Not Another Church Movie (2024) Briarcliff/Comedy RT: 88 minutes Rated R (sexual material, some language) Director: Johnny Mack Screenplay: Johnny Mack Music: Ainz “Brainz” Prasad and Ameya Saraf Cinematography: Vern Nobles Jr. Release date: May 10, 2024 (US) Cast: Kevin Daniels, Vivica A. Fox, Lamorne Morris, Tisha Campbell, Jasmine Guy, James Michael Cummings, Lydia Styslinger, Luc Ashley, Kearia Schroeder, Kaleina Cordova, Jaden Lucas Miller, Xaveria Baird, Yves B. Claude, Kyla Pratt, Mickey Rourke, Jamie Foxx.
Rating: *
What’s the difference between crime and sin? Let me see if I can explain. Murder is a crime; murdering comedy is a sin. The latter is what writer-director Johnny Mack does with Not Another Church Movie. It’s a colossally unfunny spoof of Tyler Perry movies like Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Daddy’s Little Girls, Meet the Browns and all the other Madea films. The problem (one of MANY actually) is that it comes along about ten years too late. When’s the last time one of his movies was released theatrically? It has to be pre-pandemic.
Kevin Daniels (Council of Dads) plays Taylor Pherry (the P is silent), a doctor/lawyer/life coach/Door Dash driver who’s ordered by God (Foxx, Ray) to write and direct a movie about his family, a loving but dysfunctional bunch headed by outspoken matriarch Madude (also played by Daniels). He’s to be the heir to the throne soon to be vacated by talk show queen Hoprah Windfall (comedian Luc Ashley) whose empire is crumbling with the failure of her 27th slavery movie. She prays for a miracle and God picks Pherry. Meanwhile, the Devil (Rourke, The Wrestler) does what he can to make Pherry yield to temptation.
Pherry’s family is something else. His cousin, divorced dad Monte Carlo (Morris, New Girl), takes a job driving uptight lawyer Julie (Schroeder, Dance for Me) around in order to support his three young daughters. Another cousin, single mom Beverly (Pratt, Call Me Kat), gets a letter informing her the dad she never knew has died and left her something. Yet another cousin gets with a truck driver after her abusive jerk of a husband dumps her for three white girls, all named Karen. Then there’s Madude. She ends up going to jail after leading the police on a televised car chase. The judge is none other than Judge Loreal, a goof on TV’s Judge Mablean played by none other than Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill: Vol 1).
Not Another Church Movie is absolutely horrible. It’s cheap, lazy and poorly made. Not that the real Tyler Perry does any better with his movies. The special effects, especially in the scenes involving Foxx and Rourke, are terrible. The jokes don’t land and the various plot points don’t connect. So much of it goes nowhere. Forget about the acting. It’s a waste of some decent actors. And while the cast seems to be having fun, it’s definitely not mutual.
The only nice thing I can say about Not Another Church Movie is that Mack actually saw the movies he’s spoofing. Actually, there is another nice thing I can say. It’s slightly better than Meet the Blacks and all those rotten spoofs by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer- e.g. Disaster Movie, Vampires Suck and The Starving Games.
The studio opted not to screen Not Another Church Movie in advance for critics or audiences. My local multiplex didn’t even know they were getting it until a few days before its release date. There were only four other people in the theater when I saw it. It was a group of women who talked through most of it. I didn’t even bother to shush them. I figured whatever I couldn’t hear wasn’t worth hearing in the first place. I didn’t laugh once. I didn’t even chuckle. I managed a half-smile a couple of times, but it was half-hearted at best.
I figure Not Another Church Movie will stick around for maybe a week before it makes a quick trip to streaming. Even then, it’s still not worth watching. It’s easily one of the worst movies of the year. Please do NOT take that as an endorsement or dare. You will never get the 88 minutes back. The time is better spent getting an early start on next year’s taxes. I pray you take my advice.
