Kingdom Come

I hadn't really heard much about "Kindom Come" before watching it except for the fact that Whoopi Goldberg was in it (which was my main reason for seeing this movie) so I didn't have a lot of expectations. However, when seeing it I found it both a funny and touching movie with some great acting, especially from LL Cool J who plays Ray Slocumb, and from Whoopi Goldberg, though her role in the movie is just a small cameo.

What I found most interesting about this movie, though, was the way it describes the Slocumb family. In spite of the all-black cast it isn't just a great and funny movie showing a down to earth black family - it is presenting a family that could be of any color, and it does it in a really warm and touching way that also brings a laugh or two along the way.

Therefore this is certainly a cute, funny and heart warming movie worth seeing.

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 had the privilege of viewing this movie twice and laughed just as hard the second time around. The film does well at portraying the strong bonds within an African American family despite any circumstances. I recommend this family film to all.

Well, from the little press I saw regarding this movie when it first came out, I'll admit I wasn't running to the theater. (I wasn't even running to the video store.) However, when it came on HBO recently, my sister told me to sit down and watch it, to compare it to our family.

This movie was almost scary in how closely it mimicked our gatherings (especially funerals, but all gatherings in general). I really felt like the writers knew us, as they hit several depictions right on the head.

The Slocums are more the typical Black family than most movies will show nowadays--sure there are a few people who lose their way now and again, but family brings them back around. (What family isn't slightly dysfunctional anyway? It just makes family gatherings more amusing. Heck--my family even has the three holy-terror-boys who run around every gathering destroying everything.)

I'm not going to say that the acting was outstanding, or the script completely original because it wasn't. THE SCRIPT WAS REALISTIC, THOUGH. It wasn't original because anyone could have sat through a funeral in their family and copied things word for word. I do recommend this movie. The last minute is a little cheesy, but hey, the rest of the movie works so well that you accept it. There weren't any unnecessary curses, gratuitous violence or sex. It was just a movie about family. What is more real than that?

This is the ultimate feel-good movie because you feel like it is real. Some movies are just too contrived, but I had to smile to myself at the end of this movie. It shows how the strength of your family helps you cope and heal together.

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.