Sister Act

There are superstars and then there are superstars. And Whoopi Goldberg would probably fall into a category called Super Duper Whooper Stars. So when I had the opportunity of watching Sister Act last Sunday (on Star Movies) I wasn’t going to give up the opportunity at all. Now Sister Act is not one of the best movies ever made by mankind I can assure you. It is directed by Emile Ardolino whose claim to fame is the evergreen Dirty Dancing and some RomComs such as Chances Are. I mean there is really nothing much to write home about in the movies that he has given us (except Dirty Dancing). But all of them, if you notice closely have this classic charm about them which make them watchable any given time of the day. As a movie, Sister Act is barely there in a manner of speaking. Which would explain the imdb rating of 5.9 on 10 and the rating that I would give it would be around the same (only that I would round it off to a 6 because I don’t complicate my ratings with the decimal points other than 0.5). But it is not debatable that Sister Act is entertaining, fun, evergreen and a definite watch for anyone – must see it if you haven’t done so yet.

Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) is a bar singer who doesn’t have much of a fan following. Now she is in love with the local gangster Vince LaRocca (Harvey Kietel) who is married and is basically using Deloris as his mistress more than anything else. Deloris knows this but doesn’t do much because she needs the income. But when her repeated pleas go unheeded she decides to storm into Vince’s office and demand her pound of flesh. Unfortunately, she also walks into a situation where Vince has killed someone – just part of his job as a gangster. Now Deloris is aware of Vince’s legal status but seeing someone killed in front of her is something that she doesn’t quite know how to handle. She does manage to however run away from the scene and goes straight to the cops where a Detective Lt. Eddie Souther (Bill Nunn) offers her police protection and in return expects Deloris to take to the witness stand against LeRocca, an offer that Deloris reluctantly accepts. The way Lt. Souther expects to keep her protected is to put her in a place where no one expects someone like her to be. Inside a church. And that too as a nun. Deloris Van Cartier is now Sister Mary Clarence for the rest of the movie.

Sister Act is almost a laugh every 5 minutes kind of a riot with Goldberg leading from the front with an absolutely fabulous performance – something that u expect her to deliver at the bare minimum. The direction as explained earlier is just about average but good enough to carry out a concept like this. The support cast has a couple of good efforts from Kathy Najimy and Wendy Makkena who will also feature in the sequel to this one and rightfully so. Playing this whole month on Star Movies, watch Sister Act to kind of re-live an old classic that quite a few of us would have seen while growing up. As mentioned earlier my rating is a 6 on 10. But it is also a Must watch in its own right.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3162702105/