Kingdom Come Review
by "Steve Rhodes" (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)April 12th, 2001
KINGDOM COME
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
In Doug McHenry's KINGDOM COME, the death of a man so unloved by his wife (Whoopi Goldberg) that she wants only three words of derision on his tombstone ("Mean and Surly") brings together his dysfunctional family for the funeral. In the story's best line, the funeral home brags in its advertisements that it's "Your pit stop to the afterlife." The script by David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones, based on their play "Dearly Departed," might well have worked when it was a play, but, as a movie, it feels so much like a typical television sitcom that it's a wonder that it doesn't have a laugh track.
When we first meet Clarisse (Jada Pinkett Smith) and her unfaithful husband, Junior (Anthony Anderson), they are arguing their way down the highway. As she slaps at him, he tries to kill both of them, as well as their 3 young kids, by running the car off the road. Of course, since this is a slapstick comedy, the movie doesn't expect us to take any of this seriously.
Other members of the family on their way to the funeral include Lucille (Vivica A. Fox) and her husband, Ray Budd (LL Cool J), and Marguerite (Loretta Devine) and her son, Royce (Darius McCrary). Royce has big ambitions, which pleases his highly religious mother. He plans on having several kids. She explodes, however, when he explains that he wants them only so he can live off welfare. To show how rotten he is, the story has him flaunting his smoking in front of a "No Smoking" sign in the room in the funeral home in which the father's body lies in repose.
Cedric the Entertainer plays Reverend Hooker, a cheery preacher with a humorously exaggerated lisp. His predilection for spicy Mexican food turns the funeral into a fart fest.
Although harmless enough, the movie is rarely funny. My personal laugh count was zip. Still, if you're a fan of TV sitcoms, which I'm not, you might like KINGDOM COME. Some very vocal members of my audience certainly did.
KINGDOM COME runs 1:35. It is rated PG for thematic elements, language and sensuality and would be acceptable for kids around 8 and up.
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