I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Darrin's mother Maryann Hill got forced out of the choir by Reverend Lewis (Wendell Pierce) after busybody Paulina Pritchett discovers her R&B singing. Today, Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is an aggressive marketing junior executive in NYC. He's a superficial schemer and ashamed of his home town. Darrin is fired for lying about his education and most importantly, getting caught. He's broke and then gets news that aunt Sally has died. He returns to Monte Carlo, Georgia and finds friendly booty-expert driver Luscious (Mike Epps). In her Will, Darrin is made the director of the choir and if they win, she leaves him stocks worth $150k. He falls for Lilly (Beyoncé Knowles) but she's been outcast for her sins.Darrin is a horribly unlikeable character. Cuba is unable to inject the character with any rooting interest. He is not funny. That goes for many of the side characters. Sure the villainous Paulina is ugly but it's done in a very broad way. Mike Epps is annoying. Most of the supposed comedy is broadly bad. Beyoncé is reasonable and she can sing. The singing is possibly the only true greatness in the film. I would suggest getting the soundtrack rather than the movie.

Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a ambitious but habitual lying junior advertising executive. After his lies get him in trouble with his paranoid boss (Dakin Matthews) he gets fired and worst of all, he loses his aunt Sally (Ann Nesby). He travels back to his home, makes a new best friend in a guy named Luscious (Mike Epps), and rediscovers his childhood sweetheart Lilly (Beyonce Knowles). His aunt's will states that he shall direct the town's local choir to victory at a gospel explosion. One thing he falls for Lilly is her voice. She rejects his advances at first but within six weeks she realizes she loves him (and he feels the same for her). But in the meantime, he recruits her in the choir (after she becomes irritated and does it anyway *before they fall in love*). Unfortunately, the reverend (Wendell Pierce) has a sister (Latanya Richardson) who hates both Darrin and Lilly because his mother sang seductive music and she had a child out of wedlock and everybody in town hates and rejects her (except the Reverend, Darrin and Luscious). Darrin loses the choir but after he goes back home, he realizes he loves the choir and Lilly and he returns and with help from Luscious and the Reverend, Darrin and Lilly regain the choir and Paulina is kicked out. They later WIN THE COMPETITION and Darrin wins Lilly's heart. On stage, he publicly asks her to marry him and of course, she says yes. 18 Months Later, all's well, the church is repaired, Paulina turns nice all of a sudden and Darrin and Lilly have a baby.

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!

I can understand why some people didn't like this movie. If you're not familiar with the church or the South & their lingo, you won't get a lot of the jokes or appreciate the scenarios presented in the film.I've spent a lot of time around church choirs & in the South, & everything in the movie reminded me of the experiences I had growing up, both happy & painful. Each of those choir members represented to me people that I've come across in my musical church travels.I gave the movie an 8 out of 10 because it hit a chord with me personally. I hope those of you who've been around the church block a few times or spent any amount of time below the Mason/Dixon Line will give this movie a shot.