Pootie Tang

And so does my wife, a middle-aged hispanic girl. Just in case anyone thought this movie might only appeal to hip, young, black kids.

Heck, even my 70-year-old mother liked it! But she likes anything with Chris Rock in it.

Obviously, this is one of those movies where you have to "get it", but for those who do, it totally rocks! This movie works on so many levels. I loved the message, I loved the characters, and the movie is just hilarious.

I never outright recommend this movie to anyone, as it's too unpredictable. I say, see the previews - if you see anything there you like, chances are you'll love the movie. It's definitely worth checking out.

It's criminal, how underrated this movie is. It's inspired on so many levels, and the encyclopedic knowledge of action films, hip-hop videos, 70s blaxploitation and chop-socky movies is breathtaking. I always think of it in the same class as THE JERK and ZOOLANDER, with a healthy respect for flat-out absurdity and non-stop gags. The filming style is rough, and the actors generally have no polish (an undoubtedly deliberate choice), which makes the sudden flashes of precision so devastatingly funny. Wanda Sykes, in particular, is absolute gold as party girl Biggie Shorty, but the film's full of co-stars - Andy Richter, Dave Attell, Jennifer Coolidge, J.D. Williams, Missy Elliott, and Robert Vaughan - who get their turn on the silliness carousel. I can imagine someone who isn't a fan, or at least an observer, of the above things would hate this movie like poison, but for me, who has seen more Jay-Z videos than I ever wanted to see and who can't help laughing when I see a man use kung-fu to bounce bullets off his hair (a gag too complicated to explain, but seamless on screen), POOTIE TANG is fantastic.

I'd recommend it more, but it's just too hard to describe!

Thing I never understood is that these sort of simplistic and silly comedies often get slammed, while movies from the early days of the genre (the Jim Abrahams and Leslie Nielsen type of comedies) are being loved and considered to be classics, even though the humor and comedy of the movies is just the same. For me it's very simple; when a comedy amuses me and makes me laugh I consider it to be a good and effective one, no matter how bad and silly the movie got done.

It's just the sort of movie in which things simply just happen, without often share a clear connection with each other and without featuring a real solid or clear main-story. It's really simplistic, especially story-wise but lots of its moments are simply funny and therefor this movie does work out as a comedy.

I really won't pretend like "Pootie Tang" is the greatest thing ever. It's often just too simplistic for that and it's story and acting is definitely too much lacking. but there is no denying that this movie simply serves its purpose and I definitely can say that this is a movie that genuinely made me laugh because of how silly and crazy it at times got. Still, at the same time it's also true that the movie doesn't quite live up to its full potential. I mean, the movie never really lives up to its great and promising beginning. But luckily the movie is too short to start to further decline, below the level of average.

Still the funniest Chris Rock comedy I've seen in years.

6/10

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"Pootie Tang" is the ultimate guilty pleasure film. Sometimes I ask myself, "why do I laugh at this?". I don't know why, but it funny as hell. Chris Rock is a genius. I don't know how you come up with a story about a funny talking super hero. Throughout the whole movie, this guy is saying things that doesn't make any sense, but the characters surrounding him all understand. How do you come up something like that?!? And put it into a feature film!!! One liners like "sa da tay" and "sine your pity on the runny kine", are classics. "Pootie Tang" was conceived on the HBO hit The Chris Rock Show, in this spin off movie, Pootie is trying to take all the junk food, drugs and alcohol off the street that is being distributed by Dick Lecter (Robert Vaughn). The supporting cast includes The Chris Rock Show regulars including Wanda Sykes. "Pootie Tang" seems like a send up to 70's blaxpoitation films, but at the same time, I don't know what it is. "Pootie Tang" is a mixed bag of funk music, cheesy action and comedy. It all works for "Pootie Tang" making it the most unusual film ever made.

Pootie Tang- rated PG-13 *** out of ****

For those of you put off by the comments below, of which a large percentage are rather negative, well don't go see it. If some of teh good revies below don't make you want to see it either, don't go see it. I'm not surprised Pootie Tang isn't a big hit, but don't expect it to fall off the face of the earth. It probably will, for about ten years, but then it'll be back.

My rationale behind this is that this movie is shades, more than just shades, it's practically a sequel, of the ridiculous Rudy Ray Moore movies of the seventies, including Dolemite and Disco Godfather. In the former, Moore played Dolemite, a successful standup comic (Created in his own standup act) who is also a pimp and crimefighter in his spare time. Pootie Tang is a character created by Louis C.K. with actor Lance Crother, who is a successful hip hop artist, who is also a ladies man and a crimefighter in his spare time. See what I'm talking about?

There are more similarities. Each film is low budget, and often quite amateurish. Both films are made by people who obviously don't have all the mechanics of filmmaking down (Dolemite's boom mike pops into shots so much it might as well have gotten a supporting cast credit, Pootie Tang features possibly THE WORST narration in the history of film). Both also have quite a bit of social satire, plus additional humor derived from the sheer stupidity of the filmmaking.

Pootie Tang is, in itself, a bad idea for a movie. Who wants to watch 80 minutes of a character who speaks in gibberish? It's a joke that's funny for 3 minutes on the Chris Rock Show, but grows very old after an hour and a half (The audience I was with was hysterical...for ten minutes. Eventually half walked out). There are some jokes that work (I liked Pootie's new hit single, and also the tense climactic standoff between Pootie and Dirty) but a lot of other material doesn't (Cameos by Andy Ricter and David Cross are totally wasted). Plus the movie doesn't know if it's a movie, a movie clip, a friend retelling something, or what. It has a bad sense of pacing and flow (Using little Batman-esque cut scenes to break stuff up) and at least a dozen head-scratch-inducing moments.

For all of these reasons, the movie will be back. Mark my words. People a decade from now will watch this movie and laugh at its lame bits, and also the smart ones. For the average viewer, it's not worth seeing. For the devoted follower of movies that are bizarre, inexplicable, and just plain silly, it might be the best out-there movie of the year.