Katt Williams steals Ice Cube's show in 'Sunday'
Katt Williams, playing a church choir leader who minces everything but his words, inhabits a state somewhere between opium torpor and five-latte high.
The press notes for "First Sunday" refer to his character, Rickey, as "flamboyant" and "eccentric," which are code words for the sort of old-school swish that used to flit through "In Living Color" at a time when politically incorrect humor was just beginning to gather steam.
Williams blithely walks off with the second half of "First Sunday," which more or less walks in place until he arrives. 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.
Ice Cube's Durell and Morgan's LeeJohn operate by the vaudeville comedy team rulebook: LeeJohn paints them into impossible corners and Durell gripes sullenly about what a fine mess his friend has gotten them into. Durell is under particular duress after the pair complete a sentence for their latest misdemeanor. A deadbeat dad who can't get arrested by an honest employer, Durell will lose his son if he can't raise the cash to keep the boy's mom (Regina Hall, flouting bling earrings the size of trapeze swings) from moving to Atlanta.
After a hot wheelchair delivery gig goes awry and Durell is faced with even more debt and 5,000 hours of community service, LeeJohn convinces him that they should rip off a church. One glance at the church's slicked-out deacon (Michael Beach) should indicate to the lugheads that they're up against a bigger crook than they could dream of becoming. They rush in blindly, and find themselves with a hostage party that includes a well-meaning pastor (Chi McBride), his daughter Tianna (Malinda Williams) and choir leader Rickey.
Playing straight man to Morgan's top banana, Ice Cube risks alienating the movie audience along with his captives. Durell is as dull and unsympathetic an everyman as he has ever attempted, and the character's inevitable redemption feels unearned: a credit to the forgiveness of the church's faithful, rather than the credulity of director David E. Talbert's script.
Having created a buddy comedy with two ineffectual buddies at its center, Talbert overcompensates with his ace in the hole, Williams. The director stretches a gospel number to the snapping point in order to give the comedian hamming time, and frantically cuts back to him during the climactic courtroom scene to deliver one too many withering zingers.
The stars don't stand a chance with a one-man comedy bandit like Williams, disarming everyone in sight with a devilish slow burn that announces "This is a shtick-up."
TITLE: “First Sunday”CAST: Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Katt Williams, Loretta Devine, Chi McBride, Malinda WilliamsDIRECTOR: David E. TalbertRATED: PG-13 for language, some sexual humor, and brief drug referencesGRADE: * * (out of 5)
