Must Try Harder
It was in the shower that Lloyd Boyd receives his calling from God to become a personal preacher, not that he knows exactly what that means. So having made a business card and putting it in shop windows Lloyd finds himself being called in to action by various people. There is Selma who wants Lloyd to bring her back slidden husband to return to church whilst Miss Minerva and Miss Flossie find themselves with a decision to make when they are offered millions for the church building they own. And somehow with no real experience and having flunked Sunday School as a child Lloyd manages to stumble his way through and help these people.
Imagine a modern church where say once a month they have a service specifically for the entire family to be involved with. I can imagine that maybe a youth minister would do this regular skit where he plays a bumbling preacher who ends up helping someone by being a vessel for God rather than through doing anything himself. That is what "I Flunked Sunday School" feels like, it feels like someone took this character and skits that they used in a church service and then twisted them all together into one movie. It probably sounded like a good idea at the time but the end product is not that good.
Sadly it is not just one thing which is wrong with "I Flunked Sunday School" and sadly good intentions cannot save the movie. Firstly combining all these skits makes "I Flunked Sunday School" painfully long at just under 2 hours. The skits also make it episodic but extremely disjointed which doesn't help matters because it also makes it uneven with some sections working better than others. But the writing, direction and acting is all at a low level, not quite amateur but certainly a long way off from being polished and this just adds to it feeling drawn out.
What this all boils down to is that "I Flunked Sunday School" is simply a miss of a movie thanks to the writing, directing, editing and basically anything else which is technical. But whilst for me a troubled movie it is a movie which is full of good intentions and whilst it doesn't save the movie it does make some of it work better than other parts.
