This is the time of year to be particularly choosy about the movies you see at the theater.  Hollywood tends to toss out the lesser films to bide the time until the Summer movie season starts in mid-Spring.  But, there will be a few pearls among the swine.

That does not include Ice Cube’s newest film, First Sunday, a petty criminal comedy set in a church.  Ice Cube stars as Durell, a bumbling criminal partnered with his best friend LeeJohn, played by Tracy Morgan.  To raise money owed to pay a debt in order no to lose his son, Durell hatches a plan to rob a local church.  Instead, they learn a valuable life lesson from the parishioners they’re holding up.

Barf.

How does that alone not sound like a bad movie?

In execution, it’s predictable and preachy.  Neither of which is good.  Tracy Morgan is funny, but the whole movie feels like a Tyler Perry wannabe, sentimental at the end, but not as funny up to that point.

What is laughable is the casting of the latest video game to silver screen adaptation — In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.

Jason Statham, you know, the Transporter?, plays Farmer, a man on a quest to rescue his wife and avenge his son’s death by taking on the Krugs, the animal-warriors responsible for both.  The Krugs are led by the evil Gallian, played by, hold on while I stifle my laughter, Ray Liotta.  But what’s even funnier is the casting of the king.  He’s played by Burt Reynolds.  This could be the greatest comedy of all time, and it’s not meant to be!

There are some notables in the film, LeeLee Sobieski, whom we haven’t seen enough of, as well as John Rhys-Davies and Ron Perlman, without prosthetics.

The biggest problem isn’t the casting, however.  It’s the director, Uwe Boll, a man with a reputation for being a hot-head and a director who doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but sometimes makes a decent film.  This isn’t one of them.  Audiences are laughing at some of the most serious moments, as the actors deliver the cheesiest, most cliche lines in the genre.