I really like this movie and the sequel, this one being the better movie. The third act is silly perhaps, and the crime subplot could have been a little better handled. However, a lot of things make this movie terrific and very entertaining.
I just love the songs, they are so upbeat and joyful, and they are wonderfully staged and sung. The nuns are great to watch, they are sweet, innocent and so easy to fall in love with. Whoopi Goldberg is absolutely terrific in the lead, she really gives it her all and it comes through loud and clear. The film looks great too, goes at a good pace and has a decent story and funny and charming script. Also, the direction is competent, and Maggie Smith is a welcome presence.
Overall, thoroughly enjoyable and if you haven't seen the West End stage show, do, it's even better. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Sister Act
1992
Action / Comedy / Crime / Family / Music / Musical
Plot summary
Deloris Wilson (Whoopi Goldberg),a black woman who has chosen the stage name Deloris Van Cartier, is a Reno, Nevada lounge singer, she, the lead in a girl trio, in which she also chooses and arranges the music and choreographs the shows. She is a wisecracking, showy woman who has always loved music. She, however, only has her current job being hired by her married lover, Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel),to sing in his casino's lounge. She learns of Vince's true business as a gangster when she walks in on him killing one of his employees who wronged him. As a witness to the murder, Deloris goes on the run to the police, Lieutenant Eddie Souther (Bill Nunn),who has long been running an operation to get enough evidence to put Vince behind bars, this murder, which could be the metaphorical nail in Vince's coffin. However, Vince has put a contract out on Deloris' life to prevent her from testifying against him. As such, Eddie has to hide her until the trial, which will be at least two months. Where Eddie chooses is St. Katherine's, a poor Catholic parish and convent in a tough neighborhood in San Francisco. The convent's Mother Superior (Dame Maggie Smith) reluctantly takes Deloris in, that reluctance as Deloris is not anywhere near being close to looking or acting like a typical nun. Furthermore, the Mother Superior does not tell any of the sisters Deloris' true identity or the real reason for her being at St. Katherine's. With the Mother Superior cloistering the sisters behind the convent walls to pray for the salvation mostly of down and out of the neighborhood while keeping the sisters safe from harms of the outside world, there is an immediate and continual clash of wills between her and Deloris. Deloris, as renamed Sister Mary Clarence, does have an effect on two of the sisters, Mary Patrick (Kathy Najimy),a perpetually perky woman, and Mary Robert (Wendy Makkena),who always feels left behind in whatever is happening in life. The clash between Deloris and the Mother Superior leads to the Mother Superior restricting Deloris to one task at the convent, one that leads to good and bad changes at St. Katherine's, the bad most specifically in potentially leading Vince and his associates to Deloris. Those changes also bring the battle of wills between Deloris and Mother Superior to a head, unless each can see the positive in what is happening in relation to their life at the convent.
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Terrific and very entertaining
Her own music ministry
Practically fresh from the Best Supporting Actress Oscar she won for Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg comes back with a pair of films as Deloris Cartier aka Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act. Probably some of the best publicity the Catholic Church got since Bing Crosby playing a priest.
Whoopi is the lead singer in a tribute Supremes act in Reno and mistress of casino owner Harvey Keitel. When she walk in on Harvey dispatching a snitch to the hereafter it's time to flee to the law.
What to do with his witness against Keitel who is known to make people disappear is what Detective Bill Nunn has to solve. He calls in a favor and asks Mother Superior Maggie Smith in San Francisco to stash Whoopie in her big city convent under Sister Mary Clarence.
Whoopie had a Catholic school experience and didn't take to it all that well is kind of an odd fish in the convent with nuns of all types and experiences.
At this point Sister Act does become a lot like those Crosby films because in Going My Way Father O'Malley puts a little life in the church by organizing the neighborhood kids as a choir. And even more so in The Bells Of St.Mary's where the nuns are a rather nice choir.
Whoopi puts her own music ministry together with some soul and some more contemporary music than Bing was doing in his day. But she still has Keitel looking to bump her off before trial.
Some nice performances from those mentioned and from Kathy Najimy and Wendy Makkena as her sidekicks in convent mischief.
I'm sure Maggie Smith who no doubt saw the Sound Of Music was beginning to create her own lyrics to How Do You Solve A Problem Like Whoopi.
No problem for us at all, sit back and enjoy.
fair simple comedy
Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) is a singer in a Reno casino lounge act. Her boyfriend Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel) won't leave his wife. To her surprise, he's a mob boss and she witnesses him kill somebody. She becomes a witness for the police and they hide her as a nun in a convent run by the Reverend Mother (Maggie Smith). She clashes with convent life. She befriends some of the other nuns and she coaches the choir to some success. She also pushes the nuns to interact and clean up their rundown neighborhood to the dismay of the Reverend Mother. Meanwhile Vince has a large contract out on her life.
The characters are likable. Kathy Najimy is fun. Whoopi has a bit of street wise edge that plays well with the other nuns. It's not anything with big laughs but it gives a few smile-worthy moments. It's conventional in its structure and humor.