Makes shameless use of tried-and-true elements -- but it's hardly the same old song.

A rousing, warmhearted comedy, as infectious as the gospel music it celebrates.

The plot's a trifle, but so what. Director Lynn (My Cousin Vinny) stages a series of seamless, ebullient show-stoppers that encompass every musical style from gospel and soul to contemporary R&B and hip-hop, and the choreography ranks with anything you'll find on Broadway.

Breaks through as a delightful, surprisingly fresh comedy.

Not brilliant and it has some clunky moments where we see the plot wheels grinding, but it has its heart and its grin in the right places.

A raucous gospel comedy that's as broad as co-star Beyonce Knowles' vowels and chockablock with foot-stomping, up-with-the-choir music that will have even atheists praising the Lord.

A warm comic story that's fairly engaging even when no one is singing.

May not be great cinema, but it's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Formulaic but infectiously happy comedy.

This culture-clash romantic comedy, scripted by Elizabeth Hunter and Saladin K. Patterson, goes exactly where you'd expect, but helmer Lynn, a comedy vet, gets it there with such infectious energy that you don't much mind the story's predictability.

The movie's musical sequences, which primarily feature popularized versions of gospel standards, are exhilarating and energetic. Unfortunately, that's only half the story, because the so-called dramatic material, which links together all the musical numbers, is mind-numbingly bad.

Despite the increasingly annoying presence of the mugging, fatuous Cuba Gooding Jr., The Fighting Temptations pulls off what feels like a major feat: Its musical sequences could make the most hardened atheist want to go to church.

Gospel music not only saves Darrin's plastic yuppie soul -- Praise the Lord -- it also gives an otherwise wasted hour and a half some warmth and buoyancy.

Diva du jour Beyoncé Knowles may be the draw, but the real star of The Fighting Temptations is the sensational gospel soundtrack.