The Wood

When I saw this I thought "I hope this movie can relate to me and not insult me at all!", and I was clearly wrong. This movie related to me a whole lot! Just because I'm white doesn't mean I can't relate to this. I did in more ways then one! I know how it feels to be left out like some of the characters and growing up is a fact of life and I liked the way they show their friendship growing by day. Taye Diggs was wonderful as the groom who was having doubts, I liked his character a lot. I also loved the flashbacks throughout most of the movie, it was interesting and I also loved the way you knew a flashback was about to occur was when the record player would start with a different record each time. I think everyone will relate to this movie~ white, black, asian, or pink! Everyone needs to see this!

I had heard from several people before watching this movie that it was not as good as Omar Epps' other work, movies like "Higher Learning" and "First Time Felon". I wouldn't say it was as good as those two movies, but it is definately worth while. A story we all can relate to, especially us men. The story is about the trials and tribulations that a young man go through in the hood, or should I say "the wood". The movie deals with how boys interact with girls at a young age, and it does so very realistically. The acting is impeccable, the characters are incredibly real and the way the story is told is very charming. The movie has humor and drama mixed together beautifully. I think this is a movie everyone should see.

The movie sparked some memories of the 80's and all the culture with it. I liked it, but it could be slow sometimes. Everyone did a great job, but Lisa Raye was annoying. As little as her part was, she couldn't even pull that off. The actress who played Tanya tries to hard to be ghetto or a homegirl. She's like that in many of her roles and it seems to be something she can't shake. Omar did a great job narrating and being the "sensible" one. The dynamics of the 3 were great and believable.

The Wood has not received very much attention and PR that many of the other movies have, but it should.

The movie is about three best friends who grew up in Inglewood California (hence the title - The Wood). The movie actually takes place on the wedding day of one of the friends and two hours before the ceremony, the groom is a no-show. The other two friends manage to track him down and proceed to bring him back.

As they bring the groom back to the wedding, the three begin to discuss old times and throughout the movie, flashback is used to show these experiences. Younger actors are used to depict the current friends and their past experiences are shown to the audience. The acting by all the characters is superb and the flashback technique is used beautifully.

The movie shows the relationships develop over the years through the eyes of one of the characters (Michael) and the humor is sprinkled throughout the movie in well placed and well timed deliveries. This is a very endearing movie that everyone should see but unfortunately, in a summer of either blockbuster or toilet humor movies, this one may get overlooked. For anyone who gets a chance, see this movie. Overall rating 9/10.

The Wood starring Omar Epps, Taye Diggs, Sean Nelson, Melinda Williams, De' Aundre Bonds and Antwon Tanner was a perfect positive black film that deserves alot of credit. Unlike The Best Man, it doesn't have a boring pre-wedding story - actually it's a lot of fun as the three friends talk about their fun childhood in 'The Wood' a.k.a Inglewood, California. The flashback scenes are done so nicely and the characters are written in detailed fashion and come across very realistically.

When I first seen the trailer I was like it would probably be an O.K. movie but it was alot better than I could possibly expect and turns out to be a big winner, this is a sleeper for 1999

10/10