User reviews

I can not believe I almost forgot to write about this film. It was a rare one that I really enjoyed. It had some funny moments and some great music. Now I'm not saying this movie was perfect b/c it was far from it but it was very entertaining and sometimes that is what a movie is supposed to be. The acting was okay and Beyonce is not bad at acting and is great at singing. The plot was nothing monumental but it dealt with something my wife was actually going through at the time. I will definitely own this movie.

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!

This is one of Cuba Gooding's best performances in years. Mr. Gooding has been on a dry run since his Oscar win in the supporting category for Tom Cruise's famous line-Show me the money!

This is basically a fun film. Cuba Gooding, recently fired from his job, returns to Georgia for the funeral of his beloved Aunt Sally. That funeral scene in the church is just memorably realized.

Gooding captures the part of the not so competent worker, with a kind and understanding heart.

He can keep the inheritance providing that he does something is an old Hollywood line. This time, it's the taking up of the choir.

LaTanya Richardson gives a stoic performance as the holier than thou choir leader who looks to trip the Gooding character up so that she can maintain her position. She is just great as one who preaches reverence but has strayed herself.

Beyonce Knowles belts it out. Of course, her rendition of fever can't be compared to that of the great Peggy Lee.

High-class New York advertising executive Cuba Gooding, Jr. is fired for lying on his resume (firing someone for that is about as dumb as firing someone for killing a cockroach). Immediately following that he learns that his elderly aunt has died. He decides to go back to the town of his youth, a place he has always been ashamed of, and finds out that she wanted him to take over the job of conducting the choir in the local Baptist Church. Gooding does not show much interest until he learns that $150,000 is involved. Thus he passes himself off as a musical specialist with hit-and-miss comedic results. Beyonce Knowles sizzles, as she always seems to do, as a cocktail bar singer who has been banned from the congregation for having a child out of wedlock. Needless to say, the choir needs her though and it becomes apparent that Gooding needs her as well. Wendell Pierce is impressive as the church's minister and his annoying sister (LaTanya Richardson) ends up being the villain here. Lots of energy from the cast and some admittedly great vocals are not enough to endear "The Fighting Temptations". The main problems are Gooding's uneven character (it is hard to always like him) and a seemingly endless running time (going just over two hours, too long for a movie like this). Knowles is the greatest reason to watch. She downs Pepsi Colas and sings her heart out with vigor and intensity. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

The song and dance and high energy expressions of faith and joy were a delight-- too bad the plot didn't have as much going for it.

Cuba Gooding is a remarkably talented guy, as in fact, were many of the cast members... the script just didn't give them much to work with. The plot is predictable and formulaic-- which isn't necessarily a terrible thing if it never-the-less shows you a really good time anyway. This movie tries to, but just falls flat whenever the music stops.

It was worth watching for the rousing good music, but certainly not something I feel any need to add to my dvd collection and ever watch again.

Excellent gospel music and some other musical gems highlight this otherwise poor excuse for a film. The music is as good as it gets. So good I just might buy my first gospel cd ever. But the goods stop there, with the possible exception of Beyonce who manages a decent acting performance to go with some superb vocals. Actually, the supporting cast is likable for the most part and do an okay job. However, Cuba Gooding Jr. was completely abysmal, almost as bad as the screenplay. The story itself is implausible, the jokes are stale and the dialogue is boring. Yet, the music was so much fun, I am glad that I saw it and would recommend it to others. Just fast forward through all parts where they are not singing. Believe me you won't miss anything worth seeing.

This movie is a very sloppy one. The story is filled with some unlikely events and characters and the directing and especially editing is seriously flawed mostly. Still thanks to its music, this movie still has some entertainment value and also somewhat still works as a 'feel good movie'.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the movie is that the comedy and drama elements of the movie are not balanced out very well. At times the movie can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama. A result of this is that most of the comedy feels out of place and seriously mistimed. The movie becomes never funny to watch because of this but the warm feel good atmosphere of the movie still somewhat compensates for this.

Cuba Gooding Jr. seriously needs to start looking for another agent. I mean this is an Oscar winning actor but yet he appears in movies like "Chill Factor", "Pearl Harbor" and "Boat Trip"? I mean, what's up with that? He deserves to play better roles in better movies. This movie is also one of those movies in which he feels out of place. I know he can play comical roles well but in this movie he just never gets enough opportunity to show this. As a matter of fact, none of the characters in the movie work out or feel deep enough. The movie seems to concentrate more (and too much) on its music than on its characters and story in general. I seriously don't think that Beyoncé Knowles is a bad actress but just like Cuba, her role isn't significant- and present enough in the movie. Rue McClanahan also somehow got mixed up in this mess.

At times it just totally feels like entire sequences in the movie are missing. Lots of moments in the movie feel rushed and are not satisfying enough. The movie is a real sloppy job. You can't just blame the script for this but also the filmmakers involved. Yes, it's a real mess of a movie at times, that too often takes the easy simple road.

But yet the movie still works good thanks to its music. It makes the movie very pleasant to watch and therefor the movie still works good as a simple feel good movie. But that obviously doesn't mean that the movie itself is also a good one. The movie is too flawed in its story and way of film-making to consider this movie a good or totally recommendable one.

There still is enough to enjoy in this movie but the sloppy way of film-making and storytelling don't make this movie really a recommendable one. Perhaps this movie is a typical case of 'watch at your own risk'...chances are you might end up loving- or totally hating it.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie was about a man named Darrin (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who returns to his hometown from New York City to read the will of his aunt who passed away. While he is there, he comes into contact with the other characters of the town (Montecarlo, GA) and he stumbles upon his old fling Lily (Beyoncé Knowles). Darrin's aunt leaves him in charge of leading the local church choir to a gospel championship. This was one of the greatest movies i've seen. I'm a huge fan of Beyoncé, so to see Beyoncé in this movie doing her thing is a dream for me. The movie has it's good and bad parts. The acting is great. The soundtrack is even greater. I think that this film would be more accepted by the African-American group. I myself am African-American and there are some parts in this movie where I think only African-Americans will get. It's an A+ Job. Cuba was hilarious in this movie. Not one of his best, but definitely great.

I got this dvd for free and it's been sitting in my "watch when nothing better to do" pile. When I finally watched it I was surprised it's actually a quite fun movie with good acting and a lot of music. The first half was better, then towards the end the momentum slowed down a bit but the movie is short enough to stay interesting. If you like movies such as "Blues Brothers" and especially "Sister Act" you might like this one too.

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)

Cuba Gooding, Jr. is among one of the most likable actors I can think of, who always seems subjected to bottom-barrel dreck. His performance as Tre Styles, living on the wrong side of the town with a smart brother and a thug for a friend in John Singleton's Boyz N The Hood is one I recall as one of the strongest of the eighties and one of infinitely powerful emotional impact. On a lighter not, he too gave a quick-witted, inspired performance as a luckless schmuck in pursuit of $2,000,000 in Rat Race. In Jonathan Lynn's Fighting Temptations, his character is Darrin Hill, an advertising executive in New York, who roots stem from Monte Carlo, Georgia. He learns of his aunt Sally's death just as he was leaving his firm with all his things after being informed he was fired for having a resume consisting mainly of false pretenses. He flies down to Georgia to attend the church he did as a child, and is reacquainted with the heat, the atmosphere, and the backsides of the girls by Mike Epps' Luscious. Darrin, then, learns that his aunt left him $150,000 in her will if he can rebuild the church's choir from the ground-up in six weeks. Learning that those who willingly want to join are less than qualified, he holds auditions, wanders around town, and in the meantime, constantly tries to form a relationship with Beyoncé Knowles' Lilly, his crush at a young age who had her heart set on Michael Jackson.

The story here is told with an alertness to its formula, yet a bounce in its step, fully capitalizing on the potential of Gooding, Jr. as an actor and Beyoncé Knowles as a screen presence. As someone who had no desire to watch any film Beyoncé went near and a distaste for her music, she is wonderful here, playing a character not as helpless or as self-consumed as I thought. She also isn't placed in the foreground either, nor does the film feel like it's simply capitalizing off her bankability as a singer. Her and Gooding, Jr. make a perfect pair.

Yet what's really to praise and write home about with The Fighting Temptations is the soundtrack. The choir sequences are energized precisely to give them the added effect and extra boost they need to work. The little rap tune, "To Da River," that comes relatively late in the game, is about as catchy as any song can be, and so often do the songs break free from the depressing shackles of being trite or undercooked.

If there's one point of "triteness" the film incorporates, it's the melodrama and Darrin's slightly smarmy attitude to the idea of running this choir and his romance, which is played out and redundant. It's not as painstakingly cheesy or as tiresome as it could've been (worse, more confused writing that is present in a melodramatic picture like Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman would've steered this film off the nearest cliff). Not to mention, if the film would've had, say, lesser performers, ones with not nearly as much drive, passion, or soul as the cast presented here, this would've spiraled further into lame, contrived mediocrity.

There isn't too much in The Fighting Temptations, and it does go a tad too long, with a story that reaches the two hour mark. It's not great cinema by any stretch; it's the kind I call "Sunday morning-fare," the kind of film you tune into fifteen minutes after it started, watch till the credits, and resume your day unaffected in any way, positive or negative. As awkward of a statement this may be, there's worse "Sunday morning-fare" out there. Certainly it'd be harder to find one as nice, free-spirited, genial, and effervescent as this.

Starring: Cuba Gooding, Jr. Beyoncé Knowles, Mike Epps, and Steve Harvey. Directed by: Jonathan Lynn.

This movie came out in 2003 and I remember not seeing a lot of interest in it even with the MTV promo. What turned me off is that when it was announced to go into production P Diddy or puff daddy or whatever he calls himself now was supposed to be in the lead. Not a fan and had no interest in it. Then when Cuba gooding came on board I thought maybe a cable viewing but wasn't about to drop cash to see this.

Anyhow, the song by Mary Mary came on the radio one day and I thought it was great. Where could I buy it? I googled the song and it somehow ended up here. The movie is fairly decent, a lot of fish out of water cliches, plus the wonderful acting of Beyoncé. Lol!

There's a few laughs, but the music is terrific and overshadows the entire movie. The Ojays are terrific as well as Lil Zane and T Bone. Even Montel Jordan had me tapping my finger. Cuba gooding does his best for an over done story with no one to help him carry the show. The real show is the gospel singing at the end with all the talent they managed to secure for this but otherwise buy the soundtrack and save some money and time.

2 hours of your life you will NEVER see again.

Why anyone thought it would be a good idea to remake Sister Act is beyond me. And, incredibly, they managed to make it worse.

Bouncy Knowles is a great singer and an OK actress, but she can't make up for a terrible movie that, although it claims to be a comedy, did not make me laugh once.

Cuba Gooding Junior's career hit a high point with Jerry Maguire but his recent output just seems to get poorer and poorer. (Boat Trip was OK, I suppose, but the joke wore thin pretty quick.) In summary, (in case you hadn't guessed) this is an awful movie whose only possible redeeming feature is the songs. If you're that desperate to hear them, buy the soundtrack.

I have watched this movie three times. I call it a musical comedy. The storyline isn't that great. But who cares. The singing is fantastic. Beyoncé must be one of the worse actors ever. But again, who cares. Her singing performances redeem her. You forget about her lack of acting skills. She really doesn't need them in this movie. This movie makes me smile. But best of all, it makes me feel happy. The singing hits all my emotions, It makes make laugh, cry and dance. Don't know how anyone watched this in a movie theater. The music and singing make you get up and move. So, if you are having a bad day, watch this movie. The music will make you forget about your bad day.

The world is made up if so many different people. Like good people can go bad, bad people can become good people with the right people surrounding them. This movie does it with humor and music. Is it an Oscar winner? No. But it is fun entertainment.

I found this film uplifting, funny and full of emotion. Beyonce looked and sounded amazing. Cuba did a good job and the whole film never lost my attention for a second. They sometimes say that they don;t make films like this anymore, but clearly this film proves that wrong. ( OK ignore that sentence it sounds stupid ) The music in this film is particularly good and all the characters fit into the story nicely. Good happy ending too. I just love this film and I don;t care if its not one that critics would rave on about. In my experience the films they rave on a bout are usually awful anyway. I am surprised that Beyonce hasn't made more films, she can really act in my humble opinion.

Since Sister Act did so well there was bound to be a "jump on the bandwagon" film, and this is it, however unlike most " bandwagon" films, this is pretty good.

The acting is not great, particularly Beyoncé, she's a good singer but can't act, Chloe Bailey who acted as the infant of her character was better, Cuba Gooding jnr was ok, he usually is quite watchable, especially with his face contortions, and the supporting cast was ok to good, particularly the singers, the film seemed to have been extensively edited as parts of the story seemed to be missing, photography was average, they could have made more of the Georgia scenery, but the music was brilliant and that is what carried the film.

Some people describe this as a cute 'black' movie, racism rears its ugly head again! Its not, it is about Gospel music, which it turns out 'black' people are the best at it, if they actually watched the film they might have noticed that there are a few paler faces, including 2 of the 3 criminals, one who is a very good rapper, they are just characters in a Gospel Music movie, got it!

I gave it a 7 for the brilliant music, loved it.

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.