Like so many formulaic films about underdog triumph—sports films, dance films, snobs-vs.-slobs films—Joyful Noise is shameless about exaggerating for broad effect, and about flatly contradicting or ...

The kids manage to upstage the old pros in "Joyful Noise," a sort-of "Sister Act 3" about an small-town church gospel choir that gets a musical makeover. Staggeringly cornball and squeaky-clean even ...