Kingdom Come

I stumbled across this little treasure on cable the other day (luckily for me, right at the beginning) and was treated to one of the funniest and most genuine films I've ever seen. I had never even HEARD of it before so it was a nice surprise. It has a real family feel to it; you will definitely walk away grinning and feeling good! This must be the 4th film in the past few months where I've seen Anthony Anderson crack up the place, and the rest of the cast are no slouches, either. Every character is a gem with no false notes - highly recommended!

This absolutely outstanding film is an total delight.

There were lots of big laugh-out-loud scenes, great humour, wit and charm.

LL Cool J absolutely walks away with the film in his amazing acting job as the son of the man that no one likes – but they have all come together to bury.

As my friends and family will tell you, I have always had a not-so-secret crush on Whoopi Goldberg. This film reinforces that crush – she is the rock in the maelstrom of insanity that surrounds the burial of her much-despised husband.

The characters are quietly complex – especially LL Cool J's character – who has demons that pursue him, including the inability to mourn the father that he disliked so much.

Most of the humour is fairly subtle and cerebral – though there is one absolutely great scene that slides into bathroom humour about the affect of Mexican food on the minister (Cedric the Entertainer) that officiates at the funeral.

This is a family story – it could be anyone's family. It is irrelevant that the family is African American: this family crosses all colour lines. They behave badly at times but they are there for each other in a way that all families should be but seldom are.

You would think that with Toni Braxton in the film any singing would be done by her – not so. There is a very nice 3 woman church choir that includes the Saturday Night Live alum, Ellen Cleghorn. The song at the funeral is sung by Jada Pinkett Smith – and she does a great job.

In checking viewer votes there were almost as many `1' votes as there were `10s'… I think that some people just didn't get it. Their loss.

What a delightful movie! It's about family, and love, and dreams, and how we get along in this world -- especially with our nearest and not-always-dearest. It's warm and wistful and laugh-out-loud funny!

As for Goldberg's part, though promotions may have given her high billing, in fact her part is minuscule. But even if she'd been absent, this cast did more than enough to entertain.

LL Cool J did a fine job in the lead, only his name betraying his rap origins. He was joined by a host of other talented actors, including a favorite of mine, Loretta Devine, as a classic "momma." Another performance I particularly enjoyed was Cedric the Entertainer's role of the Reverend.

But everybody was good! Great ensemble acting -- _everyone_ was just right, including even the bit players, and they all blended into a very believable whole. The dialogue was witty, capturing exactly the character types, but down-to-earth without resorting to cheap crudity.

I kept thinking, "This would make an excellent play for community theater!" Great character types, great major roles, lots of smaller and non-speaking parts, easy to set. Then the credits showed that it had been adapted from David Dean Bottrell's play "Dearly Departed." It made me long to 'tread the boards' again -- join a great cast like that and take part in the play's warmth, truth and wry good humor.

The funeral of a hard-to-love father brings together his extended family, with their various relational wrinkles, all of which are plausibly solved by the end.

The story is kind, forgiving of human foibles, and in good taste throughout. The 'bathroom humor' mentioned in another review is a very light, one-time thing -- gas due to indigestion -- that is also a necessary plot device. I don't see how it could have been handled any better another way.

My satellite service will be showing this film all month, and I plan to watch it a couple more times. And beyond its humor, because of its warm heart and human hope I intend to buy the video.

I rented this movie just because my family kept telling me I had to see it. They kept telling me how funny it was. Well, as soon as Whoopi's character started speaking, I automatically recognized the dialogue from a play called "Dearly Departed" in which I played Jada's character "Charrise". In the play, Junior's wife was named "Suzanne". I was so excited that my favorite comedic play had become a movie. I love this movie.

I accuired this film on DVD about a month or so back and i wasn't really expecting a hell of alot of it until i actually got round to watching it, I watched it and was blown away by just how good it was, with stunning performances from Cedric The Entertainer, LL Cool J, Anthony Anderson and a good performance from a name that is quite new to me of Darius McCrary who really brought the comedy to the film.