Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas review – Netflix unloads more slapdash festive fare

Incompetent direction almost kills the Christmas spirit but American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino Taylor brings down the house Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means Christmas creep is in full effect and the floodgates holding back the seasonal tide of holiday movie

Incompetent direction almost kills the Christmas spirit but American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino Taylor brings down the house Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means Christmas creep is in full effect and the floodgates holding back the seasonal tide of holiday movies have opened to fully drown yuletide junkies in cheer. Among the first out of the gates is Netflix’s The Gospel of Christmas, brought to you by the maker of A Madea Christmas. Instead of Tyler Perry in drag, reluctantly upholding the role of family linchpin, this time it’s Durrell Babbs – AKA the R&B stalwart Tank – playing Isaac, a secular musician who is forced into ministry when his pastor father charges him with resurrecting a sister congregation that’s become a blight in a New York neighborhood defined by immorality and anomie.

( East New York, maybe.) The 103-minute feature is both a ploy to horn in on Hallmark’s well-established territory and a proper return to Perry’s roots in gospel musical theater – but with considerably more money behind it and greater latitude to bend the usual chestnuts on faith and family toward his Old Testament-facing sermons. Continue reading...