love Tracy Morgan (more on this later as well). A character is introduced to the audience who is the deacon of the church, brought in from the outside (never trust an outsider folks, yet another moral lesson gleaned from this morally strong film[/sarcasm]) to help the church reach its goal of raising money for the community.

Well, of course, from the moment you know the money is missing, you know it's the deacon who stole it. Any person with a brain knows this, and a slightly more clever movie would try to conceal that fact better, or lead you astray. No, not this movie. Everyone sits around picking their noses exclaiming "WELL, WHO TOOK THE MONEY?!" Yeah, it's that insulting.

Worse still, Ice Cube obviously made this movie because he now has some strange affinity to play "uplifting" black characters. To show that he's not a hardened criminal, but a father with a heart of gold. Every move he makes in the film is calculated to make the rest of the characters believe he is a bad man, so they'll dismiss him as a thug, when really, he obviously wants to scream and shout "I'M GOOD GOD DAMN IT!" These plot devices are screamingly obvious, to everyone except the writer/director, I guess. This makes the character, and the premise in general, once again insulting.

Add to this mix the fact that the obviously stupid Leejohn only rebels against society because he feels like an outcast from it due to his upbringing and rough treatment as a foster child. If there were any real depth to this film, this would've made an interesting storyline, but instead it's a whole lot of boo-hooing and then a supposed punchline. The problem is anyone looking for comedy won't get the joke. They'll just a get a lot of tough guy posturing from Ice Cube, until of course he breaks and admits his true motivations, and how he wants to be known as a good guy.

Of course, in the end, his admissions and "growth" get him what he ultimately needs, the funds to keep his son in town, so he doesn't have to move to Atlanta, where Durell can't travel because of his probation. All these leaks stink so badly of racism it's not even funny. Had a white man made this, he would be gunned down in the streets. But since a black man made it, it gets the OK stamp as acceptable African American entertainment. This is insulting to everyone involved, the least of which is Katt Williams who, as the choir director, seemingly is masochistic and has hopes to ruin any semblance of a comedy career he has with his unfunny one liners, effeminate personality, and quirky theatrical personality. Still, what blows my mind is how Ice Cube can go from "Fuck the Police" to Are We Done Yet? and First Sunday in less than 20 years. I understand he makes movies for his kids (even with them) but surely there is better, more intelligent fare to do this in, that would not only be better for his career but not insulting to himself, his image, an entire race, and a subculture within this country.

As I said before, I watched this movie because I am a big Tracy Morgan fan, mainly after his work in 30 Rock, where he plays an amalgamation of himself, Martin Lawrence, and Eddie Murphy. His character takes sly jabs at these men, the work they do, and how hollow it all is. The only problem is that Tracy apparently is much like his character, and is far too daft to see any of this as such. After seeing him appear on a few morning television programs acting erratically (very stoned, I might add) this comes as no real surprise to me. However, I was still disappointed with him, he plays a watered down version of his character on 30 Rock, which is creative because of how it pokes fun at these personalities. Here, he is just playing the part that is being made fun of. Again, it's just sad really.

As I have made the point in this review, the acting is artificial and superficial, the message is insulting and insipid, the script is painfully obvious and unfunny, the filmmaking is cookie cutter quality, and the fact that this was made by black people, for black people represents the surmounting problems of black culture in America. You want to be taken seriously? Well stop making, and more importantly seeing, dreck like First Sunday. With all that said, I still laughed at a few moments in the film, but for entirely different reasons than the other 2 people that were in the theater with me. I'm giving it a semi-positive rating because of how much I like Tracy Morgan, as ultimately wasted as he was in this film. That, and I hate to admit I wasted money because I wanted to laugh at Tracy Morgan.

Did I mention that the only white character in the whole film is an overly racist, crooked District Attorney? And that Tracy Morgan's character is named Leejohn because his father could have been named either Lee or John? Yeah, I didn't think I needed to, but that's the last of my stern warnings. Listen to your first instincts, don't ignore them like I did.

4.8/10