Though its title portends a possible punch-out between Eddie Kendricks and Otis Williams, The Fighting Temptations isn't about those Temptations, despite its musical theme.

Instead, think Sister Act3 without the nuns, but with bubbly Beyoncé Knowles in their place. Then add Cuba Gooding Jr.'s mugging reactions to some of the year's unfunniest dialogue.

How does a movie like this get made? By MTV, that's how. With a story that goes on forever yet can't find cast-stranded Rue McClanahan any words to say, itcastsGooding asa New York ad-agency employee, in scenes broader than any insipid '50s Madison Avenue sitcom, who schemes to inherit $150,000 from his late Aunt Sally.

But there's a catch: This schemer must first lead a small-town choir to top prize in a splashy gospel competition that, in one of the movie's few nods to restraint, spares us Ed McMahon as host.


So here we are in Montecarlo, Ga., needing some singers. Fortunately, Knowles is the local nightspot chanteuse, though you immediately sense that the locals, including a tiresomely pushy biddy (LaTanya Richardson), aren't going to let this babe reprise her opening rendition of Fever in church. Other motley recruits include McClanahan and a few cons Gooding & Co. meet during a gig behind bars. At this point, we hold our breaths hoping for a screen treat millions have coveted for years: a Rue McClanahan prison pic.

But no. It's back to church and practice-session living rooms, and also back to New York. This is one of those movies in which the hero is in severe financial straits, with canceled credit cards, yet still manages to fly back and forth from Manhattan to podunk on short notice, even though that's when the airlines really gouge you. It's up to Knowles and the music to save the movie, but the production numbers don't quite have the kinetic snap of their raucous equivalents in the climax of Sister Act 2. Worse, the story drones on in the manner that director Jonathan Lynn's worst movies (Greedy, Sgt. Bilko) often do. Even when Lynn helped Marisa Tomei win an Oscar for My Cousin Vinny, it took him 119 minutes, four fewer than here.

As for Gooding, he tries hard, and doesn't he always? Temptations plays like a test case on whether there can be life after Boat Trip, a movie perched to pop up from the deeps at year's end to dominate 10-worst lists.

If Gooding can't get another Boyz N the Hood or Jerry Maguire soon, his career will need its own cork.