sddavis63 Back in the days when Beyonce still needed a last name (and so in this movie she's Beyonce Knowles) somebody decided to make a movie. It's a bad movie, about a struggling church choir that has to turn itself around to win a big gospel music competition. Yes, there's definite shades of "Sister Act" here, and the engine that moves everything forward is a storyline that was exhausted decades ago - a guy inherits a bunch of money but has to do something crazy to get it. Beyonce can sing - thankfully - and they had some half decent singers helping her out - again, thankfully, because without a little bit of half decent music to listen to this would have been a truly dismal experience.The guy who inherits the money is Darrin Hill, a New York junior ad exec who loses his job when it's discovered that he faked his resume and then heads back home to Monte Carlo, Georgia, where his great aunt has just died. Aunt Sally has left him $150,000 - on condition that he take over as leader of the choir at the church he attended as a boy and leads them to victory at "Gospel Explosion." Since Darrin happens to have a lot of debt, he agrees, even though he knows nothing about music and cares little about the church. Darrin is played by Cuba Gooding, Jr., who looked miscast and uncomfortable in the role from beginning to end. Beyonce played Lilly, whom Darrin knew as a child at the church and who's now a lounge singer whom Darrin recruits to be the lead singer. Neither are welcomed by the pastor's sister (LaTanya Richardson), who has been the head of the choir and who basically runs the church and runs roughshod over her pastor brother (Wendell Pierce), since she sees both as unrepentant sinners, a feeling that grows as Darrin recruits anyone and everyone from the local barber to a bunch of prison inmates to help out. Richardson's character of Paulina is the absolutely required hypocritical church member - because there has to be a mean, nasty, hypocritical Christian in any movie featuring a church.If it weren't for the music (some of which is entertaining) dreadful would be sufficient to sum this movie up. The music raises it up one level to just plain awful. There's no charm in it, and while there are a few humorous scenes near the beginning, by a half hour in this has become a chore to try to watch. Eventually this becomes just plain irritating as we wait for what we know is going to be the inevitable outcome, hoping to just get this over with as soon as possible. For some absolutely mystifying reason, the cast even included as a choir member Rue McClanahan, who has virtually no lines, making me wonder if the producers just felt they needed a recognizable white face in this - because I honestly can't think of a single thing she contributed to the movie other than - well - a recognizable white face. (2/10)

smooth_op_85 Not one of his absolute best but a nice one. I would have to say that the church plays a great part of black culture and this is more of a movie with Christian themes as opposed to a Christian movie. WIth that said, this is a nice movie and while I think the 'bootyologist' scene was a bit much, it is in fact a bit Seinfeldian but it is a convo I think that is tailored for blacks. I would also say that this is a movie that is with a tradition of going to the hometown in order to recover a bit of yourself you lost in the city and a lost love you always wanted as in the case of Darrin and Lily who wanted to marry Michael Jackson but ended up with Darrin at the end was a pretty nice tie in. This is not a preachy movie while keeping up some Christian themes and the soundtrack is amazing as well. I would recommend it to anyone who like Gospel as well as a cute film, I would be a little hesitant to say it's a chick flick, but it would be considered one though it is from a man's point of view.

movietrail To my surprise, this was not a movie about the Temptations.This is one of those cute "black" movies that makes white people wish they were black so they could have so much fun -- and I don't necessarily mean that in a cynical way. Others that come to mind are "The Preacher's Wife", "The Five Heartbeats"... I like movies like this, if only for relief from always seeing the same white actors on screen.Of course, just like all Hollywood movies, it is total fantasy, and this one even more so seeing as it it was made by MTV (just check out the number of deleted music sequences on the DVD!).And if you love gospel music (even some who don't), you will love this movie, despite the fact that it looks like the songs were written first and a script later to patch them all together, taking many shameless cues from "Sister Act" -- both One and Two.The script is pretty lame in many parts -- mostly with Cuba Gooding's lines -- and the punch depends on the goings-on of mostly bit parts. LaTanya Richards as Paulina is extremely convincing as the self-righteous church treasurer, but there are no really strong protagonists (the only one around dies in the first fifteen minutes) so she pretty much controls the plot single- handedly.The movie is all about cameos. Cameos, cameos cameos!! Even Shirley Caeser plays (who else?) herself ! ! They might as well have called Beyonce Beyonce and Cuba Cuba.One other good thing I can say for the movie is the positive mixing of races it shows, among so many movies that tend to show mainly conflict among them. In my experience, the kind of mixing as shown in this movie is the real world, rather than the 99.9% black "Preacher's Wife", or for that matter 100% whiteness of so many movies. Sure, it may be fantasy (there is absolutely no racial tension present in this movie despite so much mingling), but I root for the positive image it projects.If you are a cynic, this movie is not for you, but if you need some warm fuzzies, go for it!

Webslinger48 Cuba Gooding Jr., purveyor of truly awful films such as "Boat Trip", "Snow Dogs" and "Chill Factor", has reached new depths with his latest offering, "The Fighting Temptations". He has now officially squandered any last remnants of goodwill he had left from his Oscar win for "Jerry Maguire" (his good movie) in 1997.I caught this film on an airplane flight from NY to LA, and let me tell you...even then I felt like I had wasted my time! Because I could have stared straight ahead at the seat in front of me and been more entertained! Other reviewers are defending this movie by talking about how great the music is. Fine, buy the soundtrack but whatever you do...DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE! Good music does not a good movie make! Go see Blues Brothers, which is a superior movie, plus has Gospel music sung by James Brown! Who, in case you were wondering, makes Beyonce Knowles look like...well, Beyonce Knowles! The acting in Temptations is beyond awful all around (Beyonce, we hardly knew ye) the insipid plot is embarrassingly predictable (guess who wins the gospel competition at the end of the film) and this movie has the distinction of having perhaps the fakest corporate meeting in the history of phony movie corporate meetings.Are we supposed to care about any of these characters? Gooding's character is a habitual liar that fakes his resume, leads a gospel choir because he wants his aunt's inheritance, and shamelessly hits on Beyonce Knowles. And we're supposed to care about him because...? But if you aren't looking for things such as plot, good acting or a well-written script, then by all means buy this DVD and put it on your shelf next to "Gigli", "Battlefield Earth", "From Justin to Kelly", and "Glitter", other films you must surely own.