Kingdom Come

Writers David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones deliver this adaptation of their stage production, Deadly Departed, wherein everyone has a problem, not just the dead man wearing ballet slippers. When a patriarch of an African American family suddenly dies, relatives convene to pay their respects. A short-tempered, jealous wife with a pom-pom hairdo; a preaching know-it-all dressed in her Sunday best; a recovering alcoholic; a Reverend with a lisp; and a junk food-munching mute are just a few of the characters that clutter the screen with their overly dramatic corndog-fueled debates over coffins and cash. Despite the star-studded cast including Whoopi Goldberg, LL Cool J and Loretta Devine, this over-the-top, cliché-riddled comedy plays like a 90-minute sitcom in which all problems are remedied neatly in the end. Kingdom Come comes a cropper.