Watch The Fighting Temptations

Originally created as a movie vehicle for Sean "Puffy" Combs, "The Fighting Temptations" stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Darrin Hill, an advertising man at a crossroads in his life. He lives in New York City and is an up-and-coming executive. He's carefully crafted a campaign idea that will vault him into a top position in the firm but is fired after its discovered he had lied about his Yale education. Broke and unemployed he reads a letter that explains his Aunt Sally has died in his hometown of Monte Carlo, Georgia. He travels home by train and finds out that since he is her only living relative, he will inherit $150,000 in stock. The only hitch is that he must fulfill her lifelong dream: form a gospel choir for the local church and take it to the annual Gospel Explosion competition.

Darrin lies and tells everyone he is a successful music producer and he tries to find members for his choir. There are a lot of willing singers in the church but none of them can sing on-key. Finally, he discovers a diamond in the rough. Lilly (played by Beyonce Knowles) is a beautiful nightclub singer with an amazing voice. Despite her past he decides to build his gospel choir around her. While the members of the church resist the idea at first, they eventually realize that despite her past she has a good heart. He tracks down a number of other talented singers from unlikely locations such as prison and the local barber shop and brings them into the fold.

His newly formed choir travels to the Gospel Explosion competition and wins. Not only does Darrin get his $150,000, he wins the heart of Lilly and proposes to her at the end of the movie. It's a classic feel-good ending.

The Fighting Temptations is a 2003 comedy with a runtime of 2 hours and 3 minutes. It has received moderate reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 5.6 and a MetaScore of 53.