Kingdom Come Review
by "Rose 'Bams' Cooper" (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)April 27th, 2001
'3BlackChicks Review...'
KINGDOM COME (2001)
Rated PG; running time 90 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Seen at: Jack Lokes' Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan) Official site: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/kingdom_come/ IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0246002
Written by: David Dean Botrell, Jessie Jones
Directed by: Doug McHenry
Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine, LL Cool J,
Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson,
Daruis McCrary, Cedric The Entertainer, Toni Braxton
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2001
Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamskingdom.html
Of all the things that tripped me out about KINGDOM COME, I still can't get over its PG rating. Did the censors *not* hear the same "ass" and "shit" that I kept hearing?
And since that's the worst I have to say about this movie...
The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
Weddings and funerals. They always seem to bring out the worst in some families. The Slocum Family is no exception.
After her husband Bud dies, Raynelle (Whoopi) has to face the fact that Bud was just not a nice person when he was alive; and if that weren't enough, she also has to deal with her messed-up family. Her son Ray Bud (LL Cool J) has settled down with his wife Lucille (Vivica A. Fox), but along with not being able to accept his distant father's death, he also has Issues of his own, with his alcoholism, and with his wife's inability to have children. To top it off, Ray's brother Junior (Anthony Anderson) can't help pay for the funeral because Junior sunk all of his money into a business no one but Junior believed in - a fact which his nagging shrew of a wife Charisse (Jada Pinkett Smith), never lets him forget (that is, when she isn't dealing with Bebe's Kids).
The fun doesn't end there, no sirree. There's also Aunt Marguerite (Loretta Devine), a bible-thumping holy roller who just can't help constantly riding her son Royce (Darius McCrary), who she not-so-lovingly refers to as "Demon"; and Juanita (Toni Braxton), married to the Slocum cousin that Charisse would've preferred over Junior. And the funeral service is being performed by a Reverend with a seriouth lithp (Cedric The Entertainer). What else could go wrong...?
The Upshot:
Hmmm...did I say that was the worst I had to say? Hmmm...not quite. My Issues with KINGDOM COME are many. Starting with Jada Pinkett Smith.
Over her spotted career, Jada has hit high-highs (JASON'S LYRIC, MENACE II SOCIETY) and low-lows (WOO, A LOW DOWN DIRTY SHANE). Even when the material written around her was fair-to-middling (BAMBOOZLED), she has often been able to rise above it. Which is why her woeful miscasting as Drama Queen Charisse, simply pissed me off. She's a better actor than director Doug McHenry allowed her to be here.
Not that Jada was alone in her ability to work my nerves. Vivica A. Fox has worn the rug out from under that Good Daughter/Wife typecast; had she been given decent dialogue or something to actually *do*, I might have stopped waiting for someone to call her "Maxine" (her character's name in SOUL FOOD). Whoopi Goldberg puzzled me; not by acting her usual Clown [or, her alter-ego, Nursemaid], but by walking through most of this movie in a daze. She had, what, three lines of dialogue? Who wrote for her, Marcel Marceau? On the other end of the spectrum, Loretta Devine is an underrated actress who, though funny here, was just too close to the Mammy/Sista Bigamouf stereotype for my comfort. And speaking of stereotypes, when my husband noted that KINGDOM COME touched on just about every stereotype of non-urban Black life out there, I had to agree with him (though there's a lot of truth behind those
depictions).
But this is where it gets weird: even as it failed to deliver on its way-too-many plot points, I loved KINGDOM COME, as much for what it said about Me and Mine, as for what I saw on the screen. I am willing to forgive a lot of ham, and even some clumsy storytelling, if the movie feels *Real*. And having dealt with, and somehow come through, similar dysfunctional family situations at funerals and weddings - The Drama Queen and The Loud-Praying Church Mother; can I get a witness? - I can only say that KINGDOM COME most def kept it Real. For this, Jada, and LL, and Loretta, Cedric, and even the strangely-silent Whoopi, get an Amen - and more than a few outright laughs - from Sister Bammer.
Oh, but not Toni Braxton. I don't know WHAT *that* was about. If I were In Charge, I'd permanently banish her and Bill Bellamy to the Planet Of The Apes, for sins committed while impersonating an actor. My apologies to anyone planning on seeing that flick, in advance.
The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]: KINGDOM COME made me a believer early on with a simple (on the surface) bit of dialogue between Raynell and "Reverend Elmer J. Fudd". I won't spoil the reader with the exact details of that conversation; I'll only say that there was so much raw truth about the drastic, hurtful effect religion has on the way some Black women interact with the men in their lives once these women become Saved, that it almost made me cry, from personal experience. The mirror this movie held up to certain aspects of my own family's life - the darker side of the more life-affirming SOUL FOOD - earned KINGDOM COME my highest rating.
Bammer's Bottom Line:
For all its faults and miscues, KINGDOM COME provided a SOUL FOOD-lite groove that was hard not to move to, once you got past the plot contrivances. Forget the butt-dumb funeral scene, though. I know *I'm* trying to.
KINGDOM COME (rating: greenlight):
Can't wait for my pre-ordered KINGDOM COME soundtrack to get here. Gon' have some chu'ch up in hea', gloray!
Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
3BlackChicks Review
Movie Reviews With Flava!
Copyright Rose Cooper, 2001
EMAIL: [email protected]
http://www.3blackchicks.com/
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