When Darrin was a child he and his mother were thrown out of their church and home town of Monte Carlo because his mother was singing what some members of their bible belt Babtist church considered unholy music. Thus Darrin spends his childhood bouncing from one town to the next immersing himself in all kinds of unsavory places and deeds. By the time he enters adulthood, however, he's pulled himself halfway together and is now a Junior Executive for a New York Advertising Agency.Still his life is a constant struggle to keep the bill collectors at bay, while he tries to scratch his way to the top. In doing so, Darrin has become something of a compulsive liar.

His life is about to take a drastic turn, however, when a rich aunt passes away willing him $150,000. The money comes with one little stipulation, however, in order for Darrin to inherit the dough he must first take charge of the local gospel choir and lead them to a championship in a national choir competition. Seeing this as the golden opportunity to put all of his financial problems behind him, Darrin jumps at the chance. Darrin also sees this as an opportunity to pursue the affections of a chorus girl named Lily whom he had a major crush on when he was a much younger boy. Lily has blossomed into a beautiful young woman, and this little deal-sweetener makes the whole proposition all the more hard to turn down.

Let's just say that all of this is going to be far from easy, as it turns out that the choir in question is far from being a national contender. It also becomes obvious that there a number of local residents who are none to happy about these developments and who would like nothing better than to see Darrin fail.

I am normally one of the last people to leave the theater when a movie ends, I enjoy looking at the credits and always hope to see an out-take reel. Not so when it came to this film. I was outta there even before the credits began to roll, I'd be damned if I was going to sit through one more of these tedious gospel songs. Lord have mercy.

Yes I fled the theatre on a dead run, because tedious is definitely the best word to describe the Fighting Temptations. It was dreadfully slow and for the most part, as lively as a Sunday sermon. I was fighting the temptation to doze off throughout most of this films seemingly interminable running time. Honestly how many different gospel songs can a person take before you wish and pray they would just get on with the plot before you fall asleep. The movie has its funny and entertaining moments, but the endless barrage of gospel numbers became so intrusive that I really wanted to scream. Don't get me wrong I can enjoy a good musical that uses it songs to advance the plot, even Gospel songs (see the Steve Martin classic Leap of Faith), but the balance in the Fighting Temptations is so heavily weighted in favor of music that the story just gets lost in the third verse.

Beyonce Knowles is a talent to be sure, but she sings about 75% of her dialogue which leaves any character development up to our imagination. I know for a fact that Cuba Gooding Jr. is a good actor, I have seen him be one - but you have to question why he continuously gets himself cast in parts like this that do not allow his acting chops a chance to surface like they did in Men of Honor. What's worse is that the film-makers lean on every underdog movie cliche in the book, never once taking a chance or introducing a novel idea.

The movie ends exactly how you would expect it to - and any dialogue that lasts for more than two minutes is sure to be a seque into yet another musical sequence. No thank you, that's what CD players are for, not movies.