45.9%
Based on 34 Reviews
Movie Info
Released:
January 11, 2008
Runtime:
1hr 38min
Director:
David E. Talbert
Writer:
David E. Talbert
Cast:
Ice Cube , Regina Hall, P.J. Byrne, Katt Williams, Malinda Williams
Rating:
PG-13 for language, some sexual humor, and brief drug references.
Plot:
Durell and LeeJohn are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. When told they have one week to pay a $17,000 debt or Durell will lose his son, they come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church.
74.0% Boston Herald Stephen Schaefer
First Sunday, written and directed with gleeful disregard for political correctness, never stops moving as it morphs from a street comedy to Agatha Christie takeoff to Tyler Perry sendup.
68.0% St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Holleman
What can one say about First Sunday, a comedy with a silly plot, unimaginative script and an ending visible from a mile away?
62.5% Reel Views James Berardinelli
While not all of the jokes work (in fact, some of them misfire badly), there are enough low-key chuckles to retain a light tone.
62.5% San Antonio Express-News Larry Ratliff
First Sunday, a self-described "funny and heartwarming comedy," stumbles in the comedy department, but fills the heart's collection plate with a strong inspirational finish.
62.5% Star Tribune (Minneapolis) Colin Covert
The film, written and directed by urban theater circuit playwright David E. Talbert, is far from polished, but it has a rambunctious energy that's hard to resist.
56.0% Atlanta Journal-Constitution Bob Longino
If God can't take a joke, Ice Cube's First Sunday might be in trouble.
56.0% A.V. Club Nathan Rabin
First Sunday pits the street against the church, but somehow, affable mediocrity wins the day.
56.0% Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
First Sunday is a movie about forgiveness that asks its audience to forgive too much - with regard to both its characters and its makers.
56.0% E! Online Dezhda Mountz
If there's a God, First Sunday will be the last of its kind for Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, who deserve better than this wannabe screwball comedy about small-time crooks knocking over a church.
50.0% Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
The movie's total lack of focus and its unimpressive script should render it totally unwatchable. Weirdly, that doesn't quite happen.
50.0% Coming Soon Joshua Starnes
First Sunday isn't an out and out bad film, but to be a good one it would need to either greatly raise the dramatic steaks, or push its comedic boundaries over the top in conception.
50.0% Hollywood.com Brian Marder
Apart from a few admittedly uproarious moments, First Sunday is somewhat blasphemous -- to the church and to comedy.
50.0% Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Mack Bates
First Sunday is saddled with a host of one-dimensional characters in search of a point.
50.0% Newsday Jan Stuart
The ostensible stars of this barely passable comedy are Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, who impersonate a couple of Baltimore losers with a talent for embellishing their criminal records.
50.0% New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Though Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan should make an ideal team, neither seems particularly comfortable grappling with David Talbert's amateurish script.
50.0% Orange County Register Craig Outhier
After his dubious flirtation with sippy-cups and neutered family humor in the Are We There Yet?series, Ice Cube is back on the gat, and that's a good thing, right?
50.0% Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Michael Machosky
The ending -- pushing a positive message of forgiveness -- is too ridiculously handled, even for a silly comedy.
50.0% San Diego Union-Tribune David Elliott
Ice Cube earns his name. He has an almost hibernating hum, glowering in his take on the old Brando and Mitchum routines, his aura of boredom radiating cool.
50.0% San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Ice Cube has been taking a lot of heat in recent years for abandoning his tough guy image in exchange for Hollywood stardom, and First Sunday appears to be a compromise.
40.0% IGN Stax
As a comedy, First Sunday isn't especially funny -- indeed, there are no memorable gags in it save for a predictable massage parlor visit -- and is only slightly more involving as a drama.
40.0% Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore
Ice Cube reaches back for a little of his old Fridayedge with First Sunday, a junky but sometimes funny comedy about robbing a church.
40.0% Providence Journal Michael Janusonis
Writer-director David E. Talbert said he shot First Sunday in Baltimore because he knows the city well. Curiously, however, there’s no feel at all for that quirky burg.
37.5% Boston Globe Wesley Morris
First Sunday is a sorry excuse for a ghetto SOS.
37.5% Kansas City Star Jason Heck
First Sunday isn’t a good movie. It tries far too hard and achieves far too little. The laughs it causes are guilty ones, but not that guilty, because there aren’t that many.
37.5% New York Post Kyle Smith
Ice Cube goes cold in First Sunday, a heist comedy in which the audience gets robbed.
37.5% Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The movie's message - that violence and thuggery are bad, as well as putting the blame on others instead of taking responsibility for one's actions - well, who can argue with that?
37.5% Seattle Times Ted Fry
Both plot and comedy devolve into complete idiocy during a final courtroom scene that tidies things up with stunning foolishness.
37.5% Slant Magazine Nick Schager
On the basis of First Sunday, it would seem writer-director David E. Talbert has been keeping close tabs on the creative recipe for success concocted by Tyler Perry.
37.5% TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The film's few, small laughs come at the expense of broad stereotypes.
37.5% USA Today Claudia Puig
First Sunday is a misguided attempt at comedy that needs to go last on anyone's list of movie options.
32.0% Fresno Bee Eriq Martin
When I saw the preview for First Sunday, I knew right then that it was going to be bad. I was wrong. This movie wasn't just bad -- it was fall-asleep-in-the-theater bad.
25.0% Toronto Star Philip Marchand
The emphasis definitely falls on the sentimental side of the equation, since the movie isn't very funny.
20.0% Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's become increasingly difficult to recall that Ice Cube was once upon a time one of the most incendiary and trenchant voices in hip-hop.
10.0% Metromix Matt Pais
First Sunday has more bathroom humor than an elementary school cafeteria and so many stereotypes up the wazoo that the wazoo is officially full.
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