"First Sunday" is Ice Cube's attempt at being Tyler Perry. Genial and well meaning, it suffers from the principle drawback that Ice Cube is not Tyler Perry.

It's too cute, too pat, too conventional and way too predictable. Worse yet, its seeming moral that "crime pays if you're lovably inept at it" left me scratching my head.

On the other hand, there is no question that the film's heart is in the right place. Ice Cube and his idiot sidekick Tracy Morgan decide to rob a church for reasons that are largely unimportant. Suffice it to say that Mr. Cube's motive is to raise money so that his ex-wife does not have to move his son out of the state, while Mr. Morgan has to pay a debt to some Reggae underworld figures.

Needless to say, the robbery goes haywire from the beginning. Finding out that someone has already taken the church's money, you pretty much know that the would be robbers will find the real bad guy. And I doubt if you will be shocked that in the process, they are embraced by the congregation, with everyone in the end holding hands and singing Cum By Yah.

The movie is not helped by the fact the Ice Cube is a terrible actor. Admittedly, when he is playing a villain, he has a raw edginess that makes him somewhat believable. However, when he slips into these roles of a struggling good guy who is just trying to catch a break, his performances are uniformly flat and uninspired.

However, the movie is helped immensely by the performance of Katt Williams, who plays an unspoken gay choir director. He is uniformly funny, and literally steals the picture.

In addition, those of you who saw Preston Whitmore's "This Christmas" will recognize the effervescent Loretta Divine in this film. In "This Christmas", she played a long-suffering wife fighting a weight problem. Here, she effectively plays an outgoing church member who helps our would be robbers learn the error of their ways.

You should also look for the wonderful Chi McBride, who plays Pastor Mitchell, the head of the church. While this film will undoubtedly quickly disappear from collective memory, I urge all of you to go rent the scathingly irreverent "Undercover Brother" (2002), in which he also plays a major role. That film is as witty and scathingly hysterical as this one is cute and preachy, so give it a look if you can. (Also, look for a pre-famous Dave Chappelle as a neurotic pot-smoker called "Conspiracy Brother.")

Cursed with being a criminal defense lawyer, and more importantly a trial lawyer, I must confess that I found the several court room scenes in "First" to be pedestrian to the point of insulting. The caricature of prosecutors and defense lawyers was a complete cliché ridden insult.

The only modest upside to those court scenes occurred when the African American Judge looked scathingly at a white prosecutor who had apologized by using the phrase, "My bad." I don't know about you, but I find few things more pathetic than white men using that phrase. Do they really think that saying "My bad" makes them sound "ghetto cool?" Think again.

Let me close with a reference that I made in earlier reviews of Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married?" and the aforementioned "This Christmas." As with those movies, I once again watched this one with an all African American audience. Why do white people stay away from movies with all black characters? Whatever shortcomings this film has, it was far more real than the insulting plot and insipid personal relationships of "National Treasure." What's the deal?

While there isn't space to adequately discuss that subject in this review, I can't help but reflect on how African Americans felt for decades when the only black actors appearing on the screen were the Hatti McDaniels in various roles as maids or house servants. While I certainly recognize the significance of Sydney Poitier winning his Oscar for "Lilies of the Field" (1963) and Denzel Washington's similar accomplishment in "Training Day" (2001), let's not forget that the great Morgan Freeman was forced to drive "Miss Daisy" (1989) not that long ago!

I strongly believe that that one of the true harbingers of actual social progress in this county will be when film audiences become as integrated as elsewhere in our society.