Joyful Noise stars Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton in a singing, spiritual comedy. I typically would spend time giving you a run a down of plot points, but it is impossible. This movie is a mess from the start and gets no better during the overly long run time. Sure there are some laugh out loud moments. There is some nice singing. But as a movie, Joyful Noise suffers from a lack of any real direction and a simplistic plot with way too many side stories that the audience just doesn’t care about. What best can be described as a poorly made Sister Act clone, this movie attempts to be everything to everyone and ends up failing in all regard.
Much like the previously mentioned Sister Act, some of this movie involves taking current musical hits and morphing them into worship songs. Unfortunately that is where the comparisons end. This movie has a teen romance that you won’t care about. There is the Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton down home banter (the best part of the movie) that doesn’t really go anywhere. There isn’t a core conflict or anything to really buy into in the movie. If you are just wanting to hear some quality singing and catch a few low brow laughs, then this movie is for you. If your brain turns on at any point while viewing the film, you will instantly wonder how such a piece of work ever avoided straight to DVD status.
Joyful Noise gets 2 disappointed Dolly faces.
By Chris Murr
