The ending seems either a catering to studio influence or an effort to keep the film at a certain length as it falls short of Talbert's usual standard of writing.

| Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 7, 2020

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 4, 2011

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. Instead it treads water safely in the middle, and it shows.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 22, 2011

Perhaps moviegoers demand simplicity and cheap laughs more than ever during tough times, but this must be discouraging to aspiring African-American comedians and writers.

| Original Score: 48/100 | Apr 26, 2009

This movie fails as a comedy, a drama, a morality play, and as a coherent motion picture. Awful stuff!

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Aug 26, 2008

If it was not for Morgan's goofy character or Katt Williams, I would be giving this movie a zero.

| Original Score: 1/5 | May 17, 2008

Devilish satire outing felons who come in gaudy three piece suits too, a sweltering church 'hotter than Satan's toenails' and Sunday sermon sidebars that all the rest makes go down easy.

| May 3, 2008

The missing-church-funds subplot will be easily figured out by any four year old, but it winds up being a McGuffin anyway.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 1, 2008

With his movie debut, Talbert plays to his established audience, the redemption message riding roughshod over everything, even such trifling concerns as character consistency and continuity.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 28, 2008

Tired, unfunny comedy with Ice Cube as a bungling crook.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 28, 2008

The least funny man ever to make a career in comedy movies, Ice Cube hauls his sullen mug back in front of the cameras for the execrable First Sunday.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 28, 2008

Cube's maudlin, overly precious relationship with his son hits a few sour notes, but Morgan's rubbery, half-crazy Leejohn always drags the film back into its manic, cartoony groove.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 28, 2008

On your own day of judgement, select a better film from the listings.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 28, 2008

Loretta Devine and Olivia Cole shine out as veteran members of the flock, but even their class combined is no saving grace.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 28, 2008

Seasoned stars such as Loretta Devine and Regina Hall do their best...but it's an uphill struggle with a script even the good lord would rent asunder.

| Mar 28, 2008

Grafting moral uplift on to a slapstick caper with mixed results, this nevertheless captures some of the giddy eccentricity of the Ealing comedies it haphazardly resembles.

| Original Score: 2/6 | Mar 28, 2008

With its unlikely but sweet-natured story, 'First Sunday' is a cut above most of the "January junk" that floods the theaters this time of year.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 24, 2008

Getting religion in the end is no excuse for a parade of bad taste.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 22, 2008

Ice Cube is now Public Enemy Number Fun, although First Sunday is only fun if you're in dire need of a modernist urban take on the strain of comedy Abbott and Costello used to practice, which, let's be honest, wasn't that funny to begin with.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 1, 2008

Talbert's unable to pin down exactly what kind of movie he wants to make, a slapstick sermon or an urban tragicomedy?

| Original Score: C | Jan 29, 2008