CUBA Gooding Jr and Beyonc Knowles place their faith in the good Lord to give them a hit.

The once good, now goody-gooey Gooding and pop's ultra-ambitious princess, Beyonc, team up for a gospel musical with the high energy of Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act and broadly-drawn characters of so much Hollywood hokum, here given a cynical tweak by British director Jonathan Lynn.

Stuck in a rut of family movies Gooding is cast against recent type as sharp New York advertising executive, Darrin Hill, who stretches the salesman's bull into his own life story. He has lied about his school and college results and his credit cards have more bounce than Beyonc, so this mendacious chap needs to mend his ways.

His chance for redemption comes when he returns to his southern roots in hicksville Alaska, for his Aunt Sally's funeral. In her will, she has left him the dubious honour of running the local church choir.

Where there's a will, there's a way, and so begins his quest to turn a bunch of no hopers, bigots, young rap artists, convicts, 'fallen women' and an organ-playing hillbilly drunkard into a hot urban music act good enough to win the Gospel Explosion contest in Georgia. The truth, however, is that Gooding's callous exec is not interested in redemption but in the prize money.

That's why he needs the best nightclub siren in town (guess who, Beyonc) to re-join the choir from which she was ejected for being a single mother.

Cynical or not, Gooding's Hill feels in some way connected to her; not only because of her bootilicious looks but also because his mother had suffered a similar fate.

The script tries, Lynn's direction tries, the supporting cast really try, in particular the meddlesome choir treasurer (LaTanya Richardson) but the stars never sparkle together, their romance being as unconvincing as Gooding's wild-armed conducting of the choir.

The musical numbers are suitably over the top, but as with this over-long movie you can't wait for them to end. Gooding, meanwhile, is too nice, while Beyonc loves herself too much to bother with anything so demeaning as acting. Welcome, Miss Knowles, to the Mariah Carey club of musical-movie turkeys.

Updated: 09:41 Friday, December 12, 2003