Kingdom Come (2001)

Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Just caught this on local TV here and I had no idea this film ever existed. It's funny, it's human, it's warm, it's truthful but it's hopeful. I may be miles removed from the demographics pictured here but I remember a certain funeral in my own family that had all the hallmarks of this one...As far as the storytelling is concerned, this film/script/play has all the intricacies and finely observed and rendered detail that makes the films of Marcel Pagnol about the life of Southern Frenchmen so universal yesterday, today and tomorrow, all around the world.Fine ensemble cast where none of the stars detract from each other. A class act all the way.

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.

This reminded me of Soul Food. A movie that was an all black cast that didn't have to be an all black cast and wasn't even referred to in the movie. Good performances all around. I was able to perform in 'Dearly Departed', the play the movie is based on, playing the part of Ray-Bud on stage. It was fun to see how the subtle changes made a stage play open up wonderfully. This is not the end all movie, but a wonderful time spent with the family. Thanks to the cast and crew for allowing me to see the family I lived with for a few months during my run as Ray-Bud.

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.