Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan are the nominal stars of "First Sunday," but it's Katt Williams who steals the show in this by turns trite and mildly amusing B-comedy. Cube and Morgan play Durell and LeeJohn, Baltimore down-and-outers who need quick money and concoct a scheme to rip off their neighborhood church. Once they're inside the house of worship, "First Sunday" goes from caper flick to spiritually inflected dramedy, with touches of Agatha Christie thrown in when the money disappears before Durell and LeeJohn can snag it.

"First Sunday" is writer-director David E. Talbert's debut, as some of its more labored plot contrivances show. Just why someone as bright as Durell is pulling petty heists is never satisfactorily explained, nor are the wild character swings he and his sidekick take throughout the evening.

But as tired as "First Sunday" is, and as shamelessly as it grovels for laughs, there's a hint of sweetness, and Talbert clearly has a feel for Baltimore, where most of it was affectionately shot. When "First Sunday" succeeds, it's mostly due to terrific casting -- not only Williams as the church's fey choir director (he gets all the catty one-liners), but Chi McBride as its unflappable pastor, Olivia Cole as a wise church elder and the sublime Loretta Devine, whose pivotal scene with Morgan goes from hilarious to heartbreaking at the drop of a tear.

-- Ann Hornaday (Jan. 11, 2008)

Contains profanity, sexual humor and brief drug references.