Its tagline (“Finally, a funny church sex scandal”) hints at something perhaps irredeemably coarse, but For Christ’s Sake is a comedy very much in the vein of Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno and the more recent A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy, which is to say that it goes to considerable lengths to counterbalance the outrageousness of its premise with a healthy dollop of heart.

After inheriting control of his parish’s top ministerial spot, much to the chagrin of rival man-of-the-cloth Carl (Matt Champagne), earnest small town priest Robert (Jed Rees) is paid a visit by his estranged, deadbeat brother Alan (Will Sasso), who tells him he’s dying of cancer. Robert makes an impulsive decision to borrow $54,000 from the church’s emergency fund, to underwrite Alan’s treatment. A couple weeks later, when the church needs some money to book John Schneider (yes, that John Schneider, playing himself) for the country fair, Robert learns that Alan is using the money to finance a porn movie, which makes him the unwitting producer.

As Carl digs around and starts to come close to discovering the truth about the money, a wildly uncomfortable Robert finds himself the unlikely hub of advice and confession for a crew and cast that includes Buster Cherry (Ike Barinholtz) and porn star Candy Walls (Sara Rue), the latter of whom develops a crush on him that it not entirely unrequited. Madcap complications ensue, naturally.

Written by Jeff Lewis and produced by Sasso, For Christ’s Sake reunites a bunch of MADtv players, including Alex Borstein and Michael Hitchcock in smaller roles. Owing to this familiarity with one another, the movie has a pleasant, jocular tone throughout, and doesn’t spin off into campy excess. The performances are engaging and well modulated with respect to each other, and if the movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel neither does it have a need to. Fans of any/all of those involved will certainly appreciate this saucy, off-the-beaten-path little comic delight.

For Christ’s Sake comes to DVD in a regular plastic Amaray case, on a region-free disc with a 5.1 surround sound audio mix that’s honestly more than a bit lacking in its deeper registers. Partitioned into 15 chapters via a static menu screen, the disc’s only bonus features consist of a five-minute photo montage scroll consisting of 98 pictures, as well as trailers for the movie and five other Cinevolve home video offerings. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) D+ (Disc)