“The Fighting Temptations”
Directed by Jonathan Lynn
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Beyonce Knowles
Paramount
123 mins.
Rated PG-13
Grade: D

You get three movies for the price of one in “The Fighting Temptations,” and not one of them is very good. There’s the underdogs-triumphing-against-the-odds story, the fish-out-of-water story and, as the base for them all, the yuppie-redemption story. If this is Cuba Gooding Jr.’s attempt at atonement for the one-two suckerpunch of “Boat Trip” and “Snow Dogs,” then he better get on his knees and plead for the audience’s forgiveness.

Not unexpectedly, Gooding mugs his way through the role of Darren Hill, a soulless New York ad exec (the go-to occupation for yuppie soullessness) who loses his job for lying on his resume, and returns to his small Georgia hometown to collect a $150,000 inheritance left to him by his recently deceased aunt. It should be said that the only way for Hill to earn his inheritance is to lead the town’s misfit church choir into a state competition.

Now everyone can let out a heavy sigh. “The Fighting Tempations” is one of those predictably inspirational hackjobs that doesn’t so much inspire as lead to eye rolls and maybe some ulcers. It’s as if the filmmakers were deathly allergic to any kind of creativity or originality; this is a textbook example of how to do a movie by the numbers.

Mike Epps, as a local “playa” and Steve Harvey, as a dry-witted radio DJ, do most of the heavy comic lifting and earn most of the movie’s meager laughs. That’s because Gooding does his usual yelping, frantic shtick instead of acting, while Beyonce Knowles, as the love interest, tamps down her natural charisma until it doesn’t exist.

Pokey and overlong, “The Fighting Temptations” aspires to be this year’s “Barbershop” but it comes closer to being another notch in Gooding’s belt of misfres.

“The Rundown”
Directed by Peter Berg
Starring The Rock, Seann William Scott
Universal
98 mins.
Rated PG-13
Grade: C+

In the opening scene of “The Rundown,” The Rock, playing a “retrieval expert” named Beck, enters a nightclub to confront a debt-skipping football star and passes Arnold Schwarzenneger in the hall. The aging action star and current gubernatorial candidate tells him to “have fun,” almost as if he’s passing the action hero baton to the younger generation.

“The Rundown” is a passable action-comedy that cements the fact that the former pro-wrestler known as The Rock is a genuine star. Unlike most athletes, the man also known as Dwayne Johnson has the charisma and screen presence that befits a movie star. Even in dreadful schlock like “The Scorpion King,” The Rock was eminently watchable.

“The Rundown” is a small step in the right direction, even if it visits a decrepit cinematic terrain commonly referred to as the buddy film. Here, The Rock is sent to the jungles of Brazil to bring his boss’ wayward son (Seann William Scott) home. Scott is looking for a mysterious golden treasure called “El Gato del Diablo,” a treasure also sought by a ruthless land baron played by Christopher Walken with full Walken-esque loopiness.

It’s part of the film’s obtuseness that the small town where the action takes place is called El Dorado. Casting Walken as the heavy is just this side of lazy, as it requires no amount of characterization whatsoever; Walken already comes complete with the necessary tics and twitches. Ditto for Scott, whose character is nothing more than a plot device fleshed out with the usual Scott mannerisms.

Director Peter Berg – what a letdown after “Very Bad Things” – tries to pretty things up with flashy direction, but all that does is make “The Rundown” into another live action videogame. There are some moments of humor here, and The Rock has a keen sense of timing, but the standard genre clich